Chapter 19 #2
Mila leaned on the open doorway. “He was so kind. Even after everything, that’s my enduring memory of him.
Every time anyone came to him in need, he stepped up.
Family, employees.” She twisted her lips, her gaze down.
“It’s no secret how much I’m struggling with the allegations against him.
One thing I never understood is how he started paying off relatives. I don’t suppose you know about that?”
My heart lifted, and I took a breath of happiness at something that would help her. As otherwise, I’d only been making her feel bad. “I do. He used to have me sit in on meetings, and I was there the day he devised a plan to set up a family payroll. Want me to tell you about it?”
Mila’s eyes shot to mine. “Please. Lovelyn has been helping me, and she worked out that some of the people he supported were in genuine need, but they acted as a front to lots of others who didn’t. Would it be okay if we brought her into the conversation?”
I already knew from Tyler that Lovelyn and my brother were one storey down in a room on the hotel floor. I’d promised myself to stop being a wimp and go say hi.
I raised my gaze to Tyler, and he straightened from the wall and closed in on us.
“Everything okay?”
“We’re going down to meet Kane and Lovelyn, if that’s all right?”
He was already reaching for his phone. “Convict will check it over for us.”
I’d seen Convict earlier when meeting up with Mila. He’d bounded up like an overgrown puppy and hugged me. No drama, only a laugh when Tyler warned him off, and a claim that he was an engaged man. So he and Mila were getting hitched. That was wild.
Tyler lifted his gaze from his phone. “All good. Follow me.”
“With that ass?” I quipped. “Anywhere.”
Mila giggled, and Tyler shot me a patient look then called the lift.
“Dixie?” a voice hailed me from the entryway to the stairs.
A tall man stepped through, perfectly high cheekbones, a lean frame, and a shirt with the sleeve holes cut so deep it barely held together. His eyes widened in recognition, then Lex closed in on me, astonishment in every look.
“Baby girl. Thought you were long gone.”
He swept me up in a hug, my feet leaving the floor.
Panic shot through me, but it was gone as quickly as it arrived, because Tyler had Lex’s arms behind his back and the man shoved up against the wall faster than I could stumble away.
“Don’t touch her,” my protector growled.
Lex wrenched to see me, his face smushed. “I didn’t mean anything. Shit, sorry.”
I touched Tyler’s arm. “It’s okay. We used to work together. Lex isn’t a threat.” To Lex, I added, “Maybe just no grabbing?”
Released, Lex shook out his arms and took a purposeful sidestep away from Tyler, returning his focus to me. “Understood, I guess. So, does this mean you’re back on the scene? Clients ask about you all the time.”
That was nice to hear. “I’m not sure yet.”
Lex tipped his head at the doorways down the hall. “I’ve been picking up shifts here. Easy money if you don’t want to walk the floor. Care to join me? We always hit hard as a pair.”
Tyler made a sound that was somewhere between pain and outrage.
Lex wasn’t wrong. I’d often worked with him because we looked good together and he’d never made me uncomfortable. Lex had a huge following from both the girls and the gays and had twisted me into any shape the paying customers wanted.
I couldn’t imagine it now.
I couldn’t separate that part of myself off like I’d done before. The question rose in my mind again of how I’d ever earn a living like this.
I faked a smile. “I hear ya. I’ll let you know. Go shake that ass, bestie.”
Lex shrugged and left us, and we travelled downstairs. I kept my gaze on my shoes. When the doors opened again on fourth, Convict was waiting.
His smile broadened. “C’mere.” He hauled Mila into his arms and kissed her. “Missed you.”
She practically swooned, the pink in her cheeks spreading. “It’s been barely twenty minutes.”
“You questioning my stamina? I could miss you all day, little gangster.”
I smiled at their flirting but then spotted Lovelyn appearing out of a room, the huge brick shithouse of a man who’d terrified me behind her. Shorn hair, massive muscles, no give in his expression. My heart set off, a rabbit chased by a dog.
Careful, warm fingers cupped my elbow. Tyler lowered to speak in my ear. “Remember, Kane is not only your brother but also my man. You’ve got this.”
He wasn’t mad at me because of Lex.
A tightness in my chest unravelled, and I touched his hand. How nice it would be to link fingers and move around connected. Joined up so everyone could see.
I wasn’t brave enough to attempt it.
