He wasn’t wrong.
“Before I could run off, he held out this coat. Gave it to me right off his back,” Rett said, a note of awe in his tone.
Should I remind him of the clothes he’s wearing that came directly off my back?
“I refused, of course. But he dropped it on the ground. Told me he didn’t want it because he was going to steal something better.” Rett pulled the coat from his chest and looked down at it. “When he walked away, I grabbed it. I was so cold.”
Yep. I regretted asking about this.
I didn’t even have to imagine what he looked like, coldand homeless with fear in his eyes. I’d seen it.I’d seen it and walked away.I was little more than a villain.
But at least I had good hair.
“I was running away when he shouted at me. Told me about a place a couple blocks over that gave out free meals. He said to tell her Fletch sent me.”
“Fletch,” I said, latching on to that name and rolling it around in my head.
Rett nodded. “I mentioned his name, and they gave me a free meal. It was the first time in so long I’d been shown any kindness. For the first time, I believed I might be okay.”
“Then what?” I demanded.
“I found twenty bucks in the pocket of the coat, and I used it to buy a bus ticket. It got me here.”
He looked like he wanted to say something more, so I motioned to him. “Spit it out, Pip.”
“About a year ago, I saw him on TV.”
My eyebrows arched. “The guy who gave you the coat?”
Rett nodded.
“Probably a mug shot,” I conferred.
“Actually, he was standing beside some big real estate guy in the city. Ethan… Abbott?”
“Ethan Abbott,” I repeated.
Rett nodded. “Do you know him?”
“He’s the richest man in this state. Everyone knows him.”
“Well, Fletch was standing beside him on TV, and they were holding hands.”
“You’re talking about Fletcher Abbott?”
Rett nodded. “He looked so familiar, but at first, I couldn’t figure out where I knew him from. It’s not like I know any rich guys, and also, why would my brain connect some guy in a rundown alley with him?”
“Fletcher Abbott is actually the long-lost heir to the Cosgrove family,” I said, mind churning.
Rett gave me a blank look. “Should I know them?”
“No,” I said, pleased he wasn’t impressed. “The patriarch is a well-renowned violinist. Anyway, Fletcher was kidnapped as a baby and raised in the slums of New York City by a vile woman. A few years ago, he met Ethan Abbott, and they fell in love. But it turns out he was the missing son of the Cosgroves.”
“So that’s how I met him in the alley. It was before he got rich.”
Fletcher Abbott was also the “brother” of one of the deadliest hitmen in the entire state. The unsanctioned kind. Of course, that wasn’t public knowledge. And supposedly, he retired.
But if you ask me… once a killer, always a killer. It also meant my revenge plot for the guy that Rett seemed to think so highly of was off. Family of assassins was off-limits. Hard stop.
