“A person who’s madly in love and lives a lie? Sounds psycho to me.” I say coldly and add, “Get that away from me. Do whatever with it.”
“Also,” I say, “I’m fairly sure she’s the one who killed Jared.”
“What makes you believe that?”
“Here,” I say, and turn my laptop to him. “It’s her. Same height. Look at the hands. I know it’s her.”
15
KAT
PLAYLIST: LOVE SURROUNDS YOU – RAMSEY
Ilove the thrill. My entire life, I have been balancing on a parapet, tempting fate to push me over the edge. Always have. Always will. Never happened.
The part of me that loves the thrill wanted me to be caught by Hannigan when I dropped off my little gift. It’s the same part that wants to find out if Lilian really would live up to her words: Kill me.
My mouth tilts into a daring smirk.
She wants to kill me.
And I have to kill her.
Sounds about right to me.
The gift took me three days of tracking to find out who fired the shot at her. Another two to get to him. One to get everything I needed out of him.
And now, I am no closer to any resolution than before.
I know the Lords targeted Lilian and Sutton under contract, but I don’t know why or who exactly is behind it. The only way to find out is to confront one of the most dangerous groups in the country, possibly the world. They are extremely good; they kill without hesitation, leave no trace, have friends in high places, and vanish like ghosts. I have circled around them for a reason, and so has my mentor. It was she who taught me stay as far away as possible.
What I am about to do will end badly, I know it, but there is no other way, because no one touches Lilian. If someone kills her, it’ll be me, and no one else. They already took Sutton from me; I will have her. A dangerous predator growls in my chest right now, one that is ready to lose everything.
Maybe it’s a good thing I still have a cover right now—I’ll use Ella to go after the Lords, even if it means I have Hannigan and Zeus breathing down my neck the moment anything connected to Ella surfaces.
“Rosalia,” I say when I dial the number.
“Are you in trouble?” she asks me.
“No, yes, maybe,” I say. “No. But I need you to tell me everything you know about the Lords.”
Silence.
“Don’t do it, hun,” she says.
“I have to,” I say. “I have to.”
“Sutton is dead,” she says. “What else is there?”
I don’t know what to tell her. She will call me stupid and crazy if she ever finds out why I am going after the Lords.
“Oh, honey,” she says with a sigh. “I hope she’s worth it.”
Rosalia has trained me year after year, after year. She knows me. And I cannot lie to her.
“Just tell me what you know,” I say.
“The Lords’ work is decentralized and conducted via a network in the shadows. They have a broker who makes the deals and acts as a bank. No money trails, no names, no nothing.”
