Chapter 48
C assie
My brothers filed into the apartment, Shade and Everly with them. Everly hugged me carefully. Genevieve followed, and I whispered something in her ear. She nodded and disappeared with Arran.
“What did you ask for?”
I peeked up at Riordan. With my genius impulse to tie him to me, literally, we now couldn’t be more than two feet apart. “I want my Skeleton Girls Detective Agency papers. We’re hunting a killer again.”
He frowned but circled the couch with me. We gave it up to Everly and Shade, and I sat on Riordan’s lap on the floor, my brothers slumming it with us.
I patted Rio’s knee, whispering among the chatter, “Good little armchair.”
He put his lips next to my ear. “Stop wriggling or I’m going to be in trouble.”
I ground lightly into him.
He stifled a groan. “You make me feral.”
“Good, then my work here is done.”
At my giggle, Jamieson shot me a look of disdain.
I scowled back. “No mean looks from ye, fire boy. Ye almost killed me tonight.”
Instant shame sank over him. He hung his head. “I know. Sorry doesn’t cut it.”
I tutted. “Wait until Lottie finds out.”
He pulled a face. “She already called when I was outside. Our next family meeting is going to go off.”
Riordan hugged both arms around me. His touch and the warmth of my family being here gave me the boost I needed to own the shite I’d been through today.
Genevieve and Arran returned with the paperwork. I rifled through it, talking as I sorted. “We now know that Bronson isn’t the killer of these women.” I placed the victim papers out one by one.
As I spoke, Riordan took his keys from his pocket and pried at the handcuffs on my wrist.
“How do we know that?” he asked.
“Ye haven’t heard about Dixie?”
He tensed up. “Don’t tell me…?”
“She survived. Only just, though. She had surgery to repair her throat.” My voice cracked.
Riordan kissed my cheek. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
Across the circle, Genevieve shuddered. “I called the hospital this evening. Dixie woke up in the recovery ward. That’s good news considering what she suffered. She won’t be able to talk for a while, though.”
She didn’t say never. I held on to that and kept going.
“I was kidnapped from outside the hospital this afternoon. They knocked me out, and I woke in a cupboard with a bag over my head. When they came for me, I played dead, and they carried me to a cellar room and dumped me on the floor in front of Red who was holding court like a king on a throne.”
I interlaced my free hand with Riordan’s and held Arran’s gaze. “By Moniqua and Lonnie.”
Everyone reacted, swearing, or their jaws dropping in shock.
Arran stilled. “Lonnie?”
I inclined my head. “Even with my eyes mostly closed, I saw the way he watched her, like she was special to him. Which makes sense for why he betrayed ye. What they didn’t know was I could hear everything being said in that room before they even took me in. Moniqua claimed she knew who the killer was.”
Everly’s eyes rounded. “Who did she say?”
“She didn’t. The explosion went off, and half the room, including Red, was buried under a pile of bricks. I was carried out by someone else.”
While Jamieson explained the timed explosive he’d used, I snuck a glance at Arran then Shade. They needed to know who helped me, but it was kinder to give them time to process it without everyone looking on.
I took a steadying breath. “There’s a step before that I’m missing. Arran, how secure is your office?”
“On its own, not very. We use a noise-cancelling device in meetings.”
“A what? Why didn’t I know about this?”
“It’s my fucking office, Cass.”
“I went in there to have a private phone call. Someone listened in and used what they heard to break me and Rio up.” Another factor closed in on me, pieces of a puzzle taking shape. “I think they also used that information to lure me out of the hospital. I had a text message.”
My mouth dried, but I started again, focusing on Sin. “It was apparently from my birth mother, still alive, and texting me on my birthday. She asked me to call her. A minute later and I was bagged.”
His big, so-familiar face softened in compassion. “I know you’ve always wanted answers, but the woman died a long time ago. We have her death certificate.”
I dropped my head and nodded. “I know. I still believed it, though. How delusional.”
He reached for my hand. Riordan kissed my hair. Arran muttered about getting my key back.
The moment passed, and I regarded the pieces of paper in front of me. “Moniqua worked out who the killer was, which means we can, too.”
I wouldn’t be outsmarted by that skank.
