“He agreed to let me go and never contact me again if I left that night. I walked away with just the clothes on my back, and I found a crappy apartment and an even crappier job. I’d like to say that him letting me walk away made me feel good, but it didn’t; the guilt of what I did ate me alive, and for a long time, I wondered if I should be locked up. I punished myself until I came to this place… to the diner. It was like the universe offered me a second chance. But I should have known it wouldn’t last because a few weeks ago, I had a call from my stepfather. He needed one last job and threatened to release the receipts he’d kept on the things I’d done for him over the years and put me away for life.”
“That’s why you vanished?” I asked, everything suddenly making sense.
“Larson had been killed, and Preston was shitting himself. He wanted me to break into Larson’s office and make sure there was nothing incriminating in there. Of course, there was, so I had to remove all traces that he had any links to Preston.” She paused. “I didn’t kill any of them. I’d walked away from that life, and I never wanted to go back to it.” Her eyes locked on mine, silently begging me to believe her, and deep down, I did. Her pain was palpable.
“Then the others started dying. All the main players who were in Preston’s inner circle. I mean, with all those men in his pocket, he could do just about anything. He thought he was above the law. But with each story that hit the news, I began to get more and more scared until I realised one thing: I’m the last one left.”
53
HANA
I triedto keep the emotion out of my voice. I knew what I’d done; I carried the guilt every day. Tears wouldn’t wash away my past, and I didn’t think these men would appreciate me falling apart.
“What were you looking for? In Preston’s house?” Thomas asked, turning around to look at me, his expression curious but still obviously furious with me for breaking into his building and getting Roman involved in my plight.
“The key.” I shook my head, remembering that this was what Preston called it, and no one would know that. “The masterfile. Preston was old school—he kept paper files, documents, photos of the people who hired him. Collateral, in case he needed it down the line, but he also had a list of all the crimes he’d ever committed. I was looking for that because I presumed that was what he was threatening me with.” I rolled my shoulders, my body aching from sleeping on the floor in that attic room, but also from carrying the weight of my sins for so long. It felt like I’d been weighed down by it my whole life, and sharing my secrets with these men was lifting it for the first time. I felt the relief on a cellular level. “And I was right. On the file Roman now has, therewas a separate, smaller list… they were my crimes. The ones I was directly involved in.”
Roman hissed, and everyone’s attention shifted to him. “There werea lotof rows in that spreadsheet, Hana. Are you telling me each one was a record of a crime you were involved in?” His eyes were wide, and guilt clawed at my throat. I knew he’d hate me as much as I hated myself, and that look on his face told me he was realising how fucked up this all was… how fucked up I was.
“I was hoping I could somehow work out who was coming after me because I’d bet my life on the fact that someone Preston pissed off is behind this. The problem is, he pissed off a hell of a lot of people.”
Thomas spoke. “We’ll have our experts look into it. Give me a couple of hours.” He bit down on his bottom lip as if he was weighing me up. “Why did you break into my building?”
I shrugged. It had never been part of my plan, but I thought it would add to the kidnapping story I was going with. “I wanted to see where Roman worked. I didn’t expect to see this.” I pointed out of the office to the basement floor, which was more like a military headquarters than an office in a random small town. “I also borrowed a gun and some ammo.” I winced. “Sorry.”
“How? How did you get in?”
I twisted my lips, wondering if I should share my secrets, but something about the way he looked at me told me I didn’t have much choice. “I cloned Roman’s security pass, broke into his house while he slept, punctured his tyres so he’d be distracted and not notice his alarm had been deactivated in the night. I lifted his fingerprints while I was there, applied them to some silicone gummies and voila…”
Thomas turned to Sean. “We’re going to want to fix that,” he muttered, to which Sean nodded.
“How did you know it was me?” I’d hidden my face from the cameras, so I knew it wasn’t that, and I was curious.
He thumbed his finger to the closed door. “Roman’s team. He asked them to check a number, and when they did, they saw the photo sent from the phone. Your brother, right?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek, not wanting to cry again, but I offered him a slight nod.
Thomas offered me a look of sympathy. “I’m sorry for how he died.” His kind words almost cracked me open. “They found out who he was, then that he had a sister, and then that you were both in the care of Preston. It all got a little strange when your brother went to prison, but there were zero mentions of it in the news, despite who your step-dad was, and then you vanished off the face of the earth.”
A bitter laugh fell from my chest. Preston used his pull to make sure no one mentioned his relationship with Tony and made out that I went to stay with relatives. No one ever checked to see if it was true. “Still doesn’t explain how you knew I’d broken into your building.”
“Like I said, Roman’s team is the best in the world. That’s all you’re getting. You’ve managed to infiltrate my building, you’re not stealing my tech secrets too.”
No one spoke for a while before Roman blew out a breath that sounded like he’d been holding it a while. “So, let me get this straight. You’re some criminal mastermind. You used to work as a fixer for a corrupt judge, you’re part of a crime ring that’s being taken out one by one, you picked the lock to my office and found out what I did for a living, broke into my house while I slept, lifted my prints, attacked me, faked your own kidnapping, got us locked in a safe room and now, you’re planning to work through the victims and clients of said crime ring, to work out who’s trying to kill you?”
I pondered his explanation for a moment. “Pretty much,” I replied, almost laughing, because when he said it all so bluntly, it sounded like the plot of a really shitty movie.
Roman’s lips thinned, his hands fisting at his sides, and then he side-eyed Thomas before he stormed out of the room, the door slamming behind him. I pressed my hand to my chest, guilt and anxiety creating a chasm behind my ribs, the idea that he was disappointed in me gutting me.
“I’ll go,” Sean said, nodding towards the door Roman had just left through.
“Thanks,” Thomas replied. “I’ll speak to Wren and get him onto this list.” He turned to me, his stony expression chilling me to the bone. “You stay here. Do not try to run because you won’t like the version of me who has to chase you down.”
He didn’t wait for my reply; his threat loud and clear as the two of them left, followed by Jarrid, who I noticed was avoiding eye contact with me entirely.
They closed the door, leaving me alone with my thoughts—somewhere I did not relish being.
I paced the long office, letting my eyes settle out of the window on a world that wasn’t caught up in crimes or running for their lives. I envied their normal existence and longed for the day I could go back to just being Hana Monroe, owner of The Diner.
