“Thank you,” Dante whispered as I clasped my hands in front of me on the table. “Riles, I need you to know ... I didn’t kill Katelyn. That whole thing is a fucking set up. You know I wouldn’t do that. Right, Riles?” His eyes implored me to believe him, but my trust had taken one too many beatings for one lifetime.
“Why don’t you start at the beginning?” I suggested, my voice a husky whisper as I dodged his eye contact and looked to my hands. “How did this shit with Catherine start?”
“Selene.” He uttered his sister’s name with such choked up pain that I instantly regretted judging so harshly. He was nine years old when Catherine got to him for fuck’s sake.
I sucked in a deep breath and nodded. “You said Catherine blackmailed you. What did that have to do with Selene?”
Dante shot a quick look at Beck, then at the door. “I don’t imagine we have a huge amount of time, so I’ll give you the quick version and beg you to go and speak with Selene after this. I gave her some documents in case of an emergency.” He grimaced and looked down at his handcuffed wrist. “I’d call this an emergency.”
“No shit,” I agreed. “So...?”
Dante scrubbed his free hand over his head again. “You remember how my old man was in the Grims before me, right? That’s how I ended up involved?” I nodded. “Right, well when Selene and I were kids, we were out playing in the yard, just messing around on our bikes, and someone with a grudge against my dad decided to drive by and start shooting. Just... opened fire with an AK-47. I don’t think they were even really aiming for anyone or anything, but they hit Selene.”
I sucked in a breath, pressing my fingers to my lips to keep from screaming or crying or something. What the fuck waswrongwith this world? The only thing that kept me calm was knowing that she had survived.
“She got taken to the hospital, but...” He trailed off, his head bowed as he picked at his fingernails, clearly remembering the day. “There were complications. She needed more surgeries and rehab. It was all so expensive, and my parents had no insurance, no way to pay. The best the hospital was offering was palliative care. Selene was dying, and they wouldn’t do anything to save her unless we could pay.”
“And that’s where Catherine stepped in?” I breathed out, partly horrified and partly grateful. Catherine’s obsession with control had saved my friend’s life.
Dante nodded. “She wanted someone to keep an eye on you, make progress reports, shit like that. It seemed like such an easy gig, you know? Make friends with some kid and check in with this rich bitch every now and then. In return, she’d see that Selene got all the care she needed to make a full recovery.”
I licked my lips, stunned. “Why you?”
Dante shrugged. “Gang connections. My dad had been doing dirty work for Delta for years, and we were so close in age...” He sighed. “I guess it wasn’t hard for her to assume that the son of a gang leader might value money higher than morals.”
“Stop it,” I scolded. “You didn’t value money over morals. You valued your sister’s life. I can’t...” I broke off, my voice cracking. “I can’t blame you for that.”
My best friend’s gaze shot up to my face, his eyes full of hope and desperation, and I clenched my fists tight to steel my resolve. “But that was almost ten years ago, Dante. Tenyears. Did my friendship mean so little to you that you kept this secret all that time? That youkept reporting on me? Do you have any idea how violated that makes me feel? How used, and how downrightstupid?”
His face had fallen with every word, and my heart cracked further. “I know, and I can’t even begin to apologize to you, Riles. By the time I stopped seeing you as a job and started seeing you as...” He paused, flicking a lightning fast glance at Beck. “As a friend, it was too late. Anything I said would have ruined what we had, and I wasn’t willing to risk that.”
I gaped at him. “So you’re saying if I hadn’t found out, you never would have told me?”
“Never.” His jaw was set, and I couldn’t totally wrap my head around what I was hearing. “Catherine made my dad sign a contract. If I told you everything, or refused to keep working for her, then my family would need to pay back the cost of Selene’s health care. Millions of dollars. But if it was just money, I probably could have handled it.”
I let out a heavy sigh, feeling my shoulders sag even more than they already had. “She threatened someone you love. I’m starting to understand the way Delta works, now. When money isn’t enough of an incentive, threaten to kill people.” As I said those words, another horrible, bone-chilling thought popped into my head. I was almost too scared to ask, not wanting to hear the answer... but all the same, I needed it.
“Dante,” I croaked, licking my lips again. “Did you ... did Catherine kill my parents?”
The pained look on his face said it all, and I dropped my face into my hands with a shuddering sob. Almost instantly, a warm body wrapped me in a tight hug, and I knew it was Beck. His smell was so familiar now, it might as well be my personal fragrance, not to mention that instant feeling of calm and safety that his touch brought to me.
“I’m so sorry, Riles,” Dante whispered, and I cried harder. “I didn’t know for sure. I swear, if I’d known for sure I would never have let you go out that day. I would never, ever intentionally let her harm you.”
I pushed back from Beck, wiping my eyes with the heel of my hand and glaring at Dante. “But you knew something was up. You tried to stop us that day, I remember. You came over and asked my dad if he could help you fix your heating. Youknewand you still didn’t say anything!” Tears were pouring freely from my eyes, so much that my vision was blurring and my nose was all blocked up.
Some girls could cry and still look pretty. I wasn’t one of those girls.
“Riles, I swear I didn’t know for sure. And your father seemed determined to ignore me,” Dante insisted. But it was too late; my rage monster was in full beast mode.
I detached Beck’s arms from me and stood, my chair scraping across the floor with a harsh sound. Just as I was about to really blow my fuse, the door opened and that same uniformed officer sauntered back in.
“Everything okay here?” he asked, eyeing my aggressive posture and Dante’s tear-streaked face. “I gave you extra time, but Saunders is on his way back and he won’t be happy to find anyone questioning his suspect.”
I stared down at Dante a moment longer, dimly noticing the scratches on his forearms. “We’re done,” I snapped, storming from the room and not totally sure whether I meant that we were done talking or done with our friendship. Or both.
Beck paused me with a hand on my arm as I made to leave the station, and I frowned at him in confusion.
“I just need a word with someone,” he told me with a quick smile. “Will you wait in the car? It’ll only take two seconds.” He held out the keys to the Bugatti, and as much as I didn’t want to be alone, I also didn’t want to stay in the police station a second longer.
