Chapter 5

“And who’s this idiot Joey?” Breed wanted to know.

Kizzy sighed hard. “My grandfather had two children of his own. His son David was my father and his daughter Joy was Joey’s mom. Joey’s last name is Bassette. My parents were killed when I was fourteen in a car accident. Joy wouldn’t take me in as she could barely be a mother to Joey and Grandfather took me into his home but it wasn’t by choice. The state told him he could afford to pay for my care and it didn’t matter if he did not want me. He didn’t want to be bothered or pay for my way. His colleagues also told him it would show the world what a good guy he was if he did it. My grandfather was all for looking good but no one knows what went on behind closed doors.” She shivered.

“What happened?” Breed was interested now.

“I would rather not say and leave it at that.” She glared at him. “One thing I will say is Joey didn’t like the fact I was closer to grandfather than he ever got. Only problem with that is I never wanted to be close to the old man and Joey only enjoys taking my grandfather’s money. My grandfather is a miserable man who has never been told no. He thinks if you throw enough money at a problem, that problem will go away. As long as the problem wasn’t family, he was fine spending it but he thought when a person reached a certain age, they should fend for themselves.”

Breed sat and listened. It was this way with most of the blueblood types or the wealthy. Caring for money and not for family. Green was better than red to them. His father had been the very same way.

She shook her head and looked down at her hands. “How Joey convinced this Blade bastard he could get money for kidnapping me is beyond anything I could come up with.” She scoffed. “My grandfather is more than likely pissed that he had no hostess for the party he was having on Monday.”

“You think he deliberately lied to Blade about getting a ransom for you?”

She nodded. “I know he did and so does Joey. Grandfather hated paying out the money he earned through his own hard work to pay anything for me. He often reminded me that I owed him when he paid my school fees, even though he collected a hefty amount of life insurance when my parents died. He paid Joey’s debts so the whole world wouldn’t know Joey was a deep failure. But me? No way. I was just his granddaughter, no one important.”

“So why would Joey set Blade up then… to take the fall for kidnapping if your grandfather wouldn’t pay?”

She wouldn’t look at him or say anything.

Breed got the feeling she knew the what and why of Joey’s plan. In the silence, he sat and thought about it for a few minutes then suggested, “Joey knew your grandfather wouldn’t pay, so he set Blade up to take the fall. But why?”

“Because he’s stupid,” Kizzy told him. “Joey thinks that if there’s a pending kidnapping charge on Blade that he won’t come after him when Grandfather doesn’t pay.” She shrugged. “Then again, maybe he thought Blade would just kill me outright when he didn’t get the money. Joey is not a caring man either. At least grandfather never set someone up to die…I don’t think so anyway.”

Breed cocked his head at her. “You think Joey set you up to die?”

She rolled her eyes. “It wouldn’t surprise me a bit.” She looked down at the blanket covering her lap. “There is someone I should call however, grandfather’s attorney, Matt. He would be the one Joey would call to set up the payment with. If anyone knows what’s going on, it would be him.”

Breed shook his head. “Would this Matt care one way or the other about you?”

Kizzy shrugged but didn’t say anything.

Breed saw the look in her eyes change and he had to shake his head. Did she have no one in her life that cared if she was alive or not? He always had his mom and the tribe and now, he had the brothers of the Tennessee Breeds MC. Then he remembered she didn’t lose her own parents until she was fourteen. At least, she had that much. “And your parents? Were they good to you at least?” He had to know.

Kizzy smiled. “Oh yeah, my parents were great. Going to grandfather’s stunned me. My dad never really had too much to do with his own father but we would visit his sister sometimes.” She paused then added, “Until Joey got mean. I think I was ten when he went overboard that year. My dad was so mad that we never went to visit his sister again. Then four years later, they were gone.” She shook her head.

Breed didn’t know what to feel. He had never been around anyone who just flat out did not care about anyone but themselves. This poor girl came from a whole family and world that acted this way.

Kizzy settled down in the bed again and closed her eyes. “I think I’ve answered enough questions for now. I feel like sick to my stomach and… I hurt everywhere…” She pressed her hand into her belly as nausea rolled through her body. Turning her head away from him, tears leaked from her eyelids.

Breed watched her for a moment then got up and walked out of the room.