Chapter 23 Remy
REMY
I saw the complex mix of emotions play on her face: confusion, relief, something darker that might have been fear.
I wasn’t surprised by the last part. Sometimes the worst thing that could happen was to get what you wanted.
She slid onto one of the chairs at the island. “But… I lost the Hunt.”
“This isn’t about the Hunt,” I said. “Not anymore.”
“Then what’s it about?” she asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Poe asked gently. “We care about you.”
I hated the way her gaze slid to Bram, not because I was jealous of Bram — why would I be jealous of an emotionally stunted rage-warrior? — but because it meant she cared not just about Poe and me but about Bram.
And even I knew that caring about Bram was bound to get her hurt.
She rubbed at the island’s marble top with her thumb even though I was pretty sure there was nothing there. Reva was a shit cook but an amazing housekeeper.
“But I stay here? For another three months?”
“Do you want to— ”
"Yes,” Bram said before I could finish asking if she wanted to leave.
His arms were folded across his chest, his legs planted apart, and I knew this was the price of his willingness to kill Ethan Todd for Maeve.
We hadn’t talked about whether Maeve would still be required to see out her ninety-day term in the loft, probably because we’d all hoped she’d want to stay, but I knew Bram well enough to know there would be no moving him off this particular condition of our agreement.
She nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”
Poe opened the box of donuts and put one on his plate, then offered the box to Maeve.
“I think you’ll like the maple bar,” he said, pointing to the maple-glazed donut I knew was filled with cinnamon cream.
She took it and put it on her plate.
“Got a plate for me?” Bram asked Poe.
“Didn’t think you’d want one.”
Bram went to the cupboard to get himself a plate, then chose a double-chocolate cake donut that looked rich as sin.
I hid my surprise. I’d gotten used to the fact that Bram was averse to anything having to do with Maeve.
Interesting.
“Tell us what you know.” I headed for the fridge to pull out the ingredients for my smoothie but caught my foot on the leg of Maeve’s chair.
I flailed, trying to catch myself on the island, and sent Bram’s donut flying.
The plate clattered to the floor.
“Goddammit,” Bram muttered.
I put the fallen plate in the sink and the donut in the trash while Bram got a fresh plate.
Maeve moved to the coffee maker and started brewing a cup of coffee. “What I know about Ethan?”
“Yeah.” I started loading ingredients into the blender. “We’ll do our own research, but anything you know might help.”
“Well, I think he’s living here for one.” She removed the cup from under the coffee maker, inhaled from the steam, and took a drink.
“Here as in Blackwell Falls here?” Poe asked.
She nodded. “Anyone else want a coffee?”
“I’ll take one,” Poe said.
“How do you know he’s here?” Bram asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but I know he’s from here, and I suspected he would come back after he left Hungary to avoid being charged with sex trafficking.”
Poe shook his head. “Wait a minute, you’re saying Ethan Todd is from Blackwell Falls?”
She nodded, then handed him a cup of coffee. “Went to Blackwell High and everything.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Poe asked.
She shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”
“We’re asking now,” Bram grumbled, wiping his hands on his jeans.
“What year?” I asked.
“Almost twenty years ago.” She took her coffee to her place at the island. “Long before my time — although I didn’t go to Blackwell High — and yours too.”
Poe rubbed his jaw. “I assume you checked the yearbooks.”
It was a safe assumption. Maeve was smart, and she’d been on Ethan Todd’s trail for over a year.
She nodded. “His last name was Borkowski then, but there’s no trace of him after high school.”
“What did you mean when you said Ethan Todd was back in Blackwell Falls?” My smoothie was ready to go but I didn’t want to disrupt the conversation with the blender.
That was only fun when I could do it to piss off Poe or Bram.
“When I heard he was coming back from Hungary, I started following local real estate listings. Not every house for sale, just the big ones.” She hesitated. “One of them sold to a company, not a person.”
“That’s not super unusual,” Poe said. “Property is sometimes purchased through holding companies for tax purposes.”
“I know,” she said. “But this company was registered in Hungary.”
A beat of silence settled between us.
“Damn,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“Where’s the house?” Poe asked.
“Up on the mountain,” she said. “There’s a gate, security.”
Bram narrowed his eyes. “And you’d know this how?”
“I went up there,” she said. “A few weeks ago.”
“That was fucking stupid,” Bram said.
“Maybe, but at least I was doing something,” she shot back. “Someone had to.”
Bram’s jaw tightened at the dig and I felt his guilt like my own. Maeve had been with us for two months and we hadn’t done shit to help her with Ethan Todd. She’d been out there alone, trying to figure it out.
Trying to make him pay.
“Anyway, I wasn’t going to do anything.”
It was the same thing she’d said when I’d pulled her out of the protest outside the hotel where Ethan Todd had been giving a speech. I still didn’t know if she was trying to convince us or herself.
“Then why did you go?” Poe asked.
“I just wanted to see it for myself.” She took a deep breath. “In case I had to take another run at him.”
“What do you mean ‘take another run at him’?” Bram asked.
She bit her lower lip. “I tried to take him out once. At his hotel in the city, right after Chris’ trial.”
“I knew it,” I said. “That was you.”
Poe looked at me. “What are you talking about?”
“There were rumors online that someone had tried to kill him in the city, but they’ve never been proven.”
Bram was practically apoplectic. “And you didn’t think to mention it?” He looked at Maeve. “Either of you?”
Maeve shrugged. “I thought I was on my own.” She bit into her donut, then looked at Poe. “You were right, this is crazy delicious.”
“So you went to his house to case the place,” I said, trying to get Bram off the part that threatened to make his head explode.
“Kind of,” she said. “I just wanted to see what I’d be up against if I had to try again.”
Bram pushed back from the island hard enough to make the chair wobble.
He paced the room. “You’re crazy, you know that?”
I braced myself for the two of them to go head-to-head, but when Maeve answered her voice was calm. “It’s not crazy to want justice for someone you love.”
“We need more.” Poe was obviously as eager as I was to turn the conversation around. “A lot more.”
“We can put Aloha on him,” I said.
“Do it,” Bram said. “While he’s working we can take care of our other problem.”
Maeve licked maple frosting off her fingers. “What other problem?”
I wondered if it was normal to get hard watching a girl lick her fingers.
Bram pushed away from the island. “The Ghosts.”