CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
AINSLEY
I t’s ten o’clock at night, and Wells called us all to the kitchen table. He hasn’t divulged anything yet, but the mood is somber all the same. We all sense it—the falling sky. But the rest of them seem to take it in stride. Albeit with a healthy-ish dose of alcohol.
“We stumbled upon some unfortunate developments,” Wells starts.
I resist the urge to run. To scurry back into the comfort of my blissful fort and bury my head in the blankets.
Gage and I spent most of the day tucked away in our little bubble. Only some of that time was alone, but it was perfect.
It turns out that Ivy helped Gage orchestrate the crossword-puzzle proposal. I guess it was quite an ordeal, getting it inserted into a real newspaper. They’d cooked up the idea one morning while they were baking, and she’d been anxiously waiting for him to do it. Although I think his timing was spot-on.
Gage obviously couldn’t keep the good news to himself because after lunch, all three girls busted into our slice of paradise, bombarding me with hugs, congrats, and oohs and aahs over my stunning ring. It was magical.
In the midst of our current shitstorm, the best moment of my life was made even better because I could share my joy with women who felt like sisters. I can’t put into words the way that filled me up, clicking in a piece I hadn’t realized I was missing.
The guys followed shortly after, hugging me and expressing how relieved they were that it was finally official because I was right where I belonged.
All of it feels like a dream. I’ll be marrying my first and only love, who I thought was dead, within the week, in a simple backyard wedding. And with him comes a family I still can’t believe is mine. It’s been hard not to dwell on all the ways it could be ripped from me. But I’ve been trying my hardest to banish those thoughts and bask in the celebration.
But bubbles have a way of popping.
“Developments?” Ty probes, anxious as any of us to get this moving.
“Spill, Chief.” Gage swigs his bourbon beside me, arm draped over my chair and tension radiating off him. “We’ve got our big-girl panties on.”
Wells glares at us, his hand diving into his hair, yanking at the strands. “Jesus Christ. I was trying when you both interrupted.”
He seems frazzled, which has my stomach instantly in knots.
“It’s a tangled, fucked-up mess,” Liam interjects, fisting his Modelo. “Cut the Chief some slack.”
That makes my bones ache. Liam without a smart-ass comment has to be a warning sign of impending doom.
“What the fuck is going on?” Gage spits, slamming his glass down and moving his hand to my thigh.
“They fell down a rabbit hole when searching for that third card, and it’s a frightening hole,” Ivy explains, swilling her own drink.
Scotch. What the hell?
“Ivanna,” Wells chastises before a resigned sigh. “We haven’t found who has the card, but we did discover a lot about them. We combed through Theo’s laptop, and—”
“I killed him too early,” I blurt out, all my fears crashing into me so I can barely breathe. “I fucked everything up.”
“No,” Wells insists. “I would’ve ordered you to neutralize him as soon as we knew where that card was anyway. You did nothing wrong. But I messed up. We got tied up in freeing you and Gage, on securing the cards for KORT, and didn’t investigate the media conglomerate aspect thoroughly enough.”
“We should have interrogated Theo properly,” Liam elaborates on Wells’s cryptic explanation. “It doesn’t look like he knew who he was working for, but we might have gotten something. Here’s what we know. The person with the third card has a shit ton of knowledge on how to cover their tracks. It’s someone with deep pockets because we’ve deduced that they bought Theo out in what appears to be a hostile takeover. They allowed him and Nick to maintain some control, likely to be the contact for the clients they’d established rapport with. And also to be his fall guys should something go wrong.”
I try to take that all in while also noting how intense he and Wells both are. Maybe KORT is threatening to execute Gage because of this.
I’m going to be sick.
“So, the problem is, we don’t have any idea how to get the card for KORT?” I ask.
Wells swirls his scotch, his features burdened with stress and lack of sleep. “That’s part of it.”
Gage balks, shaking his head. “There’s a hell of a lot more to it than that because the Chief doesn’t fret unless one thing is threatened.”
My heart jumps to my throat because I know what Gage is getting at. I’m not the only one being hunted.
“Yeah,” Wells confirms. “Whoever this is has pictures and the names of all the girls.”
