Chapter 12
It was too late in the day to get a boat out to Liberty Island, so we went back to Sienna’s apartment, and I shut myself in the library bedroom for a while, needing time to decompress.
I lay back on the daybed and stared at the ceiling, my hands folded over my stomach as I tried to get a grip on my emotions.
The Statue of Liberty magnet wasn’t a clue I needed to decipher, not like the Morse code or the underlined letters in the Fabergé book.
That might have been because my mom was running out of time or ideas and needed to make this clue simple, or it might be because we were nearing the end of the scavenger hunt and so needed to pick up the pace. I’d never be able to ask her.
Alice knocked on my door a little while later, and it took a Herculean effort to drag myself off the bed and to the door. She was still wearing her cute dress, but she’d put on wedge sandals and earrings, and there was a guilty expression on her face.
‘Everything okay?’ I asked.
‘Yeah, I’m just going out for a while to meet some friends. Do you want to come?’
The invite was enough to send something sparking through my veins. It was nice to feel wanted. Except I really didn’t feel like I’d be good company tonight, and I knew the effort I’d have to exert to make a good impression with Alice’s friends would completely wipe me out.
‘No, I’m good. Thank you, though. As long as you don’t mind me staying here?’
‘That’s fine,’ she said quickly. ‘I’ll be back in a couple hours.’ She hesitated, then reached out and touched my arm. ‘You really can come with me, you know? I’m not just being polite.’
‘I’m not feeling the most sociable,’ I said with a wry smile. ‘It’s all good. I’ll see you later.’
‘All right. There’s a spare key on the hook by the door if you need it.’
‘I’ll probably just stay here, but thanks.’
I watched Alice leave with a sick feeling in my stomach. I’d declined her request but now I wasn’t sure I wanted to be alone. However, I also didn’t feel I could ask her to stay, and so I said nothing.
Really, there was no need for me to lock myself in my room.
I had friends of my own, though I’d pushed them away after my mom had died, and if I was honest with myself, I was scared to reach out and tell them I wanted them back in my life again.
They’d come to the funeral and had held me while I sobbed, and I still got messages checking in and offering company, but I ignored them all.
Maintaining friendships was the last thing on my mind when I was barely keeping everything else in my life together.
I just hoped they’d still be around when I finally came out the other side.
The apartment felt dangerously empty with Alice gone, and I only lasted twenty minutes before I pulled on my sneakers and borrowed the spare key, carefully locking the door behind me.
Tonight, I wanted answers – something solid that I could use.
The evening had turned a little chilly, so I was relieved I’d put on a jacket before I left. I shoved my hands into my pockets, keeping my head down, and headed into the West Village.
Any time I’d gone to Marcus’s bodega in the past it had been in the middle of the night, and I had a fleeting thought that I had no idea what hours he officially worked.
I wouldn’t normally head back again so soon after my last visit, but a lot had changed in a few days.
I pushed open the door, checked the bodega was empty and flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSED.
‘Kendra,’ Marcus said, and there was something in his tone I couldn’t interpret – a warning, maybe.
‘You’re not expecting anyone else right now?’ I asked instinctively.
He shook his head. ‘You just missed Wilson. Well, not Wilson. He never comes in here himself. One of his people.’
‘Obviously,’ I said drily.
I reached into my pocket for my wallet and slapped a couple of hundreds down.
I was almost out of cash, although I didn’t use it for anything other than bribing information out of Marcus, funnily enough.
But with Walker Antiques still not in business, there were only so many more times I could afford to pay him.
‘What have you got for me?’ I asked, and a muscle under Marcus’s eye twitched.
He was nervous. That was interesting. He was a generally twitchy guy, so I would normally ignore it, but his whole demeanor seemed off today.
‘You need to watch your back, Kendra,’ Marcus said in a low voice.
I swallowed hard and forced myself to maintain eye contact, even as I felt my own nerves start to fizzle.
‘Tell me more,’ I said.
‘One of the Black Wing guys got scooped up. Something about a big heist.’
‘A heist?’ I asked, and all the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
‘I’ve heard he was convinced to do a job for Wilson.’
‘The Black Wing gang doesn’t fuck around with Wilson, though,’ I said, trying to get the gang alliances straight in my head. There were too many fucking criminals in this city.
‘Right,’ Marcus said. ‘That’s why it’s such a big deal. If the guy accepted a job for Wilson, then he’s betrayed his own people. Why would he do that?’
‘Money,’ I murmured
‘Exactly. And lots of it.’
