Page 184 of Morally Black Betrothal

“We need to be quiet,” I told her. “Can you do that for me? Play the game with me?”

With a scared glance where her mother was barely moving and then back at me, she gave a tearful nod. “Okay.”

“Just sit here with me, then.”

She sank to the floor and huddled against my leg, looking for some kind of contact.

“Now that we’re done causing trouble,” Ezra said, “let’s try this again. Ifyouwere Brendan Black, darlings, what do you think would motivate you to come to the rescue of three nobodies? A torn fingernail? A cigarette burn? Maybe a nicely recorded scream? What’s it gonna take?”

With every idea, Kylie burrowed further into my side. I’d never been a violent person, but every suggestion made me want to do horrible things to Ezra Huntington.

“Nothing,” I said through clenched teeth. “This is a dead end. You and I both know it.”

“A broken nose, maybe?” Ezra wondered to one of his henchmen. “There are a lot of possibilities.” He pointed his phone toward us. “Smile, girls. Or don’t. Actually, it might be better that way.”

Kylie just opened her mouth and shrieked like a banshee.

“Ouch.” Selena winced. Her head must have been pounding. “Not so loud, Ky. Mommy needs to sleep.”

“Hmm.” Ezra seemed to contemplate something as he looked Selena over. “Maybe I’ve been going about this all wrong.” He got up and crossed the room, then crouched a few feet away from Selena’s lolling expression. “What do you think, kitten? Starting to hurt, isn’t it? Think you might want another hit?”

“What did you give her?” I growled.

“Oh, just a little smack. Nothing she wouldn’t sell out her dear sister for a thousand times. And you know what? I bet she’s already thought about it.”

Kylie and I both leaned as far away from him as we could as he slid a finger under Selena’s chin and tipped her head toward him.

“What kind of information did you find while you were staying in that big apartment, kitten?” he asked her. “Some numbers, maybe? How about something on the other Black brothers, huh? Owen? Or maybe that prick, Ronan? Even dirt on the youngest daughter would do right now.”

I stared at my sister in horror, realizing that she hadn’t just been sheltering at Brendan’s apartment those few days but snooping.

Selena looked like she wanted to cry—either from wanting the drugs he promised or from the pain of the situation. “I told you, everything was locked. I couldn’t find anything.”

“Sel?” I asked. “How could you?”

She had the decency to look sorry, even through her drug-addled daze.

“Stupid. Little. Liar.” Ezra’s voice was almost conversational before he reached back a hand and slapped my sister clean across the face.

“STOP!” Kylie wailed. “DON’T HIT MY MAMA!”

“She has my financial information,” I lied quickly, desperately trying to draw Ezra’s attention away from Selena and Kylie. “Or I can give it to you if you want. Bank statements,deposit slips. You want money? I can give you money. You’ll have what Brendan gave me, enough to buy another farm just like Dandelion, and I’m sure I can get more if you just let us go. He’s worth billions—you know that.”

Ezra paused, tilting his head with interest. “Blackgaveyou money?”

I realized my mistake. Ezra hadn’t been interested in money before, but I’d just admitted something was out of the ordinary.

I babbled on. “I—yes—it was part of, um, the prenup.”

“Yeah, but prenups usually cover what happens when things fuck up.” He bent down to look me in the eye. “What was big bad Brendan Black paying youfor, huh?”

I swallowed. No. He couldn’t know. No one did but Owen, and that had already been a colossal mistake.

“He paid her to marry him,” Selena slurred. “I saw the contract. Read the whole thing.”

I balked at her. “Sel, you didn’t.”

Her smile might have been sweet if it hadn’t been soaked in alcohol and drugs and her own deception. “Had to find out what you were up to. Can’t believe you were gonna keep it from me too.” She looked back at Ezra. “Gave you some already. Told you I’d get you the rest of the ten mil.”