“Well, out with it,” Asher snaps.
“She’s pregnant.”
That’sall it took to send the three of us practically flying across the city. Detective Hornby is in charge at the bike shop scene, interviewing Jamie before they take him to the hospital to get him the care he needs.
“She’s pregnant,” I say it out loud, making everything all the more real.
I don’t even know when we got there, but my brothers and I make our way up the steps of Thornwood Manor with lightning snapping at our heels. We walk past Ian and go straight into the tearoom, where Sheila usually lingers after lunch.
It takes every inch of willpower to keep myself in check and not smash everything around me when we only find Terrence and Katrina sipping their tea by the window. Terrence’s bloody nose catches my eye, but Cole beats me to the punch.
“What happened to your face, dipshit?” he asks.
Terrence scowls at him, then whimpers from the pain from the two rolled up bandages stuck up his nose. “Nothing.”
“Willow hit him,” Katrina sighs. “And he refuses to go to the hospital.”
“I’m fine. She didn’t break my nose, that bitch.”
I reach him in the blink of an eye and grab him by the collar while his wife screams in horror. I toss him across the room, like he’s no heavier than a straw doll ,and he lands on his side with a pained grunt.
Asher holds Katrina back. “You don’t want to get involved, take it from me.”
“Where’s your mother?” Cole asks Terrence as I threaten to toss him again. I’m not done with his sorry ass yet.
Terrence sees me coming and scrambles backward, pale and sweating and scared out of his mind. “What are you doing?Stop it!”
“Stop him!” Katrina cries out.
“I’m not going to kill him,” I calmly reply. “I’m just going to make him suffer until he tells us what we need to know.”
I’m just about ready to grab him off the floor again when Terrence puts his hands up. “I don’t know where Mom is! She’s not home, okay? She was supposed to be here when they brought Dad home, but she wasn’t. She asked me and Katrina to stick around.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Katrina adds, her eyes filled with tears. “We were supposed to go to Nobu for brunch, but we stayed here. Sheila said she had some business to attend to.”
“Did she say where?” Asher asks.
Terrence shakes his head slowly. “No, she didn’t. What the fuck is wrong with you?” He looks at me with a pained scowl.
“Turns out the guy who poisoned Jamie, who tried to kill Willow, is your mother’s ex-lover,” I reply through gritted teeth. “So you’d better think twice before you do or say anything meant to steer us away from Sheila, because I know for a fact that she had a hand in this entire fucking mess.”
“Wait, I thought it was some waiter—” Terrence tries to say, but I kick him in the leg. “Ouch!”
“It’s Perry Jackson, snake heart tattoo on the wrist.” I pause for the realization to sink in, and I see it spread across his face, turning it the whitest shade of white possible. “That’s right, so think hard, Terrence. Time is of the essence here because Perry has Willow.”
“He what?” Katrina gasps.
I give her a hard look. “I have CCTV footage. He took her at gunpoint. If anything happens to her, you’ll become a widow. That, I can promise you.”
And she believes me. I don’t need to say anymore to drive that point home.
“Listen, I don’t know what my mom did or said?—”
Katrina flips out, stomping her feet in a sudden bout of hysteria. “Just tell them the truth. Tell them everything you know, you vain, stupid, spineless bastard! Just tell them!”
“I… I had no idea,” Terrence says, caving in, occasionally stealing a worried glance at his wife. He can’t not see the hatred in her face. It’s imprinted on her features whenever she looks at him, and she can’t disguise it anymore. I suppose this is the last straw for her in a long line of straws.
“I mean, I knew Mom was up to something. She had this issue with Willow since before we broke up. I don’t know why, she just hates Willow.”
