The office is massive. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the town. A desk the size of my old studio apartment. Paxton moves behind it but doesn’t sit. He braces his hands on the surface and looks at me.
“Start from where Lance left off. He told me about the Lye, the fights…” He hesitates, glancing at Juliette. “What our father did to him. I’ve been building a case against Badon Hill from the corporate side. But Beverly being right under our noses, being the one pulling the strings, that’s new. Tell me everything.”
So I do. I repeat the same thing I told Juliette and Roman.
“She raised us,” Juliette says. “She braided my hair. She made our lunches. She was there for everything. And the whole time she was playing us. And forwhat?What was the reason?”
“She poisoned you,” Roman says. “She’s lucky I didn’t find her first.”
“Get in line,” Paxton mutters. Then he straightens, and the grief hardens into something operational. “The underground fighting, the coercion, all of it, I only know what Lance told me. But Dad left things sloppy when I forced him out of Calloway Enterprises, and Badon Hill’s fingerprints are all over the financial side. The FBI has most of that already.”
“My father’s working with them from Boston,” I say. “He says the case is strong but not airtight. There’s one piece missing.”
“The footage.”
“Every fight Lance has been forced into is allegedly on a hard drive. And I think it’s in Art’s office at the tavern. I’ve seen it. I’ve held it in my hands. I just didn’t know what it was.”
“Alleged is a big word to hinge everything on,” Paxton says. “But we’ll take it from here.”
“She’s an asset,” Roman says.
“Or she’s Art’s girl and setting us up,” Paxton counters.
“She’sstanding right here.” I cross my arms. “And she’s coming whether you approve or not.”
Juliette laughs. “I think I love you as much as Felicity does.”
“That’s not the compliment you think it is,” Paxton says.
“Should we tell Alex?” Juliette asks. “Get everyone in?”
Paxton shakes his head. “Alex is the happiest of all of us. Still thinks our family’s the best and our town is squeaky clean. One of us should get to stay that way.”
The room is quiet for a beat. Then Paxton picks up a phone and dials, walking to the far side of the office where we can’t hear.
Five minutes later he comes back. “We’ve got six hours. We need to get in, get the footage, and get it to the Feds to give them reason to raid the tavern. Juliette, coordinate with Felicity on an alibi in case anyone comes asking, butdon’ttell her a thing. Genevieve, you’re with me. I want you to draw out every inch of that tavern and the underground you can remember.”
“Who did you talk to? How did you…”
“Clearly, you’ve never been on the bad side of a Calloway,” Juliette says. “We always get our way.”
Paxton smirks, and Roman rolls his eyes.
Juliette moves toward me and wraps me in a hug, lifting me off my feet, and holding me tight. “Thank you for loving my brother. Let’s go get him back.”
For the first time since Lance walked out of my father’s kitchen, I feel something other than fury.
I feel hope.
Chapter 44
Genevieve
The tavern is dark when I get there.
It’s just past midnight, and the building is closed, the front doors locked, the parking lot empty. I know this because I spent over a year memorizing this building’s rhythms without even meaning to. Monday nights, the tavern closes at ten. The kitchen staff leaves by eleven. The cleaning crew is gone by midnight.
After that, the Round Table is a ghost. Any other night, that’s when the Lye comes alive. But Mondays is for rest.