“Do you think she died in the church?” Genevieve asked.
I considered what I’d seen. “Most people were trapped. Red died for certain because he had his back to the wall that collapsed. He was buried, and the bricks blocked the door. If his henchmen and the others found another way out, they didn’t take the route I did, and I didn’t see anyone stumbling outside, did ye?”
Everyone shook their heads.
Shade sighed. “Kenney will recover the bodies tomorrow and give us more intel.”
“We can’t rule out that others survived, but I’m fucking glad you did,” Arran told me.
I cocked my head at him. “Aw, look at ye, finally having discovered emotions. Good job.”
The soft expression in his eyes dissolved back into his typical scowl.
I grinned then returned my gaze to the Skeleton Girls Detective Agency papers, one arm back as Riordan continued his attempt to release us from our handcuffs. “What am I missing that she saw? The information has to be here, doesn’t it?”
The person climbing through the car. The fact the killer hid their identity at every stage. That was another clue, wasn’t it?
“They were recognisable,” I said slowly. “Nimble enough to scramble through a car. Someone smaller? But strong enough to manhandle bodies?”
I held up our suspect list.
Shade took it from me. “We’ll bring them all in. Every single one who’s still alive.”
I sat taller. “I love that plan. The next time I see Dixie, I want to tell her we caught her attacker.”
Genevieve leaned to see the paper. “So our list is the mayor, sorry Everly, the councillors, Alisha’s name should never have been on there, so I’m striking that out. Moniqua and her cousin, Don, who are both probably dead, Red, who just had a building land on him, and Bronson, and we all know what happened to him.”
I curled my lip at Shade, still not over the fact that he’d killed that arsehole and I hadn’t. “Is Piers still around?”
“Saved him for ye.”
I brightened. “Aw, thanks. He should be questioned.”
He chuffed a laugh. “If he’s still able to talk.”
“Also we considered Kenney, so grab the cop, and lastly, Convict,” Genevieve completed the list.
“It still could be someone else, a wild card known to Moniqua but not us,” Everly mused.
She and Shade discussed it between them.
Genevieve interlaced her fingers with Arran’s and squeezed his hand. He murmured something for her alone, the two of them sharing a moment.
It was comfort, because he believed Convict had died at Bronson’s hands. My heart sank.
Arran’s gaze settled on me. “Who pulled you out?”
I winced. There were two unpleasant conversations to be had, so it might as well be now. “I need to talk to Genevieve in private, for which ye should probably be there, and then I’ll bring Shade into the conversation to answer that question. Follow me.”
Along with Riordan as my quiet, constant support, and kind-of prisoner, I led them to the far side of the room, to where the city lights spread out beyond the arched, brick-lined window.
I centred on Genevieve. “I’m really sorry to tell ye this, but the conversation I overheard before Lonnie took me into the room was between Red and your father.”
Her mouth rounded. “My dad was there?”
“He put himself forward as Bronson’s replacement and had this whole speech where he listed the murders and claimed he was responsible.”
Shock widened her eyes. Arran ran an arm around her, and Riordan muttered a quiet swearword behind me.
“Could…?” She swallowed and tried again. “Could he have been telling the truth?”
I’d already considered and dismissed the idea. “He’s as much the killer as Sin is a ballerina. He listed the murders like he was reciting it from an article. It was clearly a ploy for attention.”
“That’s why he had those papers in his flat,” Riordan said.
Genevieve inclined her head, sorrow hanging heavy over her. “We went to try to find him, and he had newspaper clippings all over his coffee table and a knife, as well. It makes sense now. He was rehearsing so he could get a job. Stupid, stupid man. Do you think he, you know…?”
I got the end of her sentence without her saying it. She wanted to know if he’d died. I gave her a gentle smile. “I don’t know for certain, but he was standing the other side of Red. I’m really sorry.”
Arran kissed her forehead, and Riordan pulled her into a hug, his hand held back by the cuffs sliding to enclose mine in such a sweet move it hurt my heart.
It bolstered me for the other half of the bad news I had to give.
When Genevieve had collected herself, I gestured for Shade to join us. The enforcer strolled over, one hand to his tattooed throat.
