“He gave me an ultimatum,” he said. “Kill Stanton, or watch my sister be raped and tortured.”
My shoulders slumped. “So you chose your sister.”
“Yes,” he said. “I killed Stanton. In front of Pippa.”
“Oh,” I breathed.
“Sonny laughed and let Pippa go. Then left the building like he was never there,” Weaver said. “Feds finally came, as if they got the all clear that Sonny wasn’t there anymore or something. Uncuffed me. Uncuffed my sister. Then charged me with murder.”
“But Pippa saw it all. Couldn’t she have explained what happened?”
“She was mad,” Weaver admitted. “Very mad. At me. And only at me. She wanted to see me go to prison for the rest of her life, and didn’t rest until I was there.”
“There was no one to corroborate what happened?”
“Corrupt legal system, paired with bad lawyers, poor timing, and a sister that would rather see you rot in hell than breathe free,” Apollo said. “I’m sure you got a lot of the coverage through the media. It was a high-profile case.”
“Isn’t Sonny in prison now, though?”
“Yes,” Weaver confirmed. “But for a completely unrelated charge. He was a dumbass and sped away. Got on a yacht to cruise the world, but was stupid enough to have a shit ton of drugs on his yacht. Got caught by the Coast Guard, and he was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Luckily, there was nothing anyone could do to get him out of it. There’s not enough money in the world for that. Not even the amount of money he’d offered. There was a news reporter on that boat doing a documentary on the Coast Guard. Too many people there to wipe it under the rug.”
“This is insane.” I shook my head slowly. “So Pippa wouldn’t be happy if she knew that you were still alive.”
My guess was confirmed by a solemn nod of Weaver’s head.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I have a few ideas on that,” Apollo suggested. “She turns sixteen in four months, right?”
“Right,” Weaver confirmed.
“In Florida, kids sixteen and up can emancipate themselves,” he said. “My suggestion is, get her to go home for four more months.”
“That’s not going to work well.”
“Or,” Apollo said, “your parents go with the ‘I put her in boarding school in North Carolina.’ That way, she’ll have a reason to be gone from your parents’ house.. And I can fix all the records to reflect that she’s actually at the boarding school. Then, when she turns sixteen, she files the paperwork to emancipate herself from your parents. She changes her name shortly after that, and she disappears into the world a free adult.”
“If it’s done correctly,” I said quietly, “your sister will have no reason to look for her.” I looked at Weaver. “What about your parents, though? Are you never going to see them again?”
Weaver’s face went blank.
“They miss you, I’m sure,” I murmured.
“It doesn’t matter,” he grumbled. “I have to choose. And I choose me.”
I didn’t blame him.
“I’ll get started on the boarding school thing. Contact them on my end and let them know the score. They’ll go along with it,” Apollo said. “When do you get out of this joint, Eddy?”
“At least not for another four days or so,” I said. “They want to make sure that everything is good infection-wise. They’re hoping to change me into a more permanent cast, as well as make sure that everything is nice and healed underneath before they do.”
“Sounds sucky,” he snorted.
“It is.” I paused. “And itchy.”
“I know the feeling,” he said as he walked out the door.
No sooner had he walked out than Gentry walked into the room carrying a takeout bag of food.