Without words, we walked the rest of the quiet hall to reach them.
I managed an awkward wave at the brother I never knew. “Hey. It’s nice to meet you.”
Kane straightened his shoulders, his hands behind him like a soldier on parade. “Likewise. I’m glad you’re back.”
“Same, hun. I missed this place. Small world us all being here.”
What a fun image. The three kids of probably the wealthiest family in Deadwater holed up in a sex-selling warehouse run by a dangerous crew of gangsters. There was nowhere I’d rather be.
For a few seconds, neither of us said anything. Then Lovelyn subtly elbowed her boy.
Kane cleared his throat. “I want to get to know you. Maybe we can get a drink later. Chat.”
From behind, Mila burst out in a snort of laughter. “Oh shit, sorry. It’s just, damn, Kane. Did you really pull the line I said to you when we first met?” She turned to me. “It took me months to get him to cave.”
I managed a returning smile, though it was weak. “Stop, I feel special.”
Kane shook his head at us both, falling back into silence that Lovelyn took over. She rolled through some suggestions for a sibling get-together. Activities that would allow us to learn about each other.
My heart slowed its panicked pounding.
With the intros done, Lovelyn invited us into their room, Kane staying out in the hall with Tyler and Convict to talk gangster stuff. Mila closed us into the snug hotel-like space, and I finally took a deep breath, settling into the desk chair.
There were a pair of knuckle dusters on the desk. Lovelyn scooted over and slid them into a drawer, her cheeks pink.
Mila leaned on the wall and watched me. “You okay?”
“Peachy. It’s just…a lot. I’ve been on my own for a while. I’m happy, though.”
Both women gave sympathetic looks.
Mila filled Lovelyn in about how I was there at the start of the family handouts. Her expression grew serious. “I was just telling Dixie how we believed the payments Austin made to those in what he called the family vault were in part, a front.”
“The family vault.” I goggled at the memory. “I forgot he called it that. It was his filing system to keep track of everyone. I haven’t heard that name in so long.”
Mila scrunched up her nose. “Then you didn’t come back to it recently to remove your record?”
I blinked. “No, why would I? But talk me through your suspicions.”
She explained. “Some of the families were really needy, but others less so. They could’ve been involved in the trafficking. It makes sense why money would be diverted to them if they were up to no good.”
Mila listed out six Marchant families who had potentially been forging documents and moving people around. I could see it. There were many I hadn’t liked on instinct alone, and memories rushed back.
“It doesn’t surprise me that Phylis Marchant-Smythe is on that list. She was a piece of work.”
Both women stared.
Mila recovered first. “Yes, she is. Tell us what you remember, if that’s okay?”
I tried to arrange my thoughts. “The start was simple. Austin’s business had taken off hugely in the year they came for me.
I’d barely been in their mansion a couple of weeks when a relative came calling.
Some cousin whose adult child was ill. There were mortgage arrears, a really bad loan from some shark who was making threats.
Austin stepped up. He paid the debts, gave them a chunk of cash to help for the next year, and they went away happy.
All this, he did with me in the room, teaching me a lesson in how we should help those around us when we had more than we needed. He called it a duty.”
Mila’s watery eyes told me she’d heard that speech, too.
I continued. “Then came the greedy guts. All those who’d heard of his generosity and saw pound signs.
He had a big heart. Despite how obviously some were hamming it up, he believed them and didn’t turn any away.
In my hearing, he vowed to meet all their needs.
” I’d blocked out so much about that brief part of my life for so long, but Austin’s generosity had stuck with me. To some degree, shaped me.
Mila took a deep breath. “I’m finding it so hard to reconcile that caring man with someone who would willingly hurt women. He was generous at heart.” She switched her focus to Lovelyn. “Do you see what I mean now? How difficult this is?”
Lovelyn’s smile was soft. “I always believed you. I really do think he sounds wonderful.”
Mila sniffed, a little shaky when she came back to me. “Did you see the Marchant-Smythes come cap in hand for their share?”
I cast my mind back. “I’m not sure I saw the first time.
Far as I can recall, they were always around.
They’d bring their kid to visit Primrose and Austin and had him call them grandparents, though they weren’t.
So they were into bad shit? That tracks.
Wait, does that link them to the trafficking?
Do the cops know?” I was no great lover of the police, but four women had died on that ship. Probably more hurt.