I looked between him and Arran. “The person who pulled me out of the destroyed room was Convict.”
Twin expressions of pain and emotion rippled over their faces. It socked me in the gut, too. The memory of the broken man. His certainty over his fate and all he’d still managed to do for me.
Shade recovered first. “But Bronson told us he was dead.”
“He lied. It looked like he’d been through hell, though.”
“Did he talk to ye?”
“Hardly anything. I was half unconscious so I wasn’t sure who he was until after.”
Arran wheeled away, concealing whatever he couldn’t keep inside. Genevieve went with him, and he embraced her.
He buried his face in her hair for a moment, taking comfort that I knew everyone in the room was noticing. My brothers had always said that Arran resisted emotional connections like they would scald him. I hated that I had to break this one for him.
He returned to me. “What happened after he got you out?”
“He pushed me through a hole he’d smashed through a coal chute in a narrow passageway but said he was too injured to climb out after. I think I passed out again, because the next thing I knew, Rio was calling my name.”
“We don’t know he’s dead,” Arran decided.
Shade nodded. “No body, no grieving.”
I liked that. The hope, even if it was futile.
Arran’s phone buzzed. He took in the screen, and his mouth fell open. His gaze came to me. “After you told me about Lonnie, I messaged the security team. Guess who just turned up downstairs?”
Shock and delight filled me. “He’s alive, and he came back?”
“The dumb fuck did. Manny put him in my office with a guard but has given him no indication that we know what he did.”
The absolute idiot. God, the opportunity this gave us.
I twisted to Shade. “He’s mine.”
The enforcer started to speak then sighed. “Fine.”
“I need to fetch a weapon.”
Riordan grumbled, “And I need someone to unlock us. If we’re going down there, I can’t protect you as well with one hand tied.”
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled the key I’d taken from Kenney and unlocked the handcuffs with a clink of metal.
He gawked at me and rubbed his wrist. “I’ve been trying to pick that lock for the past ten minutes and you’ve had the key the whole time?”
I made big eyes at him. “I wanted ye to stay close. So shoot me.”
With a gripe about using the cuffs on me later, he captured my face with both hands for a rough kiss that told me we had so much left to talk about, then kept with me as I collected my blade from the bedroom.
With Arran and Shade, we left the apartment, emerging from the lift to find my brothers had descended the stairs to come along for the ride. I rolled my eyes but travelled to the office. It was weird with no music pounding through the wall. Arran must’ve closed the clubs to secure the warehouse for an evening of lighting up the city.
Inside the office, Lonnie lounged against a wall, Mick perched on the desk.
Lonnie lifted his gaze and locked on to me. His smirk fell.
I didn’t wait for the lies, reaching around him to slice my blade across the back of one knee. He went down like a fallen oak, screaming and clutching his injury.
I kicked him onto his back and placed my boot on his throat. “How did ye get out?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t even there.”
Leaning in, I drew a line across his face with the dull edge of my blade.
Lonnie went very still, only trembling as he clutched his ruined leg, blood blooming across his jeans and dripping to the floor.
“Do I need to repeat myself?”
“I crawled down a tunnel to the crypt and busted out a grate.”
“Was anyone with ye?”
“No. There was too much smoke to see.”
“Why did ye help Moniqua?”
“I didn’t.”
“Fucking liar. Ye betrayed Arran and everyone on your crew for that miserable cunt?” I hooked the blade under his chin.
Lonnie’s terrified eyes leaked tears. “Okay. I did. She isn’t a bad person. You have to believe me. All she wanted was security and a good job. I said I’d help her get it.”
“Did she tell ye who the Deadwater murderer is?”
“No. I didn’t even know that was part of her plan. Only that she wanted to impress Red which involved collecting you from the hospital.”
Collecting? I locked my jaw. He’d knocked me out then took me into enemy territory without a second thought. “Is she the killer?”
“Of course not. She’s just a girl.”
Moron. “Did ye plant notes in the warehouse for me and Alisha to find?”
His focus flew to someone behind me, Arran, I guessed. “No. You know I respected Alisha. I would never have hurt her like that.”
Oh, fuck this guy. “Yet ye were willing to throw me to the wolves.” I peered over my shoulder. “Anyone got any more questions?”
