Page 71 of Pretty Nightmare

He’s shaking his head no. “I’m not giving up Maggie. I’ll share her.” He glances at me. “I would love for you to be close to her the way I am. But I’m not giving her up. I don’t care what the fucking DNA test says. She’s mine.”

I sigh and give up. “OK.”

“It’s not OK. We need to find Nathan and get ahead of this.”

“Be my guest.”

“I’m not doing it alone, McKay. It’s your secret. Not mine. So what town were you running this little side operation out of? And who’s left that we can talk to?”

“Savannah.”

“The same place where you thought all your people were taken out at a party?”

“Correct.”

“Why Savannah?”

I lean my elbow on the edge of the door where it meets the window and look out. There’s not really anything to see. The moon is full, but this stretch of highway is just trees.

“Why Savannah, McKay?”

I blow out some air. “Because…”

He waits. But not very long. “Because what?”

“Nick.”

“Nick? Nick? Nick as in—”

“Yup.”

I glance over at him. He’s not looking at me. He’s squinting his eyes, focusing on the road ahead. But I’ve known this man nearly my entire life. I can see the wheels spinning in his head.

“Hold on. Give me this timeline again. When did you start up this little side job?”

“Right after Indie attacked you. During your recovery.”

“You said that was James this afternoon. You said James sent Beck and Moore—”

“Right. But then I was gonna tell you this part and Maggie came up to the dock.”

“And you couldn’t pull me aside and fill me in on the rest?”

“I’m filling you in now.”

“Because I’m practically dragging it out of you. So when did Nick come up?”

“A week later. When I first started paying the bills for that training camp.”

“That’s who really sent Beck and Moore.”

“Yes.”

He works his jaw. Practically growls out the words. “So you knew. You knew he was alive. Jesus fucking Christ. Anybody else alive that I need to know about?”

“Are you telling me you didn’t know?”

“I suspected. Like most intelligent people. But no. It was never confirmed to me. In fact, I saw Vincent Fenici in the Maldives about eighteen months ago. I even asked him—”