Chapter 28
Lovelyn
With a tight belly, I climbed the steps in Divide, heading to the VIP suite where I was meeting Mila. ‘devils’ by DashaDay thumped through the air, and facts and figures raced through my mind after a day spent researching, along with a countdown that was getting harder to ignore.
This morning, squirreled away in Kane’s room, I’d worked on the trusted companies list Mila had sent me.
I’d narrowed it down from six to three, based on one not being formed early enough, another having been bought out entirely a few years ago—long enough ago that the grandfather would’ve known and switched them out.
The last had financial troubles in the same timescale.
Then I went to town on those remaining. I’d pored over their finances, their operations, and their connections to Marchant Haulage.
I’d found something, and yet…
I hadn’t completed the job. The slide into numbness and misery that had been threatening for weeks had taken hold, and the moment I’d told Mila what I’d discovered, I’d hide away. I didn’t want to let my friend down, but I was struggling.
I needed to break into pieces in private.
At the top of the steps, the bouncer made way, his eyes twinkling with the smile I guessed was underneath his skull-print bandanna. Though there was no way Kane could be back by now, as a one-line text during the afternoon had told me he was still on his mission, I looked for him in the shadows.
He wasn’t here, and neither was Mila on first glance. Only a few patrons here and there, as the club had just opened. A group on the VIP suite’s dance floor, a lone man in a black-and-silver booth with the club’s skull logo in hot pink.
But there was a familiar face behind the bar. I forced a smile for the now-pink-haired bartender who leaned forward on her elbows.
Molly grinned big. “You!”
She’d helped me unlock Dixie’s tablet, while Kane, stalking me, had taken out her unpleasant customer. So much had changed since then, and not just her cute hair colour.
I perched on a bar stool and tried to remember how to be the bright and fun version of myself she’d met. “I wondered when I’d see you.”
“This time without a customer for you to scare off for me. What’s your poison?”
Molly spread her hands out to showcase her bar.
Her appearance was skeleton crew to the core, with jet-black roots to her bold pink hair.
Tonight, she had on a pair of black shorts with a tied-off skeleton crew t-shirt, her stomach and thighs bared.
She had no problem flaunting her curves, no apparent worry over the fact her belly wasn’t flat.
When she turned to grab me a cocktail menu, I spotted a tattoo up her spine.
Molly was badass.
From the menu, I chose a mocktail, wanting a clear head for my chat with Mila. And so I didn’t risk my emotions overwhelming me too soon. One sniff of alcohol and I’d break down.
“Make that two.”
The woman herself landed on a seat at my side, Convict alongside her. He kissed her hard, muttered something, then left her with me.
“Mila, this is Molly.” I made the introduction.
Mila stuck her hand across the bar to shake. “Nice to meet you. Does Lovelyn’s drink have alcohol in it?”
Molly chirped, “No, but your version can do?”
“I’ll love you forever. I need it after the day I’ve had.”
Molly snickered and turned away to make our drinks. Though I had so much to share, I gave Mila the floor first.
“How did the intimidation racket go?”
“Cathartic, scary, you name it. We made it around fourteen houses. I can’t even tell you how exhausted I am. Cassie and Riordan needed a minute, so they’ll be down later, but let’s see if I can get my thoughts in order.”
My friend took a steadying breath.
“To each of my relatives’ faces, I asked them how long they’d known that Marchant Haulage had a darker side to its business practices. All denied any knowledge, but with one couple in their seventies, the woman burst into tears and fled. Her husband yelled at us then kicked us out.”
“Let me guess, they were among the six from the orange list?”
The ones I deeply suspected were in on the Marchant secret.
Mila nodded. “Yep. The wife is a cousin to my grandfather, and they operated an industrial estate. What’s the odds they allowed the business to use it to hide people?
The Kingsleys made a fuss about their post office being above reproach.
The Marchant-Smythes were most telling. They’re the ones who’ve complained loudest about the company not paying out their monthly stipend.
They barely reacted to my accusation beyond a token denial.
Both dead-eyed me. That’s weird, isn’t it?
They didn’t question where that information had come from. No shock or surprise.”
“Very telling.”
Both of us paused when Molly set down our drinks, a waitress grabbing her attention immediately after so we gained privacy once more.
