“That’s not how this is going to work,” I tell him. “If you haven’t seen this footage already, you haven’t been doing your job.” In fact… I move closer, peering intently into his face. “Have you seen it?”
His client clocks the truth before I do. “What’s this? Why haven’t you shown me?”
“Because he knew he could wring more out of you by withholding the information,” I answer on his behalf because Riley’s suddenly tongue-tied.
Robbie’s mother glances from me to her employee, hands clenching. “Show me.”
This time, the investigator knows better than to intervene.
I track her expressions as the video plays. The sounds are still familiar, but they don’t bother me the way they once did; don’t twist my mind into a sodden mass of grief. My love for Tessa hasn’t gone, but other people in my life have filled the hole she left behind.
And she did leave me behind. Just like a mother who went out one night and never came home. Both wanting oblivion more than they wanted to stay with me.
My eyes seek Zach, wanting to reassure the beast inside me he’s still there. That my darkness draws him closer instead of sending him running into the night.
“That could be one of those deep fakes,” she protests as it ends.
I admire her fighting spirit. “It’s not.”
She takes the phone from my hands, and I let her re-watch the footage. When she plays it for the third time, I glance over to Riley, but he just stands still, looking guilty.
As she starts on round four, I ask him, “Where did you get the gun from?”
His eyes jerk to mine, then away to Caylon, then back to me.
“The fuck are you playing at?” Zach says, advancing on his friend with his hands curled into fists, ready for round two.
“Stefan told you to destroy it.”
“And how is handing the weapon to some PI destroying it?”
“I was following him when he snuck into your place to get it,” Riley readily admits. “He always stuck out like the weak link in the chain.”
“There isn’t a chain.” I snatch my phone back from Elaine, sick of the sounds coming from the tinny speakers. “Robbie knew this could send him down for twenty years. Add that to the fuckups with work and he didn’t have many options.”
“He left?” The hope on her face is so great, I’d love nothing more than to crush it under my heel. But the time for revenge is over. I have family here, in this voluminous shed. I have more family waiting at home.
“He left,” I confirm. “And he won’t be back.”
“Sure, he will,” she says, a sublime smile on her face. “Robbie loves me.”
“And if you love Robbie, you’ll hope like hell you’re wrong.” I move until my face is a centimetre from hers, my expression savage. “Because if you ever see him again, he’s ten minutes away from being dead. I won’t forget what he did. None of us here will forget what he did.”
I reach out and put my hand to her throat. I’m not strong enough to squeeze the life from her. Not even strong enough to crush her windpipe or snap her hyoid bone in two. Still, her eyes widen with fear.
“People will trace your movements till the day you die and the second he shows up, we’ll know.” I take my hand away, pointing two fingers at my head and jerking them.
She swallows, the effort of doing so evident in the straining muscles of her throat.
My eyes shift between her and the investigator. “Are we done here? Anything more you want to ask?”
The woman shakes her head and I shove my open hand in front of Riley. “Gun.” He looks to his client, then places the bagged weapon in my hand. “Yours, too.”
After a slightly longer internal struggle, he surrenders that as well.
I fall back between Zach and Trent, Caylon shrugging and joining our line-up a moment later.
He takes the rear as we walk outside, and I turn to Zach with a question mark in my eyes. “Where’s the car?”
