Chapter 17 Robin #4
Starling's jaw tick as he tracks Wren’s arm along my chair, analysing the distance between our bodies.
“We have everything handled Mr Hastings. No one has to worry. We’re just making enquiries at this stage and I’m sure when we get the all clear, everyone can go home soon.
We even have a development on your phones. ”
The room hushes, hanging off his every word.
“Turns out Miss Claythorne had just misplaced them. Forgot probably due to her distress, but we've already sent them to the station. We thank you all for your cooperation.” I don't like the way he smiles under his mustache, and apparently neither does anyone else.
“You took our phones without our consent?” Cardinal temper hasn’t dampened after all.
“Your cooperation is appreciated in the investigation.” He retorts.
“Can you legally do that? I have people that no doubt will be trying to get in touch. Work. It's important our manager can get in touch with Wren and I.” Bran hands are firmly placed on the table in front of him, but he barely bats an eyelid.
Merle is going to be diplomatic as always as he stands, but even he looks uncomfortable.
Lil dismisses the entire thing, waving her hand in the air. “It's absolutely fine, Detective. None of us have anything to hide, I'm sure you'll give them back before our stay at Nightingale ends. Enough of this serious talk. Let's have some drinks and play games, shall we?”
The table is a mixture of agreement and disgruntled moans, most of those from the guys at the end of the table.
Bran doesn’t resemble his cheerful self and his brother looks so tired, leaving the table to pour more glasses of champagne from the bar cart.
Jay isn't back from the wine cellar which is unusual, but I've been so preoccupied turning over what he possibly could want to tell me later.
“Is there anything you need help with? I could maybe help tomorrow with meals or we could work on any of the opening preparations?” I say as Merle returns to dish out flutes of bubbly.
He sighs, patting my hand deflated. “The hotel was meant to open today Rob and they took our work laptops too,” he says in a lower tone.
“I was able to give them the guests information from my books, but how bad does that look on Nightingale house, our first week. Thank you though. Helping with meals for everyone would be great.”
I still can’t find it in my heart to bring up the debts he owed Corbin, not whilst he looks so stressed about the hotel.
If they don’t open soon, I can’t imagine when they’ll start to see profit or what this means if the man who he owes such a large amount to, is dead.
Keeping such a devastating secret from Phin, not only as his boyfriend but as a business partner, is a motive for murder—even if my brain screams for me not to believe it.
Thinking over the connection between Cardinal and Willow, I wonder if anyone else here is connected in ways they don’t even know yet.
My own secret is still a mystery, my assumptions pointless.
The man had known me since birth, yes only paying attention to me as an adult, but still he knew the dark parts of my past that haunted my sleep.
Lily claps her hands, bringing me out of my spiral thoughts about Mum, a pack of custom cards resting in front of her on the table and she has a wild glint in her pale eyes.
“So we had planned to play a round of truth or dare this weekend. It fitted with the theme of the party and my brother even provided the prompt cards.” She shakes the pack in her hand and my eyebrows shoot up.
So not only did he create an elaborate scavenger hunt for our secrets, but he also had planned to put us through a game where we’d relinquish our truths?
The theme was blinding. I can’t believe Lily or the guys never said anything, but by the way Merle stiffens next to me, he clearly didn’t know.
For a very organised man, our stay had spiralled out of control.
“We’re not twelve. Why would we play fucking truth to dare?” Cardinal grunts, finishing the rest of his beer.
Willow leans into him tauntingly. “Scared?”
“You wish Princess, I’m just saying we’re grown adults. This is a child’s game.”
“Oh c’mon grumpy, turn that frown upside down and let’s all play a game together.
What’s the alternative? Go to bed early?
” Phin waggles his eyebrows at him and waves a hand towards outside where the rain still lashes at the now closed doors.
“We can’t exactly go anywhere, so let’s spend time together. ”
Merle gives his boyfriend an unexpected stern look of disapproval, but he just shrugs it off and gives him a boyish grin. His expression doesn’t ease up though and Lil clears her throat.
