Chapter 36 #2
“Kept asking if you were together, whether Harry’s fucking you, if you have any contact with him. It started when you joined the Circle – b-but I didn’t tell them anything. I swear!”
“What did they do to you?” I ask.
He’s trembling so bad the sofa shakes under him, his fingers digging into the fabric as if it’s the only thing anchoring him.
“They t-tied me up. Beat me. Broke my ribs.” He claws for breath with each confession. “Forced me to overdose a-again and again. Then he’d make me withdraw. I didn’t say anything, but he didn’t care.”
Gigi’s face pales, staring at Andy like she’s piecing it all together.
“He said he’d kill me if I didn’t spill. I-I just … I wanted—”
Cries pour from his throat, rocking his body. Gigi’s turns to me with teary eyes, pleading.
“I’m not letting Richard get to you again. You stay here as long as you need. No one knows about this place other than us.”
His red-rimmed eyes meet mine.
“You have my word.”
He stares at me for nearly a minute before he nods, his body sagging with a mixture of relief and exhaustion.
Poppy reaches out to squeeze Andy’s hand. “We’re all in this together now.”
“No one’s laying a finger on you,” I promise.
Mia suggests, “Maybe you should lie down?”
She’s the first to his side, softening her grip on his arm. “Get some rest. We’ll handle the rest out here.”
I rise to my feet, helping guide Andy up with steady hands. Despite everything, he still trembles at my touch. Mia leads him down the hall where the bedroom awaits. His body sags with each step.
The room falls into a silence thick with rage. My fists clench so hard they turn numb, a fire building in my chest. I want to rip Richard apart, feel his blood on my hands— No. I will rip Richard apart, slowly, torturously, so he feels every inch of abuse.
I growl under my breath, “I’m gonna fucking kill him.”
If he even thinks about laying a hand on anyone else, I’ll fucking rampage.
This ends now.
Gigi presses her palms to her face, taking a much-needed moment of relief, then retracts her hands as if thinking better of it.
Our eyes meet.
She looks … different. I look at her hand, the ring specifically, and how it swivels on her finger with the slightest movement. Christ, how much weight has she lost? Or was Jamie incapable of choosing a ring that fit her well?
Both thoughts make me even more murderous than I was a moment ago.
I should yell. I should demand the truth and drag it out of her piece by piece.
Mia appears back in the hallway, her eyes glassed over. She storms towards the kitchen counter, slamming her hands against it. Her voice is lethal. “How do we get rid of this prick Richard?”
She’s right. For Andy’s sake, and for all the sadistic things Richard is capable of, we need this to work out.
“What are we going to do when Dan cracks the encryption?” Poppy asks. “Does anyone know what we’re expecting? Names? Images? Recordings?”
“It could be anything,” Gigi says. “But it’s got to be pretty bad for Richard to send us on a heist to retrieve it.”
I blink. “Wait.”
The hard drive from Paolo Ricci’s heist – the one where I took a bullet. Are you fucking kidding me right now? That’s what this is all about? I look to Dan’s laptop to be sure, and lo and behold, the rectangular black object stares back at me.
“You went to Mia?” I ask. “I could’ve helped.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, but you should have told me,” I scoff, oblivious to how bitter I sound when the anger is so intense. “But of course, you’re engaged to the enemy. It makes a lot of sense.”
Her nostrils flare. “I want Richard gone. That hasn’t changed.”
“That’s not a proper answer.”
“It’s the one I’m giving you.”
She’s still impossible. Still herself.
“Rah,” Dan mutters.
We turn to him slowly. He lifts his head momentarily but then returns to the computer screen.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Mia says, “but can we go back to you saying that Richard is your father?”
Gigi sighs as if she doesn’t want to revisit the topic. But, fortunately for Mia, we’ve got plenty of time. The sweat on Dan’s brow is still building.
I lean back into the sofa, picking up parts of the conversation – Jack’s involvement with Richard, Maria signing her life away. She must be nearing the part now where I—
Mia glares at me, narrowing her eyes.
Ah, there it is.
Though Gigi doesn’t stop there. The mention of Greg turns Mia’s glare sympathetic. I turn my head away, and just like that, the room shifts.
We get back to business, Dan’s fingers flying across the keyboard. We watch in uneasy silence, the air still thick with suspense.
“Almost there,” he mutters.
Mia stands to the side of Dan, arms crossed, her eyes not straying from the screen. Poppy steps to his other side, and Gigi remains seated, head ducked down, hands clasped together.
Dan hammers in a final sequence, and the laptop beeps sharply. He leans back, stretching his arms above his head.
Mia and Poppy’s expressions morph simultaneously, their brows drawn tight.
“What the fuck is that?” Poppy asks. “Are those coordinates?”
Dan sighs irritably, clicking a few buttons. “Nothing Google Maps can’t handle.”
