What the hell was she supposed to say now?
“Now, my dear, it’s like this.” Stephen’s expression became hardened once again, the monster inside him gleaming through his eyes as they focused on her. “If you want to ensure your dear cousin Journey has a reasonably content life from here on out, you’ll answer my question and do so without a fuss. Refuse me, or dare to attempt to lie to me, and she’ll die with you.”
“I’d rather die!” Journey cried out, her voice echoing with rage and pain as she tried to surge to her feet.
She was caught, and just as Craig ordered, the two men behind her fought to gag her. And they had to fight until Beauregard strode quickly across the room, caught her and jerked her arms behind her.
The cries, the hatred, and the fury that spilled from Journey’s lips struck at Tehya’s heart. The sound of the other girl’s sobs was excruciating to hear.
Tehya forced herself to watch as, strangely gently, Beauregard bound her hands, then placed a wide strip of gray tape over her lips.
She was silenced, but she still cried.
Journey kicked out, striking Beauregard’s leg with her shoe, though there was no reaction from him to even give Journey the satisfaction that she’d at least brought him discomfort.
“Now that we’ve taken care of that.” Stephen sighed as he turned back to her. “Did you understand the rules to her continued safety? Or do you have questions?” His gaze sharpened. “Or do you want to be as stupid as your mother?” He spoke to her as though she were a moron, the superiority he obviously felt leaking through every pore in his body.
Would Beauregard Grant really allow Journey’s family to kill her? He had stepped in to keep Ascarti’s gorillas from hurting her. He’d bound and gagged her with gentleness despite her attempts to fight him.
“Were you behind my mother’s kidnapping?”
Stephen rolled his eyes and shook his head as though amused by her question. “Let’s get this out of the way, then, dear. I kidnapped your mother for Sorrel, but he didn’t keep his end of the bargaine once he got what I wanted. He swore she was unaware of what I wanted when he was only attempting to steal it for himself.
“You worked with Sorrel?”
His smile was filled with pride. “I did. Though, now I will command as I should have been doing all along.” He shot his granddaughter an irritated look. Now, does Journey live or die?
He wouldn’t allow Journey to live. Beauregard might believe Stephen Taite would keep his word, but he wouldn’t. Tehya could see it in his face. Journey would be lucky if she lived to see the next week out.
“What do you want?” She was at least curious why her mother had died.
“She gave you an account number,” he stated. “A code of sorts. I want it.”
Why hadn’t she guessed? Why hadn’t her mother guessed?
Perhaps the fact that her mother had never suspected her family was behind her kidnapping and the deaths of everyone who tried to help her, Tehya hadn’t suspected either.
The shock was horrible. It lanced through her system, it destroyed parts of her she feared would never heal, and left her soul bleeding in agony.
Tremors raced through her, sobs catching in her throat, searing her chest.
“Money,” she rasped. “This is all about money?”
“A rather large amount of money,” Craig answered smugly. “To my calculations, minus the four hundred thousand your mother stole, it should now be close to three point two billion dollars in gold, cash, bonds, and yearly shares in Taite Industries. A legacy Bernard refused to turn over to the family until Francine’s body was found. A legacy that was amassed over nearly a century of the Taites’ superb business sense.”
“As well as nearly a century of laundering the funds my father, his father, and his father before him made in the careful sale, trade, and trafficking of women Sorrel’s clients preferred. And Bernard never knew; that legacy should have never been his. Should have never been given into his safekeeping at our father’s death,” Stephen finished, his voice becoming progressively furious until he was glaring at her in malevolent rage. “Taites and Fitzhughs have always worked together, but we were smart enough to keep from being caught.”
All for money.
He had murdered everyone who had ever tried to help her mother. He had murdered everyone her mother had cared for, and everyone Tehya had cared for.
“Sorrel thought he could convince your mother to give him the set of numbers that would allow him to take possession of the accounts,” Craig continued. “He promised your mother she’d have her freedom.” He smiled. “She didn’t trust him, I gather.”
No, Francine hadn’t trusted the man who had kidnapped her, imprisoned her, and raped her repeatedly for years. And Tehya had trusted him even less.
Stephen straightened from the desk. “Now, do you die alone?” He glanced back at Journey. “Or do you go with company?”
Tehya turned and stared not at Journey, but at Beauregard Grant instead. He was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, his gaze flat and hard as he stared back at her.