Here it was. Luca had been waiting for so long, she’d actuallystarted to believe this conversation might never happen. But it was time, backstage at theBill Mahershow, of all places. It was like she told the Green Lions: You never knew when the world was going to flip on its axis. Life-changing moments arrived without warning or fanfare. Alice had taught her that.
But Luca was used to pivoting. So she would accept that this was happening, and she would talk to Alice’s little sister the way she’d always planned.
“You’re right,” Luca said, then used the words she’d imagined. “In the beginning, I held out hope that your dad would solve the case. I was sorry to hear about his heart attack. You have my condolences.”
“Before Alice went missing,” Grey said, using the same measured tone, “it was just the three of us. I know it’s cliché, but I will go to my grave knowing he died of a broken heart.”
Luca knew that, too, but it didn’t change the warmth that flooded her, hearing Grey offer it. They studied each other.
“I know what it’s like to be left alone,” Luca said. “My mother suffered from an aggressive case of Parkinson’s. She was bedridden by the time I was eighteen. I lost her at twenty.”
Grey was quiet, though those blue eyes of hers never left Luca’s face. “Is that why you lied on your job application? I’ve always wondered.”
Luca froze in her chair. There—finally. The truth. For a moment, she had a wild thought to run, dash out of the room and streak down the hall. But hadn’t everything been leading to this? This reckoning between them.
So she told her the truth. “I was only eighteen. And I needed the money. The Serpent paid so much better than everywhere else.”
At her words, Grey closed her eyes, as if hearing the confirmation were a precious relief.
“My mom couldn’t work anymore,” Luca said. “So it was all on me. But I was a stupid girl.” She was skirting closer to it, the thing she’d wanted to say to Alice’s sister for so long. “I made reckless choices.”
Grey opened her eyes and scoured Luca’s face. “Tell me what happened that night—”
Luca could feel it coming the second before Grey breathed the word, could feel the pain, the scars, the history, all of it roaring back with a single name: “Daisy.”
Chapter 49Luca, the Mastermind
PRESENT DAY
“How?” The question was out before Luca could think.
The ancient name. The name of the ghost. She opened her mouth to tell Grey that Daisy was dead, but she bit her tongue. If anyone deserved to hear the story, it was Alice’s little sister.
Grey’s face lit with triumph, but she kept her voice even. A cool customer. Luca loved that in a woman. “There were pictures taken of you and Alice the night you disappeared. They lived in a private collection for twelve years. A few days ago, they made their way into my hands. It took me hours of studying the pictures to get even the faintest hint.” The detective’s eyes trailed over Luca’s face. “You look so different now. More than just the passing of time.”
The question hung between them.
“It was the surgeries,” Luca said softly. “Several, starting the day I was found. They told me later it saved my life.” She could remember the doctor sitting down beside her in the hospital, warning:The face you’ll see in the mirror is going to come as a shock. We had to do it, given your injuries. Please remember: You’re lucky to be alive.
Lucky.
Luca cleared her throat. “I’d been working at the Serpent Room for a couple of months when I got wind that there were these rich men who’d come in and take care of the bottle service girls as long as we treated them well. Tipped above and beyond. And if they really liked you, they’d ask you to party with them and offer to pay you for your time—the kind of money it would take weeks to make at the club. There were rumors they played rough, but I was too young and dumb to think twice. I felt invincible, you know? I thought mybiggest problem was money, for me and my mom.” She shook her head. “The night they finally sat in my section, I thought I’d hit the lotto. I begged Alice to work the table with me.”
The word scraped out of Grey: “Why her?”
Luca felt the old hatred rise—the most potent hatred of all, the one she felt for herself. “Because Alice was the prettiest, most fun girl in the room. I thought if she worked the table with me, we’d get an invite to party for sure.”
“And you did,” Grey said. “You convinced her.” Luca hadn’t noticed it before, but now she saw that Grey’s eyes were rimmed in red, the smallest tell. “Alice would’ve denied it, but she was a daddy’s girl. That’s why it was so hard for me to picture her leaving with someone she didn’t trust. She liked to have a good time, but she wasn’t as wild as she wanted people to believe—she had a good head on her shoulders. She was a cop’s daughter. But I understand now.” Grey tilted her head. “She did it for you. So you wouldn’t be alone.”
It was almost enough to start the never-ending stream of thoughts that haunted her:It’s my fault, I did it to her, I will pay for the rest of my life.But Luca couldn’t make this about herself.
Grey wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Where did they take you?”
“The desert.” Luca knew to say the next part fast, deliver it as bluntly as possible. It was too ugly to sit with, and yet she’d been stewing in it for years, all alone. “That’s all I knew. We’d been drinking so much, and I was doing MDMA with them, being stupid. By the time we got to the house, I could barely see straight.”
“What happened?”
Even after all of these years, after all the self-acceptance she’d preached, Luca’s cheeks flamed. “They wanted lap dances. Things like that. Alice wouldn’t, but I was eager to please. I think that’s why I lasted longer.” She swallowed. “We got separated. I was with Reese. I don’t know how much time passed before I heard the scream and knew it was Alice, knew something had gone terribly wrong. I tried to leave, but Reese wouldn’t let me. We fought, and the last thing I remember is Gabriel and Easton running into the room, and Gabriel swinging at me.”
