My girlfriends. Fuck.
“Oh,” I say. “I’m sorry. Never mind,” I add and hang up. So, Mae has moved on.
I want to drown in the defeat for a moment, but I tell myself to get a grip on myself. I have to suck it up. At least I have everything else in life. Success. Money. Assets. And the security that comes with it.
5
KAT
PLAYLIST: CINDERELLA’S DEAD – EMELINE
Ilisten closely to every word Lilian says on the phone and to her bodyguard. First of all, it is rare that I meet a person with her wit and understanding of technology. It also tells me she is not to be underestimated. Comparing log data with tower data is not only brilliant but also requires access.
And I would admire her for it, if not for the confirmation that everything I found in Sutton’s system is legit, and she is, in fact, guilty of something. She knew about a personal digital vault. She doesn’t want to go to prison for something.
Not to forget, that there’s definitely another player in the game, because I wasn’t the one who deleted the files or changed the logs. I would not be so foolish as to transmit via tower, which is why I chose the attack in person. Whoever did it did so remotely. Meaning, there must be a trail somewhere.
What I find even more interesting is the call Lilian made to the woman, probably an ex-girlfriend, although there is no official record of Lilian ever appearing anywhere with a girlfriend or anything close to it. I thought Lilian was more of a when-done-done type, but then, I also didn’t think she was into girls at all.
“Maybe a booty call,” I murmur to myself as I roll over in my bed to check my laptop again for anything on my side projects, meaning the Prime Minister and the CEO, before I get a couple of hours of sleep.
The next morning comes, and I leave the house, not because I must, but because a black Escalade has been lingering in front of my door for three hours now.
I get down, and her other bodyguard is sitting behind the wheel. I walk outside, and the moment I do, he gets outside.
A sigh leaves my throat.
“She really doesn’t take no for an answer?” I ask.
“Correct,” says the man stiffly and opens the door.
I lurk inside and see it’s empty.
“Miss Knightley would like to invite you for a coffee,” he says. After everything I overheard yesterday, it almost sounds like Lilian was lonely or horny.
Don’t do it,I tell myself in my head. If what I found proves indefinitely, which seems at this point highly likely, I will kill her. I have the photos. I have the videos. I have her indirect confession. The only thing I don’t have is the knowledge of how deeply she is entwined with Sutton’s organization. But the way it is right now between her and me is close enough to get the job done.
“Tell her to get used to it,” I say, turn and walk away.
The bodyguard groans, not that I care.
While I walk to the subway station, I stay aware of my surroundings, as always. Reaching the station, I change my plan and instead walk further as I hear some street music, a saxophone, playing.
There is some live jazz music underneath the Dumbo archway.
A genuine smile appears on my face, because this right here is what I love so much about New York City. Random people, no questions asked, everyone welcome. The suit vibing with the homeless person, the single mother with her kids, the shy man dancing with himself—everyday people. And all of them have their secrets. Like me. The con artist. The killer. The broken one. And yet, here no one cares. No one asks questions.
“Here,” says a female voice suddenly behind me, and it takes all my strength not to act as a hypervigilant killer, but as a normal person.
I see a beautiful hand with long fingers and perfectly manicured nails holding out a coffee for me to take. I glance over my shoulder.
Lilian. Tall. Blonde. Perfectly dressed to fit in, casual yet elegant. Two—no, three—bodyguards lurking in the shadows.
“You’re worse than men in taking a ‘no’, you know that, right?” I ask her without saying hello.
“Others would call it determination,” Lilian says, a smirk on her face.
“Or desperation,” slips from my mouth. Lilian stares at me intensely; my words touched her.
