Of course, Karl had an agenda. That snake stunt and the address? Pure bait to drag me into his twisted game.

Classic Karl. Like father, like son—he’d mastered every dirty trick in the book.

"Why don’t you tell me what you want first?" I shot back, refusing to let him think he held all the cards.

Karl knew I cared about Nora, but there was no way I was handing him that kind of power on a silver platter.

"Hand over what Ashton ...