Mila took a long sip. “Exactly. Then it’s got to be true. I just don’t have the evidence.”
“What would we do with it if we did? Hand it over to the police?”
Slowly, she shook her head. “I’d like to. They deserve to be punished, but all we have is hostility and a filing system. Any detective would laugh that out of town. I’m just glad I had my time with each of them before the news broke. It’s live now.”
I pulled a sympathetic smile. “Are you okay?”
“I think so? I caught a few headlines which reported the deaths and the fact the women were found on a ship owned by an old family firm, but I couldn’t read any more.
Not if I want to sleep tonight.” Her voice tightened.
“The solicitors asked me to draft a statement on behalf of the company, and I started while Con was driving me between houses, but then tore it up and told them to handle it. What am I supposed to say, that the people trafficking was a complete unknown? That the facts aren’t the facts?
They’ve already arrested the ship’s captain, the crew, and some of the dock workers.
Someone will spill, and no one will believe that any Marchant is shocked by it. They’ll think us all complicit.”
I gave her arm a squeeze, but my mind went to Kane, out in the dark somewhere. He hadn’t wanted to be part of this, and that made me want to delve even deeper into the mysteries to protect him and Mila.
If I wasn’t on the verge of emotional collapse.
Down on the main floor of the club, the DJ spoke over the music, announcing that the next weekend would see the game played at the warehouse.
The crowd roared, and I cringed more into my shell.
The predator-prey fun they operated in their basement was a version of what Kane and I did together, but I couldn’t get excited about it.
My mind was elsewhere, and the vibrant celebration of life felt almost offensive.
My need to hide was only getting stronger.
I gripped the edges of my chair. “What about Darcy? Did anyone know her?”
“No one from the orange folders gave me anything. Even those who’d been at the meeting claimed no knowledge. Cassie was great. She made it clear that they had to hold that line when the police or any reporters came calling. She can be scary when she wants to.”
I managed a faint smile. Mila continued.
“The green folder families knew less and were further away from the business, except for one very old relative who said he’d once been a mentor to my grandfather.
He complained that my grandfather had raised his sons badly.
One having kids out of wedlock and the other living a playboy lifestyle.
He said something about my grandfather training up two girls to run his business.
Except there was no one before me. I thought he might have had Darcy in his head and mixed us up, but he couldn’t tell me a name and got confused when I gently pushed him on it. ”
“Is it possible they trained Darcy before you? Then she ran for some reason and became the Dixie we all know and love?”
“It’s hard to believe that. How could so many people be kept to silence?
I was at my grandparents’ side from age fourteen.
If my sister had done the same, that would’ve been just a few years before.
Then again, the more we dig, the more secrets are coming out of the woodwork, so perhaps anything is possible.
” She drained her drink. “I’d hoped the day would make me feel better after months of the family harassing me.
A full circle moment of being their bitch and taking my power back, my chance to see them eye to eye before the news stole my thunder. But it was a fail.”
My pulse skipped. “It wasn’t a fail. You protected your sister. You did good. But so did I. I uncovered something in the trusted company research.”
“You worked out who they are?”
“More than that. I have their names, their CEOs, and I’m starting on another more important piece of information.” I left a dramatic pause. “Their investors.”
Mila inched back, her forehead lining. “Their investors? Wait, start with the names.”
From my bag, I brought out my laptop and showed her each in turn. Mila typed them into her phone. “I’m sending the list to our group so everyone can see.”
Mila: The companies my grandfather trusted to vote on his business if the worst happened to him are: Sullivan Property Solutions (landlords) – owner Peter Sullivan.
Harford and Tien (advisors to government bodies) – owner Denise Harford.
And Debrock Finances (money lenders to rich people, we think) – owner Paul Debrock.
She sent the message then regarded the list. “I know all their names. My grandfather had a tight circle. Talk to me about the investors part.”
My muted pulse blipped. “I only just discovered the connection so need to delve deeper, but Sullivan Property Solutions has a majority investor whose name is Marchant.”
Her mouth fell open. “Which Marchant?”
“I only know their initial is P.”
“Not my grandfather. His name was Austin. But there’s probably half a dozen others it could be.”