The inside of the house was as quiet as a tomb. His footfalls echoed like thunder.
He’d nearly reached the office when Philip called out, “Walsh? Is that you? We’re in here.”
Steeling his resolve, Thomas stepped into the room. Amelia was already there, looking frailer than ever in a white sheath dress and matching stilettos, her trembling fingers wrapped around a vodka tonic. Philip sat across from her in his broad leather chair, watching a thin trail of smoke rise from the end of a cigar. Strewn across the desk in front of him were teeth.
Human teeth.
Baby teeth.
A number of white molars and tiny incisors had been shaken up and spilled like playing dice. A sterling snuffbox sat upended in the mess. Slowly, Philip set the box to rights.
“I fear you and I had a misunderstanding,” he said. “Did I or did I not tell you that Vivienne has some difficulties at night?”
Thomas swallowed. “You did, sir.”
“And remind me—did I ask you to keep her within your sight at all times?”
“Yes.”
“That’s what I thought.” Philip tipped his cigar into an ashtray. “When I give you a directive, I expect it to be followed to the letter.”
“With all due respect,” said Thomas, “Vivienne asked me to give her privacy.”
“Did she?” Philip’s eyes went wide as saucers. “Well, it’s a good thing you listened. Thanks to you, my daughter is gone. Shaw is in the hospital. He’s been spewing nonsense ever since they found him. You’d better hope to whatever god you believe in that he doesn’t start making sense.”
“And what if he does?” Thomas knew he was only digging himself a deeper hole, pushing like this. He dug it anyway. “I’d be interested to hear what Isaac Shaw has to say to the police.”
Philip shot to his feet as though electrocuted. “You have some nerve—”
“He’d say it was Vivienne who did that to him, wouldn’t he?”
Silence fell like an axe. Across the desk, Philip took a steadying breath. “You don’t have the first clue what you’re talking about.”
“What is she?”
Amelia Farrow let out an audible whimper.
“What is she?”Philip mocked. “You think you’re clever? You think you’ve uncovered some great conspiracy? She’smissing, is what she is. And whatever happens to her from this point forward falls squarely on your shoulders.”
Guilt had been gathering pressure inside Thomas ever since he first slammed back into his senses on the pool house floor. Now it came surging to the surface with volcanic force. He stood his ground, refusing to be cowed.
“The day you hired me, you told me you’d been worried Vivienne was hanging out with a bad crowd. You didn’t tell me that crowd was part of a group called the House of Hades.”
All the blood drained from Philip’s face. “Who have you been speaking to?”
He’d been shooting from the hip, but from the look in Philip’s eyes, he’d hit his target. So Colton’s intel had been solid. Therewasa connection. The barest wick of triumph lit in Thomas’s chest.
“It’s like you said, sir—once you’re part of a brotherhood, you’re always a part. What was your exact wording?” He snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah—you can’t buy that kind of loyalty.”
The air in the room felt suddenly tight, Philip’s anger a pulsing, palpable presence.
“Philip,” whispered Amelia, rising to her feet, “you don’t think she could be looking for—”
“She doesn’t have the first clue what she’s looking for,” ground out Philip. “She’s a reckless, disobedient fool, and her actions will ruin us all.”
“But Christian is—”
Before she could finish, Philip let out a hideous curse and cleared everything off his desk with one broad sweep of his arm. Glass and teeth alike went shattering to the floor. Unclipped documents flew skyward in a paper flurry. By the time they fluttered to the ground, Philip had managed to quell a portion of his rage.
