Chapter 34
E verly
He didn’t return. I waited, slept, passed a panicked night, then woke on Sunday morning with new determination.
Taking care not to disturb or even peek at any of my tattoos, I prepared myself for the day, choosing the smartest of my casual clothes and styling my hair as if I had a day of work ahead of me.
I did, but of a kind I’d never imagined before.
A quick check of the calendar on my phone gave me a green light to proceed, and I grabbed my work bag including my ID and pass which had lain forgotten for a week, then centred myself for what I needed to do. All the insanity and dangerous thoughts had left me with only one conclusion. A solitary course of action I needed to take.
Just like I’d discussed with my new friends.
At the last second, I caught sight of my pill packet on the bedside table. I hadn’t taken one on Friday night. Or yesterday. It was like I’d lost my mind, or perhaps it was the other way around and I was finally seeing clearly and acting for myself.
Crossing the room, I swept the packet into the bin, then turned on my heel and left the apartment.
On the ground floor of the warehouse, I found my way to the management office. Knocked.
Arran opened the door, his gaze curious. “Shade isn’t here. I can’t tell you where he is.”
Meaning he didn’t want to be found. I ignored the stutter of my heartbeat. “I know. It’s you I wanted to see.”
He gestured for me to come in, taking his seat behind the big desk. I perched in the visitor’s chair under the bright spotlight, the tattoo on my butt cheek stinging.
“I’m not sure if you know, but I’m a skilled events coordinator,” I said.
The gang leader inclined his head. “I’m aware.”
“I’m on my way to Town Hall to hand in my resignation letter with immediate effect. I want to offer you my services here.”
At his moment of silence, I hurried to get my words out.
“I might not have spent much time around your organisation, but I’m a quick learner and I already have ideas I know will work. If you’re willing to hear me out, I’ll have a proposal for you by midweek for how we can operate events here that will thrill your clients and be good for your staff. Regular theme nights, advertised events, expanding on all the great things you already do.”
With slow consideration, he inclined his head. “I’d listen.”
That was all I needed to hear. I jumped to my feet. “Thank you.”
Arran held up a pausing hand. “Is it necessary for you to leave the warehouse today?”
“It is. I need to make a clean break, which means delivering my signed letter, clearing my desk, and leaving behind my laptop and pass, as per my contract. No stone left unturned.”
“I’m not sure you should go.”
“If you’re worried about my father, he won’t be there. I know because I checked his schedule. Besides, it’s a public place. What’s the worst that could happen?”
He lifted his phone. “Mick and Manny should accompany you. Will you accept that?”
My shoulders sagged in relief, and I gave my thanks while he organised my escort.
This was it. I was making the break. I couldn’t be sure of any aspect of my future, not even of Connor, and certainly not of my father, but I was doing this for me. A step in the right direction, and God, did it feel wonderful.
Ten minutes on, and I was in the back of a chunky four-wheel drive, Mick beside me and Manny our chauffeur. Traffic was light, so in no time, we were on the approach road to Town Hall, and my adrenaline built in a steady rush.
All my life, this building had been the pinnacle of my father’s aspirations. First, as a local councillor, then as mayor. His political calendar and campaigns had been my bread and butter. The rhythm of my life.
Anger chased through my veins. I’d been his loyal supporter through and through, while he’d never once even tried to control his emotional outbursts of anger. Not for my sake. He’d lied, too. Fathered a son he’d never once thought to tell me about.
How can one person be so self-centred to never once consider the happiness of the people around them? I was his motherless child. He turned me into a dutiful staff member.
Or maybe I’d done that to myself.
The car rolled to a halt, and I popped the door.
Mick’s meaty hand landed on my arm. “Wait for Manny to exit. Then you go and I’ll follow. We’re not letting you out of our sight.”
I obeyed the orders, emerging into the bright day. “My father won’t be here,” I repeated to the men who marked me. “He’s in a formal garden party all afternoon then a sit-down meal.”
Wining and dining. All smiles and a pretend game of pleasantries. He did that so well.
My heels clicked on the pavement, and my unhappiness grew.
I was almost disappointed that he wasn’t here. I didn’t want to see him, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised I couldn’t go on like that forever. I couldn’t exist in the same city as him for the rest of my life without encountering him.
I needed to handle the man. Tackle the spectre of his presence else I’d drown in the venom I wanted to spit at him.
What was the worst he could do? I was a grown woman. He couldn’t force me to heed him now. It was broad daylight, and I had two guards.
Under the towering entranceway of Town Hall, I stalked, slamming my pass down to open the gate for the three of us to enter. The weekend security guard blinked at the two rough-faced men bracing me but made no comment, and I ignored all other distractions on my quest for the mayoral suite. We climbed the stairs through the old building, a rabbit warren of rooms and corridors spreading out on each floor.
