A knock came at the door, and Genevieve stepped to answer it. She let in Cassie who strolled in and dropped into a chair.
“Sorry I’m late. I couldn’t sleep last night. All wound up.”
I folded my hands in my lap. “What happened at Paul Debrock’s place?”
She recounted what I hadn’t wanted to hear. The fact she had planned to kill him, but someone else had got in there first.
“I don’t know if he’s dead,” she finished. “We bolted. There was too much of a racket to risk getting caught. Amateur hour was in the house and beat us to the prize.”
I hoped he wasn’t. I’d never liked the guy, but if he was no longer alive, that left only one. There was a pit in my stomach from even considering the implications of that devil’s detail.
Mila’s phone rang. “It’s the solicitors.” She answered and listened. Her free hand shook, so she trapped it between her knees. “I understand. Keep me updated with the decision.” She put the phone down and levelled a shocked gaze on us. “They’ve been informed by the police that two bodies have been discovered this morning.”
I already knew. She didn’t need to say. Mila did anyway.
“Paul Debrock and Oscar Sullivan.”
Everyone started talking at once, babbling over each other.
I sank into my corner of the couch. Tyler must’ve ordered Sullivan’s body dumped, and the man Cassie saw did the same with Debrock. The exact scenario I’d tried to avoid when I’d called off Cassie last night had happened anyway. I’d tried to contain the blood, instead I’d crowned a monster.
Denise Harford alone would get to use the vote I’d given up.
God, did that sting.
I touched Mila’s hand, mine shaking. “Come with me a sec?”
She stood and followed me to the brick-arched window.
I swallowed. Unlike with telling her about Sullivan, this story was far too raw. Voicing it last night to Tyler had opened the wound, and I couldn’t explain it. Not in the same way. “Denise Harford can’t use my vote. She can’t.”
Realisation rippled over her features as slow shock. “Denise?”
I managed a shaky nod.
Mila’s worried gaze searched mine. Whatever she saw stalled any questions. “Okay, I hear you. Do we have her taken out?”
I choked on nothing. “You say that with frightening calm.”
“I’ve been around Convict for long enough that it’s normal.” Her worry intensified. “Yet if we do that, then the vote can’t happen at all. The company can never fold.”
I couldn’t say a word. All I was sure about were bad outcomes and even worse people.
The easiest option to help my sister was one I couldn’t take. If I could walk into that meeting and not die from the stress, I would. But seeing my grandmother? Sitting across from her and staying calm?No.
The only solution was me. And I was running out of excuses.
Chapter 30
Dixie
Daylight faded, closing in on night, with activity around the warehouse high. Lovelyn was certain she was onto something with the money flow around Austin’s business, and Mila took on the solicitors, trying to find another way to end the suffering.
By my request, they left me alone.
In the brick-arched window of Tyler’s apartment, I stared out at the city, stuck in my head. I was trying to remember my past identity. The girl I’d been before my grandparents’ world had sucked me in and spat me out.
No great lover of school, that was for sure. I’d liked going, but only for the friends and the boys I’d started noticing. We’d never had any money, so I’d become good at hair and makeup and traded that skill in the girls’ bathroom, French-braiding or blending contour in exchange for lunch money or favours. Or for free, for girls who had less than me.