“Yes, well put Brother. We can even make it a drinking game. So truth, dare or down your entire drink.” She nods towards my wine glass and I politely smile, because fuck no.
I am not going to down a full glass of red wine that will instantly make me throw up.
Nudging Mavis at her side, she hands her the custom cards which I decipher is our game for the evening, but she doesn’t turn one over.
“Do we get to know the dare before we have to answer the truth?” She asks with apprehension.
“Sure! I dare you to go jump into the lake.” She doesn’t hesitate and I bet she has a long list of dares ready to delegate.
“I’m obviously not going to do that, it’s raining.”
“So you’ll already be wet when you jump in Babes, why not?” Bran asks, drinking from a can of beer, resting his large arm on the table.
“Hello, it’s practically flooding the entire gardens.
I’m not walking down to the lake in this and jumping in, I could drown.
” She says back a little bluntly, a brittle edge to her tone as she glares at her boyfriend across the table.
Bran doesn’t even flinch at her words, just shrugs and sits back to continue sipping his beverage.
He keeps checking the doors towards the house, but Jay still hasn't reamerged.
What the hell is going on with them both?
“Truth then!” She excitedly bounces in her seat, tapping the cards in Mavis’s hand to prompt her to turn one over. She does, the keen blonde reading it over her shoulder. “It says, how many of the guests have you slept with.”
Phin sits forward. “Oo, spicy cards. I love it.”
With all of us watching, her hand flutters around her wine glass and I think she’s going to pass on the truth by necking the entire thing, which is strange because her boyfriend is right there. Has she slept with someone else here? Before she can raise the glass, Bran laughs tightly.
“We’ve been together since we were sixteen, so that’s a boring card. I’ll go next.”
Her entire body sags in relief and Wren doesn’t miss it either, by the way he looks from his drummer to the silver haired women trying to hide the way her chest heavily rises and falls.
“What the hell is that about?” He whispers close to my ear, making it look like he’s reaching for my untouched wine glass on the table.
“No idea, but he doesn’t seem happy with her and I think she’s been trying to avoid him this weekend. She lied about where she was Friday night.” I quickly whisper back, before Wren sits back into the plush chair, sniffs at the wine and winces before discarding it back to the table.
Around us, Bran is upside down on his chair whilst Phoenix helps him drink his entire beer as a dare, and I can feel prickly heat radiating off his boyfriend.
I've never seen Merle annoyed before. The girls all cheer and even Starling is laughing, but honestly all I can focus on is the one curl fallen over Wren's forehead.
He leans forward, his lips brushing the side of my cheekbone as he hovers next to my ear. “Do you think she is seeing someone else? Someone here?”
The thought seems like ice water over how hot I feel being pressed so close to him, and my nerve endings melt to putty when I feel a large palm run up the outer side of my thigh.
I need to clear my throat before I speak and he chuckles, knowing full well the effect he’s having on me.
“Maybe—but who?” I gesture at him, “I’m presuming you’re not shacking up with her, that leaves Cardinal or Jay.
Cardy seems to be a loner, so would Jay really do that to his best friend?
” I ask, turning my face to glance around that no one is watching our little hushed conversation.
Phin has volunteered to go next and is taking on his dare.
Wren’s hand leaves my thigh, twisting around a strand of my brown curls pinned up.
He wraps it around his index finger and gives it a little tug.
“Firstly, I am not shacking up with my friend's lady. I have my eyes very focused on a small snack gremlin and before you roll your eyes at me like I know you’ll do, you eat too many snacks for breakfast and I will be portioning you from now on.” An unexpected laugh bubbles out of me and I push him, causing a blinding smile to appear on his face that I think just tattooed itself inside my chest. “Secondly, she might not be straight, that adds Lily and Willow too.”
“So she could be with anyone that isn’t her boyfriend?”
If that is Mavis’s secret, it would implode her relationship. That could be a motive.
He checks around us again, but everyone’s attention is hyper focused on the way Phin tries to sing the song playing in French.
Our boarding school made the girls fluent in a number of languages, so I assume it did the same for the boys by the way he’s getting most of the words correct, the core words anyway.