A message landed on my phone, chiming in my earpiece.
Lyle: I heard that your father sacked you. I hope you know it was nothing to do with me or with us breaking up. I just wanted to reach out and offer comfort so you aren’t getting it from the wrong type of people. If you come for dinner at my place, I’ll see what I can do to persuade him to reverse his decision.
Sacked? Slowly, puzzle pieces joined together in my head.
I called my father. He picked up after several rings.
“Why can’t I access any systems?”
Julian made a sound of irritation. “Don’t give me shite for something I had to do. You’re fucking around with a gangster. Drawing heat.”
“I’m not.” At least that was true. Kane had seen to that.
“Lyle said?—”
“Lyle made you fire me?” It wasn’t a coincidence that he knew. He’d done this.
My father’s tone tightened. “This is all on you. You know how to play the game. When I walk into the skeleton crew’s headquarters, it’s with handcuffs and a warrant. Cash goes under the table. Not in your bra strap while your skirt’s raised. Leave that for the hookers.”
My mouth fell open. “I’m not sleeping with anyone for money.”
“Fucking Christ. Don’t tell me it’s for love that you helped them bust that piece of shit from my safehouse.”
Mortification shrank me further. He’d known I’d helped free Convict and he’d waited for a moment to hold it against me. But damn him for being a hypocrite. “Don’t play the puritan with me. When we met, you made it more than clear that the rules you’re paid to uphold are for other people. You enforce the law on your own terms and you line your pockets on the way. Don’t besurprised when your daughter shares that trait. What has Lyle got on you?”
His voice tightened. “Nothing. But if you want to help, bring him to heel.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Little shit wants to own the empire. My own rising star, yet the upstart doesn’t know his place. Be a good daughter and help me with that problem and you can have your job back.”
He hung up. Cold crept over me.
I’d been too public with Kane, and it had cost me. Whatever Lyle was gunning for, he wanted me as part of it, and he’d baited a trap for me to walk right into.
Yesterday, I’d had everything. The man, the job, security for my home. If I couldn’t pay the mortgage, I’d lose it. Another realisation hit in cold shock. I’d had friendship as well. But what did I have to offer the skeleton girls now?
Nothing.
I travelled on, cold to the bone.
At home, I locked the doors and sat on my bed in perfect silence. Kane had stripped the sheets and blankets, all evidence of our night gone. Except the room smelled of him. I couldn’t sleep here.
Jumping up, I knocked Dixie’s little elephant on my bedside table. It fell and hit the floor, cracking into pieces. My heartbreak swelled. I’d failed her as well. I’d set out to find her and had fallen short at every stage. I’d got mixed up in the Marchant family mystery, but why? It wasn’t my family.
I lurched down the hall to my mother’s room. In a year, the most I’d done was vacuum the carpet and wipe away the dust. Her clothes still hung in the cupboard. Her makeup and jewellery sat in pots on her dresser.
I missed her so much, yet this time, when I needed her most, I couldn’t even find the words to tell her what had happened.
I’d lost everything, and I’d never felt as alone as I did right now.
Tears threatened, the emotion finally rising to the surface of my numb state. I had one last thing to do. A final message I needed to send. Only then would I allow myself to collapse. I typed it out, hit send, then buried my head in Mum’s pillows and sobbed.
Kane,
I shouldn’t want you. From the start, you treated me like a means to an end, not a person, and I lied to myself that you could change. You used me to get what you needed, and this morning, when I stood there heartbroken in front of you, all you could do was retreat into that same empty place.
I ache for what you’ve been through. I know you’re not the source of your pain. But I can’t fix it for you. You never let me in, and that hurts more than I know how to say.
