“Was there a chill in the air of Atlanta just now, or was that just me feeling lonely and cold out there?” I asked them.
“You for sure were not alone,” Trey stated.
“Yeah, Maya never liked me to begin with,” Carmen patted my shoulder.
“What?” I asked her.
“She caught their son looking up my dress one Easter Sunday and instead of getting after him…little pervert, she just took a shine to hating me,” Carmen explained. “Never felt comfortable going to their house ever again.”
“To be honest, she hated all of us,” Trey leaned around and looked at us.
Realizing we were talking about our dead friend’s mother at her graveside, I decided it was time to go. As we were walking back to the car’s we stopped and chatted once more.
“Are we going to the repass?”
“I guess we could,” Trey said dryly. “Just feels like there are a million other things I’d love to do than go be fake with the uppity ups of Atlanta.”
“Hey those are clients,” Carmen shrugged.
“Fuck you! You’re right…. I’ve got extra business cards in the car. Enzo let’s go!” Trey called to her husband who was talking with his brother and Cassidy over by Cassidy’s sweet ass Porsche.
From the way they were all standing I could tell Thierry was still trying to buy one, despite the fact that it wasn’t very baby friendly. He looked over my way when Trey gave a holler and chill passed through me. The pressure from earlier was gone now. There was a new pressure building.Holy shit! This man could turn me on in broad day light after a funeral. Thierry was dangerous could never know that he had this power.
Giving him a friendly smile, I got into my car and texted Nanny about us going to the repass. She replied and sent me a photo of Tibs enjoying a little fruit out of his Nubby Nibbler. It made my heart squeeze. I couldn’t wait to get home to him and cover my munchkin in kisses. That was what I needed.
Love.
I was going to opt for not going to the repass. Naomi’s parents already blamed me. I blamed me. Even if Alistair was the real reason and person to blame, I had played my part. I should have made sure that she was safe. Had John Knowles taught me nothing? My father had taught me plenty of business rules, but he hadn’t taught me to think like an enemy. The sad part was, it wasn’t until Alistair had approached me in the parking lot that night so many months ago, that I had really even recognized him as a true threat. He had been Scarpetta problem, not a Knowles-Scarpetta problem.
Selfish.
Thierry got into the car and I turned it on.The City Girlswere raping, and I thought about my group of friends and how we would never turn up the same. Tears started to flow down my face. Nothing was ever going to be the same. This was my life now. It was always and forever going to feel like something was missing out of life.
“Hush, Tesoro,” Thierry wiped at my face with his thumb. “You’re going to smear your beautiful makeup.”
“I did this,” I told him.
“No, you didn’t. I …. I couldn’t save her.” Thierry said. “If anyone is to blame it’s me. She burned to death because of me. In the end though, she wasn’t thinking about her family but you. She wanted you to know she loved you, Tesoro.”
I paused, dabbing at my face. “We need to find Alistair and murder him in plain daylight.”
Thierry nodded and I knew it stung. We had discovered that he was Thierry’s blood but that didn’t excuse the carnage that he’d thrown our way. He had killed the heads of the other families, including Vito Scarpetta, his true father. He had also killed his own sister, just to play a sadistic game with Thierry and even Enzo to an extent.
Just as we were heading out of the cemetery, arriving at the end of the driveway before splitting off from our friends, the sky turned black immediately. Fat, thick rain drops blasted themselves against the windshield. Squeezing back more tears, flashes of Naomi playing in my mind, I drove carefully out onto the slickened blacktop of the highway.
Everything was changing. But one thing was for sure, Alistair’s death was coming.
Chapter 24
Thierry
“No one would blame you if you didn’t go tonight. You just buried your best friend,” I told her.
Diamond was dressed to kill. She had a scarlet red dress that reminded me of the one from that movie about the billionaire and the prostitute. For the life of me I couldn’t remember the name of it, and I knew it was going to bother me all night long.
She gave me a look over her shoulder as I struggled to adjust the tie. I was wearing a velvety black blazer over an all-black ensemble.
“Just say you don’t wanna get out the house,” Diamond came over and fixed the tie for me.
