A Week Later #2
Wishing I had some Cheetos, I settled back in my seat for the show, watching as Giulia leaned down and started stroking the dog which, from her wince, immediately bit her.
“Nyx got caught speeding?” Indy queried, her confusion clear.
“Nyx got arrested for speeding,” Giulia clarified.
“I didn’t even know that was possible,” Indy derided. “The guy’s killed dozens of people and the club’s managed to keep his name clean, but he gets a record for fucking speeding? I think I went down the rabbit hole and let me tell you, it’s whacked down here.”
Rachel cleared her throat. “It was a trap.”
“Like a speed trap?” Stone asked, as perplexed as her friend.
“No, like a trap to get him arrested.” Rachel rubbed her brow. “It was, essentially, a game. Aidan O’Donnelly Sr. wanted to prove that Nyx could be caught red-handed and he could make the charges disappear.”
“How was he caught? Killing a pedophile?” Tiffany questioned, her forehead furrowing.
“Killing a rapist.” Rachel’s tone fell flat. “I’m sure we’re all in agreement that the bastard deserved to die.”
“Tak,” Amara intoned grimly. “We very do much agree. Bastard need to rot.”
“Well, he is,” Rachel remarked. “He’s rotting as we speak.”
“You mean to tell me that Nyx was caught killing a rapist, and all he got charged for was speeding? Did I get that right?”
“You got that right,” Rachel confirmed. “Reckless driving and excessive speeding, to be precise. Insane, I know, but true, nonetheless. All because O’Donnelly wanted to prove he could protect Nyx from jail.”
Indy blew out a breath. “That kind of power is insane.”
Almost as insane as the man himself.
Not that I said that. I just kept watching the show.
“It is,” Rachel agreed before she warned, “There’s no certainty with this situation, Giulia. It could still go wrong.”
“The moment you told me that my dad had raped you, I knew what Nyx felt,” Giulia said flatly. “If I weren’t pregnant, if it weren’t for this kid, I’d be going with him.”
“You’re nuts,” Indy rasped. “If a man has that much power, there’s no saying what he could do. And what if he has a falling out with Nyx? What then? He could twist everything around. All the evidence he’s thrown out could make a miraculous reappearance—”
“No, that won’t happen.”
“How the fuck do you know?”
I turned to stare at her. “Because I’ll make sure it doesn’t.”
Indy’s frown faded. “Why would you do that?”
I got to my feet. “Because he’s family.”
Not sticking around for a discussion, I bypassed the feral dog, strode out of the room, and headed into the kitchen.
Hungry, I grabbed some Cheetos, but I didn’t return to the meeting, just stayed looking out of the window onto the pool.
It was a beautiful property, but soulless.
A little like me.
My cell phone buzzed.
Conor: You’re quiet. What’s going on?
Me: Not much.
Conor: Bull.
Me: I need you to promise me that whatever shit your dad tangles Nyx up in, we can get him out of it.
Conor: Of course we can. You’re not really worried about that, are you?
I stuffed my mouth with Cheetos.
Me: I can’t have his kid being raised without a dad, Conor.
Conor: It won’t come to that. I know what you’re willing to do for family, Star. But it isn’t necessary.
Me: Just like it won’t come to you standing in the window to make a sniper think you’re your brother, you mean?
Conor: The glass was bulletproof. I was safe.
Me: Pfft.
Conor: Don’t ‘Pfft’ me. You know I’m right. You know I was safe. Helluva lot safer than you with your ass on top of a goddamn skyscraper. The wind could have blown you off.
My lips twitched.
Me: Have you ever read Roald Dahl?
Conor: No.
Me: Shame. That sounds like something that’d happen in one of his books.
Conor: I doubt it. I just googled him. Skyscrapers weren’t as massive in his day. BUT, Nyx is safe. Dad means him no harm, and trust me, those aren’t words I type lightly.
Conor: Never thought I’d see the fucking day where Dad meant someone NO harm.
Me: Is it all set for Friday?
Conor: Yup.
Me: Good.
Conor: What’s going on with you?
Me: Nothing. I’m eating Cheetos.
Conor: That wasn’t what I meant.
Me: GTG.
I didn’t just get out of the conversation because I didn’t want to talk about what was going on with me; I heard footsteps in the hall.
When I moved away from the window facing the pool, I felt the buzz of another message from him but I ignored it.
Rachel, unsurprisingly, was the person in the hall. “What did you want to speak with me about?”
“Audrey Diane Linchester Newton.”
She blinked at me. “Mouthful.”
“Big one,” I agreed.
“Who is she?”
“The daughter of the president of Cayman Credit Group.”
Her brows shot up. “Okay. What about her?”
“There’s a sex tape of her I need to leverage.”
It was interesting watching her go into a deep freeze. Her soft lips flattened, and her eyes narrowed into slits. “Why?”
Her disapproval was clear. Not that I cared.
“Cayman Credit is home to one of the Sparrows’ bank accounts. Another of their accounts in Switzerland routes money to them, and from there, I believe it goes into individual bank accounts. I’d like to know who the recipients are for those transactions.”
“Your intent?”
“To hand them over to the US Attorney.”
“The evidence will be inadmissible in a courtroom.”
“That’s what Savannah Daniels is for. She can put the names out in public, where they can be hung, drawn, and quartered, and the government can go to work in taking the individuals down once they pull their heads out of their asses. Do you have a problem with that?”
I could pretty much see the thoughts racing behind her eyes.
She hated this.
Did she think I was a goddamn fan?
Did she think I wanted to leverage a woman’s pain, her humiliation, her suffering, her body for this?
Her hands balled into fists at her sides. “I hate this.”
We shared a look.
“They need to be destroyed.”
“So we’ll destroy Audrey instead?”
“Collateral damage,” was all I said, aware I sounded like a bitch, but I was trained for this.
Trained to not care.
That was what made it all the more bittersweet—I did care. Like cracks appearing on the top of a frozen lake, humanity was starting to slip into my nature.
It was why I was here.
I could handle intimidation tactics, didn’t care if my life was endangered, but she’d threatened Katina. That I couldn’t abide.
Her nostrils flared. “If you do this, I want results.”
“I’ll get them.”
She stared at me until I felt the frost connecting us both. That was when she ground out, “Do it.”