Ruthless

Chapter 2

Colin parked his truck at the gas station next to the diner where he could still see through the large windows. Jean was saying something to the three assholes who had been giving her a hard time, but he couldn't tell what. Probably apologizing for him.

Well, tough shit—because he wasn't sorry. He shouldn't have gotten in the middle of anything. This entire trip had been a scouting mission. To check up on Jean and see whether she was anything like her mother or father. So far she'd seemed perfectly pleasant, which meant she was nothing like either of her parents.

Admittedly, he had much more experience with one parent than the other. Her father had been a lying piece of shit who left a trail of misery wherever he went. For some stupid reason, Colin thought he'd be the exception to this rule. But once Walter Farrell had died, he'd given Colin the ultimate middle finger by leaving him nothing in his will. The son of a bitch had billions and he didn't leave Colin a single fucking penny.

Colin had fought for that man. Bled for him. Not to mention making others bleed... Now it was time to get what was owed to him, and Jean was the key to doing that.

After a few minutes, the guys who had been giving Jean a hard time stormed out of the diner. From the way the main one, the one with the now broken hand, slammed the door, they were still pissed. But the fact that they were leaving meant they probably hadn't called the cops, which was a good sign. He had things to do in this small town, and getting the attention of the police wouldn't make things easier.

All the more reason for him to have kept his damn hands to himself. If he'd stayed in his seat, he would've at least had his damn breakfast. Now he was going to be eating the trail mix he'd snacked on during his entire trip out to this small Arkansas town. Not exactly the breakfast of champions, but it would get him by. He'd gotten by on much worse before.

In addition to screwing up his breakfast plans, now he'd spooked Jean. Getting her to listen to the proposal he had for her wouldn't be easy now, but he'd never planned to approach her at her job anyway. This conversation needed to be somewhere private and uninterrupted. Somewhere she couldn't get freaked out and run to that mountain of a cook to kick him out.

Not that the formidable army vet could make him move anywhere, but Colin knew that if he knocked out her friend, that would ruin any chance he had of getting her to listen to him.

And this entire plan hinged on Jean doing exactly what he wanted her to do. Which was easier said than done. Based on his experience with Farrells, they never did what they were told. Even if she wasn't raised with her brothers or father, he had a feeling Jean wouldn't make things any easier on him.

As the men drove off and Colin determined they weren't an immediate threat, he hopped back into the driver's seat of the shiny new rental pickup truck and grabbed his file on Jean. He'd read it at least a dozen times before, but now that he'd seen her in person, he wanted to scan through the pages again.

Jean Hill was born January 3, 1986, which made her younger than all four of her brothers from the Farrell side of the family. Walter had mentioned that he'd met her mother when she was working in Vegas as a bartender during one of the worse moments of his third marriage. Though, from what Colin picked up on, every moment of Walter's marriages was bad. Mainly from him doing stupid shit like sleeping with bartenders in Vegas.

After getting pregnant, Jean's mother, Katherine, moved back home to Arkansas, probably to get family to help raise Jean. Except she burned through the payout Walter gave her to keep quiet in record time, and after a series of fights, Katherine was kicked out and Jean was raised by her grandmother until she died ten years ago, leaving Jean back with her deadbeat mother.

Between the shitty school system in Katherine's hometown and the empty bank accounts of everyone involved, Jean never stood much chance of getting anywhere. So she'd bounced around the small town of Winslow, Arkansas ever since graduating from high school. Worked as a waitress at a few places and even as a receptionist/bookkeeper at a smaller manufacturing company one town over. But when that went out of business, she was right back to waitressing. She'd inherited her grandmother's trailer that, although being kept up well over the years, was still in need of repairs.

Really, her situation was perfect for him. She was stuck in a hard place and he was going to be her answer. He was going to offer her a solution to all her problems and give her the life of her dreams. She'd be so swept away by this windfall of good luck that she'd never realize he was stealing five hundred million dollars from her.