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I blink several times. “You…got married?”

She rubs at her forehead. “It was impossible running that farm without a man. Now we have someone taking care of us. Someone who can do the plowing since you’re clearly incapable of it.”

“But… But…” I start coughing as I choke on my own saliva.

“It’s been taken care of. I had to fudge a few dates on the marriage license and insurance application to square it all away, but it’s done. You’re covered, and we won’t lose the farm due to your negligence.” She grimaces but then looks toward the door of the hospital room. “And now you have a new stepfather. Bill, come in and meet your daughter.”

A man walks in…

And the room shifts. It feels colder, with more of an edge.

The man is wearing a dirty plaid button-down, ripped jeans, and his remaining hair is completely white and unkempt. He has a large bushy mustache and uneven stubble, and he’s below average height. He smiles at me with yellow teeth.

Emmy purses her lips. “Thea Storm, meet Bill Insworth.”

24

AUS

Why am I so pissed?

By all accounts, these cops are doing everything by the book.

They got a warrant—albeit a quicker one than I’ve ever seen Chicago’s bureaucracy dish out—and are searching the home of one of their suspects.

Circumstances alone placed Thea in the crosshairs of this investigation. I know she didn’t do this, but the cops can’t operate solely on instinct. They have to follow each lead, and Thea is a significant one.

But I’m still angry as hell. Because I know the Chief of Police. Until about a year ago, he was dancing to the tune of one Rouge Montrose.

Just like I did back in Vegas.

They don’t have enough to implicate Thea.

At least, I don’t think they do.

They had enough to get a warrant to search her home. Hell, she wasn’t even here to let them in. They forced their way inside.

Thea has told her story to the cops, and she wouldn’t have left anything out, at least not intentionally.

But Wick should be able to corroborate her story. Why aren’t they talking to him?

This feels targeted.

Was Thea in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or has someone been steering this investigation in her direction?

So many questions, and no fucking answers.

Maybe that’s the real reason I’m pissed.

Nothing makes sense anymore.

Nothing’s made sense since I got to Chicago. Since the day I made the lady in green disappear, never to see her again.

It’s weird. We barely spoke, but I felt this connection with her the night she stood on my stage and zipped herself into the child’s tent.

Maybe she and I were just two sides of the same coin flipped by Rouge Montrose.

But there was something more.