‘So Wilson convinced this guy to switch allegiances,’ I said, ‘and now he’s been arrested?’
‘Yep, and who do you think he’s going to point fingers at?’
Well, Wilson, obviously. I wouldn’t say that out loud, though. It was in my best interests to keep that thought to myself.
‘What was the heist?’ I said, feeling in my gut that it had to be connected to Alice’s grandmother and the break-in.
It seemed like everything that swirled around Wilson at the moment was to do with this jewelry, and I knew the truth about my mom’s death was in there somewhere.
I just had to ask the right questions to the right people.
‘Something big. Big enough to get Wilson hot under the collar.’ Marcus glanced around and lowered his voice again. ‘At least, that’s what the guy who was just here told me. He’s watching you, Kendra.’
An icy trickle ran down my spine.
‘I’d noticed,’ I whispered back, pretending not to be bothered.
That drew a sad, half-smile from Marcus. ‘Be careful. I’d hate for you to end up like –’ He cut himself off quickly.
‘Like?’ I prompted, letting my voice go low, dangerous. Marcus kept his mouth shut. I raised my chin defiantly. ‘What do you know about my mom, Marcus?’
‘Nothing,’ he said quickly, shaking his head.
Liar.
I pressed my hands to the dirty counter and took a few deep breaths, working hard to slow my racing heart and frantic thoughts, even as I glared daggers at Marcus.
Even with no evidence, I had known my mom hadn’t been killed in an accident, and it seemed like other people knew too.
Marcus glanced down at his phone, and I finally snapped. I’d put up with him for the longest time because he gave me information that might be helpful, but he clearly knew something about my mom’s death, and this time I was going to get it out of him.
In a move I’d practiced a hundred times, I reached under my shirt and pulled out the gun. In a split-second, I had it pointed at his head.
‘I can’t fuck around with you any more,’ I said. ‘I need you to tell me what you know.’
Marcus’s face blanched. ‘It’s not that easy, Kendra,’ he said, trying to sound calm, but I could see beads of sweat were starting to form on his forehead.
‘It’s going to have to be that fucking easy,’ I snapped.
He worked his jaw, clearly trying to think of a way to weasel out of this situation, and I flicked off the gun’s safety catch to make my point.
‘Okay!’ he exclaimed. ‘Okay, Kendra. Put the fucking gun down.’
I didn’t move my arm. Not one inch.
‘I sold some intel to Wilson a couple months ago,’ Marcus said, his words tumbling out. ‘It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, but …’
‘Go on,’ I said, feeling sick to my stomach.
‘I got wind that Corrine Walker was looking to flip a case of jewelry that she’d bought from Wilson for a lot more than he’d sold it for.’
‘How did you hear that?’ I asked through gritted teeth.
‘There’s a guy, works at a fancy-pants auction place on Fifth, who lets me know when there are items worth looking at. Well, he’d been watching your mom, and then I passed that intel over to Wilson, and …’
‘And Wilson killed my mom,’ I said, my voice flat.
‘I don’t think he planned to at first. He was following her for days before he confronted her about lowballing him on the jewelry and told her he wanted it back. She said she paid what he’d asked for. So when she refused to give it to him …’
‘He shot her,’ I finished. My hands had gone cold, and I was shaking, but I didn’t lower the gun. Not yet.
‘I had no idea Wilson would do that, Kendra,’ Marcus said in a rush. ‘I swear to God.’
Having it confirmed felt like a punch to the stomach. I forced myself to breathe.
‘Did he do it himself?’ I asked. ‘Or did he outsource his dirty work?’
Marcus gave me a tiny nod. ‘Himself. He’ll kill me too, if he finds out I told you.’
‘Then we both better hope I kill him first.’
I gave Marcus a humorless smile, and flipped the safety back on before shoving the gun into its holster. Marcus watched me, saying nothing, as I stormed back out of the bodega.
Even with my head spinning from the information, I managed to get back to Sienna’s apartment and into bed before Alice got home.
I wasn’t ready to talk to her – I couldn’t tell her what I’d confirmed, and I needed time to absorb the information and decide what to do about it.
I wasn’t sure if there even was anything I could do.
A few weeks ago, this information would have sent me into another spiral of grief and depression, but now I could feel the rage coalescing into a fiery pit in my belly.
I was angry – no, furious – that Wilson had killed my mom, my only parent, the person who I loved most in the world.
I wanted to grab my gun, go to his fancy nightclub and put several bullets in his gut. See how he liked it.