At the office where I’d wasted years of my life, my pass code allowed us access, and the two gangsters scoped out the place then took guard positions, one inside the door, one outside.
I marched to my desk and opened my laptop to tap out a two-line resignation letter, then printed it on thick paper with the mayor’s crest and stamp. My signature ended with a flourish, and I folded the letter, slotted it into an envelope, then took a moment to clear my desk. There wasn’t much for me to take. A few personal items. A picture of my mother I’d often stared at, not truly knowing the woman holding baby-me but needing to honour her memory. I claimed my pot plant, as well. A hardy cactus I’d managed to keep alive for years.
One last act saw me delete my profile from my laptop, then I was done.
With the items I’d be leaving on one side of my desk and my packed bag on the other, I exhaled bright excitement and picked up the letter. I’d done it.
“All set?” Mick asked.
“I’m going to leave this on my father’s desk, then yes.” I indicated down the way to a glassed-off office. The mayor’s private space.
Mick stood from his lean and prowled after me.
The suite of open-space offices curved around the front of the building and had several entrances and exits into the hallways beyond. In usual working hours, the place would be busy with staff, but today it was a ghost town. Only the spectre of me, the ex-employee, drifting through it. For the last time.
It was both gut-wrenching and thrilling how little I cared.
At the glass door, I temporarily considered posting the letter but changed my mind. I wanted it to be waiting in my father’s eyeline as his first item of business on Monday morning.
I’d miss his reaction, but you couldn’t have everything.
Entering the room, I left Mick behind and crossed the quiet space. The very air felt weighted with the consequence of what I was doing. The familiar scent of beeswax polish reached my nose, but I only knew the tunnel vision that allowed me to find the perfect placement of my resignation letter dead centre on the leather infill of the mayor’s desk.
There. Done.
“What the fuck are you doing?” my father said.
I jumped. At the back of the room, my father stood in the doorway that exited to the central corridor. It was nearly always locked, him preferring visitors to be brought to him through the main office with the busy team of people and the view out onto the city. But not today.
He was here. Shock broke through my high.
I took him in. The smart suit. The tidy brown hair the same shade as mine and Riordan’s but with salt and pepper at the temples. If he smiled, a real smile and not the crocodile smirk he wore now, he’d look kindly. Maybe even grandfatherly. It was the public image he desired but which could never be true in real life.
“I’m glad to see you,” I found my lips saying.
“A week, Everly. You walked out and abandoned your post. That is unacceptable.” He folded his arms and moved behind his desk, the smirk fading to cold rage I’d learned to fear as a child. Menace poured off him.
Despite my matching anger, I shifted backwards. From the angle Mick had of the room, I wasn’t sure if he could see my father. So I turned. Lifted a hand and waved.
The glass door clicked.
Locked.
Fear slammed into me. The mayor’s desk had a button that engaged the lock for privacy. I’d forgotten it existed because he never used it.
Behind the glass, the gangster rattled the handle. Alarm sank over his features.
He wouldn’t be able to get in.
My blood iced over, and I twisted back around. “What you find acceptable no longer interests me. That letter confirms my resignation. I should have walked out on you a long time ago.”
He worked his jaw, calculation in his eyes. “You think you can leave?”
“I know I can.”
He advanced on me and snapped out a hand to grasp my elbow. I struggled backwards, twisting to see Manny close in on Mick, a rapid conversation commencing, the words of which I couldn’t hear. They wrenched at the door again then split, boots thudding in their race to find the other way into this room.
My father yanked my arm, dragging me with him to the rear exit of his office. I struggled against my constraint, but he was far stronger than me. He always had been and always would be.
We exited the office and crossed the rear access hall. I tried to drop to the floor, screaming out a protest. My father forced me to my feet and threw me into a lift waiting on the opposite side. I hit the wall and slithered to a crumpled heap.
We descended. The two guards couldn’t reach me in time.
My mind leapt to Connor and his reaction to me being gone.
Connor who, a flash of memory delivered, had a deal with my father. I never had got to the bottom of that.
The mayor straightened his suit in the mirrored wall. “You’ll exit this building calmly, or every detail I have on your murderous boyfriend will be handed over to the chief of police.”
My breathing stilled. “You can’t prove anything. It was years ago.”
His threat to reveal that Phillips’ death had been at Connor’s hands had been part of my reason to stay. It felt like a lifetime ago that I’d had to make that choice.
“Are you really so na?ve? That boy is a killer, Everly. I have evidence of his depravity from then until now. Names, dates, method, and even pictures. I’ll play witness so you can watch how fast he’s imprisoned. You’ll never see him again.”
We reached the ground floor. My father exited with his game face installed once more.
Horror weighed down my trailing footsteps, because of course I followed. He knew everything Connor had revealed to me. How, I wasn’t sure, but I was certain he’d carry out his threat. Connor had called me his, yet it was plain as day that my lack of oversight had just cost me everything.