Cecile stood again. “I’m finished talking with you now. Either kill me or get out of my way.”
Garrett glanced at Dessie.
“No,” Dessie whispered. While Cecile was a monster, she couldn’t hurt Dessie now that he was protecting her. Garrett didn’t need the stupid woman’s murder on his soul. “Karma will get her.”
Logan leaned down to whisper. “We actually know somebody named Karma, by the way.” He stood just in front of her, probably in case Cecile attacked. “Though she’s pretty sweet. Not sure she would kill Cecile for you.” He straightened. “But I would.”
Cecile gasped.
Dessie poked him in the ribs. “Thank you for the kind offer, but no thank you.”
Garrett’s frown was dark. “Fine. Cecile? Tell me what these monks looked like.”
Cecile stumbled and caught herself on the table. “They looked like monks. They wore brown robes with hoods that covered their heads. Just men. Nothing more.”
That didn’t tell them anything. “Did they speak perfect English?” Dessie asked. “No accents?”
Cecile shrugged. “Not that I could tell. I wasn’t really paying attention. They just agreed to pay me every year while you attended their school, and they promised you’d have a good education and life.”
Sure they did.
Garrett’s expression revealed nothing, which was all the more terrifying.
“Cecile,” Dessie said quietly, “I know you’re afraid of the men in this room, but I’m the one you should fear. Those dear monks trained me in ways you can’t even imagine, and I’m far deadlier than even I thought I’d be. In other words, if I ever see you again, I’m going to break your neck. Easily.”
Garrett finally grinned. “There we go.”
Logan nudged her with his elbow. “Nicely said.”
Cecile inched toward the door, one hand clutching the envelope and the other her neck.
Dessie snatched Cecile’s purse off the bed and threw it at her. The woman caught it and shoved the envelope inside.
“Just so you know, I’m giving all of that trust fund money away,” Dessie murmured. “I have a list of charities, and it’s going to go very quickly.”
“Why would you do that?” Cecile spat.
Dessie shook her head, sadness pulsing through her. “You really wouldn’t understand.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Garrett scoped the Texan terrain as he drove the solid SUV into the private airport and parked. Sam and Logan were in the back seat, both texting furiously as they worked. Dessie sat next to him, writing out a long list of charities that needed money. They’d spent two hours at the courthouse, then hit the bank, and now she had access to the millions.
She bit her lip and created another entry in her pink notebook. They’d had to stop at a drugstore for her to buy it, along with colored pens.
“Don’t you want to keep any of the money?” he asked, turning off the car.
She shrugged. “I may keep a little in case I live, but really, I don’t need much.” She tugged off the lid of a light blue marker with her teeth and made a quick scribble. “I want to hit your library once we get home—I mean to the Realm—and then do some research on international charities. I like the look of Polaris, which fights human trafficking.”
“The library is all yours.” He tucked the rental keys above the visor and tried not to notice how she’d corrected herself. The Realm wasn’t even his home right now and probably wouldn’t be until he killed Ulric with the Seven. Or by himself, which was his plan at the moment. “Let’s get going, Kyllwoods.”
They both pushed open their doors at the same time, each still texting with one hand.
“I’ve got the Seven,” Logan said. “They want to meet in person, sooner rather than later.”
“Agreed,” Garrett said, stepping onto the dried leaves covering the asphalt by the entrance. “Is there any chance they’ll want to use the Realm medical facilities now that we have the three Keys?” It’d make his life a lot easier if any testing happened in Emma’s lab.
Logan slammed his door and walked toward the double glass door of the small main terminal. “No. No chance.”