Lovelyn folded her hands in her lap. “The detective investigating the deaths is unfortunately known to me, and I passed on their names with those facts. I hope it gives him enough to make arrests.”
Mila cut in. “Except the Marchant-Smythes did a runner after. Hold up, I need to backtrack to the Deadwater murders.”
My eyes rounded. “How are they connected?”
She breathed out, her excitement plain. “Their son is a suspect in Karla’s death. He left here with her in pursuit, then she was found hours later on the banks of the river.”
Astonishment took me over completely. “Presley? Has he been arrested?”
“No, he’s disappeared with his parents. No one can find them.”
The two of them said something I didn’t hear, because my mind had jumped back over a decade to a weekend spent with the Marchant-Smythes. “Has anyone checked Austin’s bolthole?”
The chatter ceased.
Mila cleared her throat. “His what now?”
“It’s what they were often angling for on their visits. An invite to the house he had on the banks of Lake Andmere. Our grandmother didn’t know about it. He bought it in cash and used to slope off there for quiet time. He took me once because Primrose had gone to find Wallace abroad somewhere.”
Lovelyn collected a tablet from the desk. “Do you happen to have an address? Or could you find it on a map?”
In a minute, she had the lake up on the screen, praising me for my trip down memory lane. More when I found the white building with its wooden dock and expensive security.
Mila stared at the grainy image. “We need to get someone out there. The police? Or should we scope it out so we can ask questions first? Do we want that?”
My head whirled. A sense of being useful and special replaced another chunk of the heaviness I carried. “I need to tell Tyler.”
Our three men were called in, forming a wall of man in front of the door.
Tyler listened, and his steady, careful questions helped calm my jumpy heart. When he was done, he dialled someone and put the phone on loudspeaker.
Two men instantly answered, Kane’s attention equally sharp.
Tyler briefed them, ending with, “Mission commences in thirty. We’ll scope the place, then if the targets are located, we’ll extract.”
The two on the phone agreed without hesitation, and the call ended.
Urgency filled the room. It caught me, too, along with a big ol’ dose of panic. Tyler was leaving. He’d go out to do something dangerous, and I might never see him again.
“I’m coming, too,” Kane said.
Tyler held his gaze on him. “You’re a wanted man.”
Kane shrugged. “So? The cops already know where I am. What are the reporters going to do, take my picture?”
Tyler switched his gaze to Lovelyn. “Any more articles?”
Lovelyn shook her head. “Not much. They can’t find out anything about him beyond the one legit bodyguard job where the photo came from.”
Kane made a ‘see?’ expression. “We rushed back here to keep Lovelyn safe. I won’t hide in the warehouse when I can do my fucking job.”
“They are also your relatives,” Tyler added.
“Who don’t know me and I don’t know them. I see no problem here.”
Convict said something low to Mila then turned to Tyler. “I’m coming, too. I know their faces, and I can’t miss the chance of thanking Presley after what he did to me.”
Convict skipped his gaze to me, providing an explanation I’d wanted but hadn’t voiced. “I went down to the docks in Leith, and that little shit was there. He called the cops on me, and I got Tasered.”
He pointed to his temple, a mark on his skin. “I had the pleasure of throwing him out of Divide the night he came here, but I really could do with introducing my fist to his face a few more times.”
I touched my fingers to my mouth. He’d already carried a head injury. That could’ve killed him. “You okay?”
Convict shrugged. “Probably jolted some sense into me, so no biggie.”
Kane grouched, “Ye still owe me for freeing your arse.”
Convict stuck his middle finger up. “Happy to contribute to your training. You needed the help.”
Tyler shook his head at them. “Fine. You’re both in. Thirty minutes.”
We exited to the hall, Kane snagging Lovelyn’s hand, the door closing on them, but not before his parting words reached my ears.
“Mouth on mine, flower girl.”
Damn, that was sweet. I couldn’t have been more wrong about the Big Bad Shithouse if I’d tried.
Mila held up her phone. “I’m calling a meeting of the Skeleton Girls Detective Agency. Cassie’s group with us, Genevieve, and Everly. Will you join? We’ll meet in her apartment, right across the hall from yours. It’ll be safe.”
I tried and failed to swallow my rising fear for Tyler. At least in company, I couldn’t spiral too badly. “I’d love to, sis.”