Eric scoffs. “You really don’t know anything, do you? You’re not going anywhere tonight except a body bag. I was hired to take you in, little doll. I was hired to hurt you. To ruin you. I was hired to make sure your memories never came back.” He shakes his head, and the hand not behind his back runs through his greasy grey hair. “And then you had to go and open your mouth. You had to go and get yourself taken from me.”
Nausea swirls in my gut. Of all my theories, that never once came up as a possibility. Why would someone hire him to mess with a child’s mind? Who would do that, and to what end? It makes no sense.
“Who hired you?” Gage asks, echoing my own thoughts. “Who hired you to hurt her? The same men who have been after her and Hunter?”
“That was me!” Eric shouts, his wrinkled face turning a frightening shade of red. “I hired the men to get her and kill the extra.”
A growl slips free from my throat as he jerks his chin to Hunter.
Extra?
Fuck. No.
“I knew he was coming for you today. I had to get you first. The ultimate revenge. Taking out the object of his obsession before he claims you. All he’s ever wanted was you,” he throws an accusing finger at Ella. “You opened your mouth and got the cops involved. You got sent away, and he wouldn’t protect me anymore. We made a deal. I got to have you, play with you, and anyone else I wanted as long as I kept you in my house. As long as I made sure you didn’t leave. Twisted you up enough that you never remembered where you came from. I did my part. Then you left, and that little bitch killed herself—”
Synapses fire in my brain, desperately trying to connect the dots.
Who would want Ella enough to set this entire thing up?
The Remingtons? Her real family, whoever they are?
Are they in The Circle? Higher than them?
Fuck. I run a hand through my hair, confusion and anxiety making me dizzy.
Who’s higher than The Circle locally? No one.
Higher…
Diaz?
“Cora!” Ella screams. “Say herfuckingname, you coward. She killed herself because youdestroyedher!”
He tosses a hand in the air, uncaring. “I don’t give a fuck who she was. She didn’t matter. But without protection, I couldn’t cover up her death. We had to leave the city. Spent the last ten years on the run. Lost everything. Had to hire those worthless idiots to come get you. Even paid the governor’s psycho kid to bring you to me.”
Ella gasps, and I jolt. Nyx rumbles a deep grown, and Gage sucks in a breath, but it’s Maddox I’m worried about. He’s eerily still, and I’m not sure he’s even breathing.
Am I?
“Didn’t know that, did you? Andrew Remington was paid a lot of money by someone to keep tabs on you, little doll. He wasn’t supposed to fuck with you so much, but what can you do? Kid was crazy.”
“I’m going to kill him,” Gage murmurs, and I nod, my fingers flexing around my gun.
“I don’t understand,” Ella whispers, breaking my heart. “You paid Drew to keep tabs onme?Why?”
Why fucking exactly.
“I didn’t put him in your life, but you’d be surprised at the lengths people have gone to for information about the infamous Princess of the Bay.” His smirk drops, and this time, I really do stop breathing. “But when these guys started looking for him, he tucked his tail and ran. Spent all his daddy’s money and needed more to keep up his drug habit.”
Just like that, the dots finally connect.
The Princess of the motherfucking Bay.
“So, you showed up and paid him to bring Ella to you,” I surmise.
“You need her for whatever sick plan you’ve concocted. Revenge or whatever it may be. You hired Drew, and when he failed, you put a hit out on Hunter and a kidnapping order on Isabella. Did I miss anything?”
Come on, fucker. Spit it out. Say it. I need to hear it.