The lack of responses was enough.
I twisted back to Lonnie. “It’s one thing ye double-crossing the skeleton crew, but it’s another thing entirely crossing me. I don’t forgive and I don’t forget. What do ye think Red would have done with me?”
His lips worked soundlessly. He paled further.
“Ransomed me back to Arran? Sold me off? Or maybe passed me around for his gang to have a go at?”
“You’d have got out eventually,” he blabbered.
Anger swarmed me. He’d happily given me over to be raped just so he could get his dick wet.
“I think different. Red was there to appoint a second-in-command. From that person, he’d need a binding gesture.”
Lonnie’s attempts to interrupt faded. He trembled.
“Red would have killed me,” I informed him. “Which meant ye walked me straight into a death sentence. So I really need to stop fucking around.”
Raising the knife, I plunged it into his chest, putting all my power behind it to pierce where it needed to go. People assumed the rib cage would protect the chest, but those suckers cracked like twigs under the right pressure. Lonnie gave an anguished scream, and I freed the blade with my boot to his torso and landed in another hit.
“Angle it deeper then slice up. Don’t saw.” Shade quietly guided my hand.
My next hit sank further in, delivering the killing blow.
Lonnie’s howls turned to a gurgle. I wiped the blade on his shirt and stepped back, watching the life fade from him.
I couldn’t let him live. Not only because of what he’d done to me, but for the fact that he was now an enemy to the skeleton crew. He’d grieve Moniqua and want revenge. Lonnie had signed his own death warrant.
When his body slumped, I breathed a sigh. “Well, that was an underwhelming first kill. He didn’t even put up a fight.”
“Is anyone else scared?” Shade quipped behind me.
“Ridiculously turned on,” Riordan grouched.
My brothers made sounds of disgust.
I moved straight into Riordan’s arms so he could hold me close, careful to keep my bloodied hand away so I didn’t stain him. That didn’t stop us needing each other close. I hadn’t voiced my fear over my kidnap until now, but I could sense it had shaken him up, too.
To the tune of Arran arranging clear-up with Manny and bitching about my ruining his office floor, I let Riordan lead me away.
Back upstairs, Everly had brought food down from her apartment, and I washed the blood from my skin then fell on the pizza slices, suddenly ravenous.
Between bites, I thanked her. “I can’t remember the last thing I ate.”
“I figured. Riordan, you need to eat as well.”
She indicated from her brother to the food.
A small smile curved his lips. “Best sister award goes to you, Ev.”
Genevieve scrunched up a piece of paper and tossed it at him. “Hey, my dad died tonight, useless idiot that he was. You have to be nice to me.”
His lips twitched. “My leather jacket still has holes in it from you stealing, I mean borrowing it. Just saying.”
She growled and threw something harder. Then she closed her eyes and released a sob. Riordan hugged her and ruffled her hair. She batted him away and swiped at the tears, regaining her control as fast as she’d lost it while her brother joined me in devouring the pizza.
I liked this. I liked where I was living, and the fact my family was here. I loved Riordan and needed him to stay, right here in the centre of where his family was.
When we were finished, and everyone now knew what I’d done downstairs to the traitor, I pulled Riordan aside.
In our bedroom, I closed the door.
Backing him to the bed, I sat him down and stood between his knees, a reversal of our too-brief reunion in the kitchen. “I know I’ve put ye through hell, I know I’m impulsive and probably shouldn’t be allowed out unsupervised, but I swear I’m all in with this. With you. Today is still my birthday?—”
His green eyes crinkled at the edges. His cheeks flushed warm.
I put my finger on his lips so I could finish my words. “All I want as a gift is ye. It scared the shite out of me this evening when I thought our relationship was over. I want this, always. I don’t want ye to leave ever again.”
I gestured to the door and our collection of people outside of it, then drew a line from his heart to mine.
Riordan enfolded me in his arms and kissed me. “Wouldn’t leave you for anything, wild girl. I’m in love. Nothing could drag me away.”
That beautiful swell of happiness rushed in me again. I prayed to the gods that was true.
