Noah nods again. “My father said Brentwood had fucked something up, and he has a chance to put it right. Brentwood seemed… angry. But also scared. He said, “I’m not going near that house again. That’s no sweet-sixteen beauty queen you’re facing off against. She’s a cold-blooded killer.”
“That’s what he said?” Antony sneers. “He never said Mackenzie’s name explicitly?”
“No, but—”
“And you believe if this Brentwood – the most highly trained expert in his field in all of Emerald Beach – refused a job from your father, his only remaining option would be to hire a shooter so incompetent he let off several rounds at relatively close range and managed to miss you both?”
“I don’t know what I fucking believe, except that bullets sailed past my skull today and I need to know if my father’s behind it. There’s only one way to know for sure.” Noah meets my gaze, and the fire in his coal-eyes isn’t hate this time, butneed. “Mackenzie, you have to tell us what happened four years ago.”
46
Eli
Noah’s words hang in the air, like icicles formed under the porch railing at our family hunting cabin. I feel them now – the cold biting my flesh, a thousand needles piercing my heart.
Cold-blooded killer.
Killer.
Killer.
Mackenzie’s cheeks burn with color. I can’t decide if she looks furious or terrified. Maybe a little of both. She exchanges a look with that guy – her cousin, I can’t remember his name (since when did Mackenzieeverhave cousins?) – but I can’t infer anything from it other than he knows whatever secret she’s hiding and he doesn’t think she should give it up.
Killer.
Killer.
Killer.
Mackenzie turns to me, and her eyes are pure ice and malice. The change in her is quick and so profound I gasp out loud. It’s like a magician snapped his fingers, and I’m looking at Mackenzie’s face – the same heart-shaped face and perfect nose I fell in love with as a kid – but behind her frosty eyes is a completely different person.
“I told you my one condition,” she says, her words calm, measured. And all the more chilling because they no longer sounded like Mackenzie’s words. “I won’t dig into your secrets, and you wouldn’t ask about mine. If you don’t trust me, there’s nothing else to say. Get out of this house. All of you. I never want to see you again.”
I open my mouth to protest, but Mackenzie spins on her heel and storms off.
“You heard the lady.” Antony stands, reaching into the inside of his jacket. I see an outline of something beneath the fabric. A gun? The huge guy cracks his knuckles again.
“Fuck this, and fuck you,” I spit.
“Eli, wait.” Noah reaches for me. He smells like her, and I hate him, I hate him more than I ever thought it possible to hate, more than Gabriel because he at least never pretended to give a shit about my happiness. I duck under Noah’s grip. If that fucker touches me right now I’ll flatten him.
I fly out the ballroom door, darting a look left and right.She’s disappeared into one of the endless rooms. I’ll never find her without a map and a summoning spell.
I have to try. I need to know.
Killer.
I pick left. I’ve barely gone three steps when—
CRUNCH.My foot lands on something, and I feel it snap under my heel. I bend down to examine the twinkling pieces of metal I’ve ground into the Persian rug.
Mackenzie’s locket.
The one she wears under her shirt. The one she never takes off.
I let the pieces fall across my palm. The chain has snapped in two places, and there’s an ugly crack across the front of the locket. I notice it’s not gold, but gold-plated. Odd that Mackenzie Malloy would wear something so cheaply made. An inscription on the back reads, ‘To our daughter.’
As I close my fingers, the cracked piece breaks away and the locket falls open, revealing two faded photographs cut to fit inside.