“How?” Celeste asks, and Rena cusses under her breath as Ty tugs her closer.
“La Lune Noire.” Liam opens his laptop, taps the keys, and spins it around, showing countless shots of the four of us. I’m wearing a mask in them, but the other three aren’t.
“Motherfucker,” Ty and Gage hiss in unison.
I stroke my forehead, suddenly lightheaded. “What does this mean?”
“Nothing,” Wells responds flatly. “I’m not going to pretend it doesn’t have me rattled. Celeste and Rena have been in the public eye before. Ivy has also, to a degree. People know who they are in reference to their families, just like you. But I don’t like your faces out there in relation to our business. There’s KORT involvement, whoever this unknown is, and several Morellis and Vittoris are dead. It’s messy. But this life always is. So, it’s primarily a warning for us to take this seriously.”
Never one to beat around the bush, Gage bulldozes everything to unearth the dirt. “The pictures were exchanged because the girls are marks?”
Celeste and Rena stiffen. Ivy’s freckled complexion tinges green, although it seems she suspected this. All of it spears me. I brought this on. Ty groans, and Wells scowls.
But Liam is right there with Gage, not missing a beat. “We think Theo’s back was against the wall because that card was missing, so he pointed to Ainsley, and all the focus shifted from the fuckup of losing Nick’s card to her possibly having it or knowing where it was. The other girls were likely targets they planned to use to coax her to cooperate. The pictures are only from the night we were at La Lune Noire, so in relation to this, the girls weren’t on this asshole’s radar until then.”
A grumble and a distraught sigh fuse into one strangled sound in Liam’s throat before he chokes it back and continues, “But years ago, the media released a false story about Ivy’s father, Tom, dying before he had. It was an attempt to call her out, to kill her before she could assume her KORT role. We never questioned how they had gotten that story to break because it was chaos at the time. And we neutralized all the assassins after her, as well as those who had ordered the hit. But we know now, it was this same conglomerate, so while it’s not clear if the connection has been made, it’s there.”
Wells takes over the explanation. “At the time being, it appears as though our location is still a mystery, so that’s one positive. We’re investigating every La Lune Noire guest from that night. So far, we’re coming up with nothing but dead ends.”
“Lay it out,” Ty barks, exasperated. “What are we looking at?”
“We’ve spoken with Jared, Payne, and Axel and explained the situation.” Wells sips his drink, seemingly calmer now that he’s laying out the plan. “Ainsley is off the hook because both media cards will be given to KORT on her behalf, one to Jared and one to Payne. Due to that show of cooperation, she’ll be awarded her money, and we will erase her. On the dark web, we will leak that she stole the media cards and ran. We will also issue a hit on her from an unnamed source, followed by a report of completion within forty-eight hours. When the cards are used by Jared or Payne, it won’t appear to have any association with us. As far as our CIA contract goes, we’ll need to neutralize the few Morelli and Vittori foot soldiers who know Gage might be alive. They’re likely too scared to do anything with that. So, there’s no rush. In the meantime, we’ll lie low. That should be enough.”
“And if it isn’t?” I press, feeling my whole world crumble even as Gage hauls me onto his lap and into his protective embrace. I can’t bear for them to be in harm’s way. “Maybe I should …”
I honestly don’t know what to insert there. Leave? So much damage has already been done. Things I can’t change or fix, but there has to be something.
“Don’t even finish that sentence,” Celeste demands, brown eyes both stern and compassionate.
“That’s right, girl. We’ve been over this,” Rena chimes.
“If you’re going nowhere,” Ivy begins, and Celeste finishes, “We’re coming with you.”
They shared that with me this afternoon, explaining that they’d been ride-or-die friends since they’d been kids, with that saying as their mantra. And now it belonged to Rena and me too.
“I love you all so much for that,” I rasp, melting into my soon-to-be husband, his intoxicating bittersweet scent grounding me. And I do love them all so much. The way they’ve folded me into their world is everything, which is why I set my gaze on Wells and push him to tell me what to do, to tell me what happens if this all blows up in our faces. “Please. What can I do? What happens if they threaten or come after the girls?”
He sighs, a rueful smile tipping his lips. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. But the girls have it right, Ainsley. Whatever happens, we face it as a family.”