The screen blares brightly as he pastes them in.
That dreaded silence comes back with a vengeance, then Poppy gawks. “Paris?”
Mia insists, “You must have it wrong.”
“Wrong?” He scoffs, offended. “I can assure you it’s not wrong.”
I shake my head. “Richard has no ties to Paris.”
“Could he be expanding—? Oh!” Mia perks up. “Maybe he’s got a soft spot for croissants. That’s where you could have got it from.”
Gigi glares at her, saying nothing.
The room erupts in a chaotic mess of voices, everyone talking over each other, throwing out theories. I’m trying to wrap my head around it, my mind racing through everything I know about Richard. It doesn’t click.
Gigi’s face is a mask of confusion. Then I catch her expression shift, like she’s pieced something together. Out of nowhere, it hits like a flash of memory so vivid it knocks the air from her lungs.
“What is it?” I ask.
She swallows. “Nothing.”
Mia’s voice softens gently. “Wait … That’s where your mum …”
When Gigi feels the weight of the room staring at her, she sighs. “My mum went all the time – it was her thing. She’d always say there’s no better time than spring in Paris. She’d say it a lot, actually.”
Mia gestures towards me. “Like when this bastard broke in.”
I nod dismissively. “Cheers.”
Gigi ignores us both. “Maybe I should go handle it myself. What if she was trying to tell me something? Maybe it’s a sign.”
It’s a possibility, for sure. But going all that way in the hope of spotting a sign? I doubt it. I don’t dare crush her spirits.
“I could go with you,” Poppy pipes up. “You need to have someone there with you. Richard won’t be happy about you going alone, and he thinks I’m still on his side.”
Gigi nods.
“I’m going,” I say without thinking.
She freezes for a beat, her expression shifting from surprise to fear.
“Wait – this could be a good idea,” Mia says. Finally, we agree on something. “He brings the muscle.”
I smirk. “She’s not wrong.”
Gigi opens her mouth, thinks better of it, and shuts it.
“There is one pretty major problem with your plan …” Poppy drawls. “And it starts with the person who put that ring on her finger.”
“Who – Jamie?” I say his name dismissively despite how much it makes me want to rinse my mouth out with Dettol. “He shouldn’t be concerned.”
Poppy raises her brow sceptically. “Really?”
“I feel nothing towards him,” I confess. “Nothing other than a deep, bone-carving hatred.”
Dan snorts under his breath.
“You, Poppy, and Gigi will go,” Mia says. “It’s currently April, and if we’re relying on this spring theory, there’s no reason you can’t go … well … now.”
As the conversation buzzes round us, I sweep my eyes over the room.
Poppy’s demanding more time to conduct a plan.
Mia’s saying, for Andy’s sake, we need to go soon.
Dan says nothing – his work here is done.
And Gigi … her attention is elsewhere, as if her mind has drifted to a memory, perhaps one of her mum, the confusion about Paris deepening into something personal.
Was Maria keeping secrets from her daughter?
Her chin lifts just a fraction, her gaze intense but silent. Paris will be the first time in a long time we’ve been in close proximity.
I tilt my head, trying to read through her fruitless attempt at trying to remain calm. Then I order, “Everybody out.”
The room hesitates.
“I’m sorry if you all thought that was a question.”
Mia leaves first, saying she needs to get supplies for Andy. Dan follows, muttering about how he isn’t paid enough for this. Poppy doesn’t look back, just nods at Gigi on her way out.
Gigi doesn’t watch them leave. Doesn’t look at me either. She stays in her seat, perfectly still.
And just like that, it’s just the two of us.
After a minute, she asks, “Why are you coming?”
“Maybe I always suspected something.”
“You suspected something?” She blinks at me. “Yet you never said anything.”
“Communication isn’t our strong suit. Wouldn’t you agree, princess?”
She shakes her head. “Don’t call me that.”
“Why not?” I run my tongue along the inside of my cheek. “You used to beg me to call you worse.”
She laughs bitterly. “You’re delusional if you think this trip changes anything.”
I fucking love how I can still rile her up so easily. And I’m going to keep doing it. There’s a weakness there for me, even after all this time.
She rises to her feet, stepping forwards with a confidence I know she doesn’t have, as if she thinks she’s laying down the rules. Cute.
“When we get there, we work together. No sabotage.” She lifts her chin defiantly. “And no flirting.”
A grin slips. “Now that’s asking the impossible.”
She almost smiles. Almost. But it dies before it fully forms. “We work, we get the dirt on Richard,” she says, “and we get out.”
I narrow my eyes. “Fine.”
“Fine.”
“But …”
She freezes as I brush a lock of hair from her cheek with the backs of my fingers, trailing them down along her jaw.
“It doesn’t mean I can’t long for you.”
And I realise, through all my fury that she chose another man, I still want her. Even if she’s the ruin waiting at the end of all this.