Riordan drew his thumb down my cheek then set me out of the way so he could stand. He rifled through his rucksack and extracted a wrapped gift. He handed it over.
I grinned. Rattled it. The long slender box was heavy. “What is it?”
“Open it and you’ll find out.”
I tore off the paper and opened the box. Inside was a beautiful carved dagger with a stone in the hilt.
“Opal for your birth month.”
I extracted it. Tested the edge. “It’s the most beautiful present anyone’s ever given me.”
I threw my arms around him in a hard hug. Riordan hugged me back then carefully teased the weapon from my hand. He set it on the side table then picked me up and rolled back on the bed so I was sprawled across his body. Our kiss followed naturally, a hunger gripping me with power I could barely contain.
This, always. Me and him.
Someone knocked on the door.
“Sorry,” I called, tearing my mouth from my boyfriend’s. “The couple you’re trying to contact are currently unavailable. Please try again in ten minutes.”
“Twenty,” Riordan countered.
Genevieve spoke through the wood. “Sorry, but people are leaving. I just want to make sure you’re in the loop.”
Reluctantly, we disentangled and returned to the living room.
Arran, Shade, and two of my brothers were at the door.
“We’re heading out,” Arran told us. “Riot, Cassie, you’re staying here. Don’t argue with me. Jamieson is, too, and Manny has the building security covered from downstairs.”
They spoke in quiet voices, checking weapons and assigning their hits.
Genevieve regarded us. “While they’re rounding up the suspects, we have work to do. Someone on the inside still placed those notes. Do you have both so we can compare them?”
I retrieved mine, and Riordan handed over his.
“Same handwriting. Where did you get yours?” Everly asked.
Riordan frowned. “From the bartender with glitter strands in her hair. She came out of the club and told me Cassie had left it for me.”
“Lara?” Genevieve described her.
He swore. “That’s her. She seemed nervous. I forgot all about it.”
In all the fuss, I’d skimmed over that part, too, but I’d had my own suspicions about that woman.
Genevieve said, “Lara tried to break you up? But she’s my friend. Why would she do something like that? Does that mean she left Alisha’s note as well?”
Fresh anger had me clenching my jaw. “I spoke to her recently. She had me all wary over the fact she reduced her hours but moved into an expensive flat. She also brought Moniqua to me, though she claimed not to know her name. Shite. That’s the connection, isn’t it? The Four Milers were managing them both? Paying them off?”
The men at the door stalled, listening.
Genevieve’s blonde eyebrows formed a line. “That liar. She does know Moniqua because I’ve talked about her in the past.”
Riordan swung his gaze between us. “Which reminds me, I saw her in Four Miler territory. I barely thought anything of it, but the clues were all there.”
Genevieve snarled, “At Red’s meeting, did he seem surprised that Moniqua was putting herself forward for Bronson’s job?”
I nodded. “Yes. He suggested she’d be better off working on her back.”
She stuck out her tongue. “Pig. But it implies she wasn’t already, so my point is that Moniqua isn’t in that gang. Her cousin, Don, was a member, but she was making a play for it tonight. That doesn’t smack of someone whose strings are being pulled by Red.”
“She can’t have left the notes,” I said. “She didn’t work here then. She had a membership to Divine, that’s all. No access to the other floors.”
Arran cut in, concluding what we were all no doubt thinking. “But Lara would’ve. I’ll have Manny pick her up from her new address. Are you good to get the information out of her?”
By way of an answer, I cracked my knuckles.
A brand-new picture was forming in my mind, one where the warehouse had been infected by a ghoul and I’d even helped her. Felt sorry for her. Meanwhile, she’d taken Lonnie and Lara over to her side, assuming she was the instigator in both cases.
In the background of that, she had her eyes on Bronson’s job. What had Lonnie claimed? That she wanted the security of it?
I almost, almost felt sorry for her.
For the fear that drove her, and for the lengths she felt she had to go for safety, all to lose her life in that fiery inferno in the church.
Behind me, Riordan swore.
I twisted, and he raised his phone to show me someone was calling him. I recognised the number ending six-one. I blinked, but it was still there.
“Holy shite,” I told the room. “Moniqua’s calling.”
The witch wasn’t dead after all.