Page 124 of Hard Heart

“They were paid? You know that for sure?”

“It’s what I was told.”

“By who?” Jez asked, parking her ass on the edge of the desk. There were snacks left from earlier, and she skipped the veggie tray in favour of a chocolate-covered strawberry.

Jester answered for Serafina, and he was smirking. “One of the kids who threw the firework. He was too scared to lie.”

From what he said—and didn’t say—Jez understood that the Diamondback Devils had assisted with the interrogation process, and there had most likely been blood involved. Damn, Serafina Hennessy really had been corrupted.

“Who paid them?”

“A guy named Stark, who our suspect knew from the modified car circuit,” she said. “Apparently, it was revenge for Professor Groveland screwing over his mother. I believe that’s what Stark told the suspect, but I don’t know if it’s the truth.”

“So we need to find this Stark guy to make sure?”

She nodded. “But I’m spread pretty thin at the moment.”

“Send what you have to Ari, and she can help with the legwork. This is bread-and-butter stuff for her.”

For a moment, Serafina looked as if she might argue, but then her shoulders sagged. “Okay.”

“And you don’t go anywhere without an escort.”

“Trust me, I don’t intend to.”

Alexa—aka Echo when she was working with the Choir, the elite special forces team Jez and Spider were both a part of—was still puking, and Jez figured she should go check on her. In Blackstone House, everyone had been protective of the little brat, and that hadn’t changed as she grew into the pain in the ass she was today. Echo might have been the Chief Technical Officer of the billion-dollar tech company she’d started as a side project, but beneath the prickly exterior, she was still the scared child Dawson had found camping out in a crypt.

The bathroom door was closed but not locked, and Jez pushed it open with her foot.

“You okay?”

“Do I look okay?”

Jez touched the corner of her mouth. “You have a little vomit there.”

There was still half a toilet roll on the holder, and Echo ripped off a handful. The roll kept turning, unravelling into a messy pile the way their lives were doing.

“He was in our home for almost a week. What if I’d wanted to borrow Grey’s razor? What if Brax needed a clean shirt?”

Brax wouldn’t have gone to Grey’s closet for a shirt—Grey hated doing laundry. He’d probably taken his dirty clothes to Florida for his grandma’s housekeeper to wash.

“You didn’t. Stop thinking about it.”

“How did he even know to hide in Grey’s room?”

A good question. “Grey was posting pictures of himself on the beach all over his socials. Either Eight followed him on BuzzHub, or he knew Ruby and she told him Grey was going away.”

“You think she knew him?”

“So it’s just come out that Ruby might have been working as a hooker.”

Alexa turned and retched into the toilet again.

“I’m going to find him, and I’m going to kill him.” Jez picked up the pile of tissue and offered it. “I promise I’ll make it slow.”

“Why? Why would she do that?”

“Money? For the thrill of it?”