My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 604

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Chapter 604

Banus

“No! She forced me! She-”

“She forced you to get a front-row seat to our sister’s blood?” Adriano laughed again, “You’re a real hero, Cole; Maybe we should put your face on a plaque. ‘Here lies Cole Mercer: He was too scared to be a criminal and too stupid to be a friend.””

Cole started to sob, his entire body shuddering with every breath. “Please, just let me go. I’ll leave the city. You’ll never see me again.”

“I know we won’t,” Vincenzo said, “Because you’re going to stay exactly where you are until the last of the trash is cleared out. And then, we’re going to find out if your internal organs are as soft as your resolve.”

Cole gasped for oxygen, his chest pumping hard against the gray dirt, “Don Capone, listen to the exact sequence of events!” Cole shouted, “Look at the timing! The very second Denise brought the girl to me, she wanted to hide her in a basement across town. She wanted to lock her in a cage where you would never find the scent. I am the one who stood in her way! I am the one who told her no!”

He pressed his good palm into the floor, his body shaking from the effort to stay upright.

“If I wanted to hurt your family, I would have let her take Gianna,” Cole argued, “I would have let her split the ransom. But I didn’t. I forced Denise to keep the girl right here under my roof. Why? Because I knew my cameras were running in her house and here! I knew my servers were recording. I set the trap for Denise so I could hand her to you! I am the sole reason you didn’t have to search the entire state of Illinois for your sister. I gave you the exact address! I gave you the keys to my door! You are holding her in your arms right now because my phone call brought you here in under ten minutes!”

Without the specific coordinates provided by Cole Mercer’s cellular device, our arrival timeline would have been delayed by an estimated three to six hours.

In that window of time, with a severe cranial laceration and zero medical attention, Gianna’s risk of brain damage or death would have increased by forty percent.