Chapter 22 #3
There wouldn’t be any record of it. Pannetone paid most of the invoices via wire. The funds would go from a Moresco account to some foreign account that may or may not even be in Kemper’s real name. It was brilliant.
“What about your kids?”
“I barely know them. This job is long hours, tons of travel, and shit pay. I started selling tips to Moresco to help pay for college. I betrayed the FBI, my wife handed me divorce papers, and the kids all took her side. It’s the bureau’s fault.
I gave them everything and got shit in return.
I deserved more, so I created a situation where I got more. It’s the American way.”
Murder was not the American way.
“What happened to your perfect plan?” she asked.
“Dante never showed up. Moresco went out for espresso, and you went on an unannounced vacation.”
Ice seeped into her bones. They’d wanted her to die in the explosion. Her, Dante, and Sal.
“Lily saw the Moresco kid give you the laptop, but she didn’t think anything of it.
After the explosion, when we realized you weren’t in the office, she panicked.
She knew you, Pannetone, and the Moresco kid were concerned about some type of fraud.
She’d seen Dante leave for the night empty-handed”—he waved the gun toward the backpack on Rosemary’s lap—"so she thought there might be something incriminating on that laptop.”
Gary had orchestrated the whole thing.
“Does Sal even know about the laptop?” she asked.
“I have no fucking clue.”
“So why bring me here? Why not kill me up in Trout Run or somewhere along the way?”
He rolled his eyes. “Too many loose ends. I arranged to meet Moresco tonight at his warehouse”—Gary flicked his gun toward the back of his car—“over there. I’ve got another bomb in the trunk.
I shoot you, put your body near the warehouse, and then blow that.
When they investigate, they’ll assume Moresco killed you and Aleksei planted the bomb.
He was always so goddamn sure that Moresco was responsible for Phillipe’s murder. Everyone will assume it was revenge.”
Her bones turned so cold she felt like they would crack.
“What do you mean ‘assumed’? Didn’t Moresco’s men murder Phillipe?”
Gary didn’t answer, and her blood dropped to the same frigid temperature as her bones.
“Did you kill him? Did you kill Phillipe?”
Gary hesitated and then shrugged. “He found out. I have no fucking clue how he figured it out, but he did. Not all the details, but enough. He knew I was in with Moresco. He knew I was seeing Lily.” He snorted. “He was so fucking na?ve. He actually thought I would turn myself in.”
Fire mixed with the ice that had taken over her body. “You killed one of your own men, and you’re setting up another to go to prison. Everything was a lie. Sal never threatened my sister. My family was never in danger.”
“I needed to get you away from Aleksei.”
She’d made it easy for him. She’d let her need to prove that she could stand on her own go too far.
After she was declared cancer-free, she’d thrown herself into the job Davis found for her so she could show him she didn’t need his financial support.
Insisted her sister move out of their shared apartment so she could prove she could live alone.
Declined invitations from friends because she didn’t want to be around people who remembered what she was like when she was sick.
Looked wistfully at signs for hiking clubs but refused to join because she wanted to prove she could do it on her own.
Her living life to the fullest motto was a facade.
She’d been so proud of herself for being self-sufficient and free, but she’d actually trapped herself in an invisible prison of her own making.
She’d been so worried about not being a burden on anyone that she’d missed opportunities for new relationships and adventure.
Her need to prove her independence had led her to refuse Aleksei’s help tonight.
Aleksei was right. She was way out of her league. She didn’t have the expertise or training to deal with a situation like this. Her stubborn insistence on doing this alone was going to get her killed.
Realization hit her like a frying pan to the head. She’d made a terrible mistake. She had nothing to prove. She hadn’t been a burden on her family. She had simply been loved.
In loving Aleksei, she’d wanted to do everything in her power to keep him safe but hadn’t respected his need to do the same for her.
In maintaining her autonomy, she’d taken away his.
Just like her desire to keep Aleksei away from this shitshow stemmed from love, his anger at her walking into it may have been love, too.
Maybe he loved her. Maybe he didn’t, but she was certain that she loved him. Hopefully, she didn’t die before she got the chance to tell him.
Either way, she wasn’t going down without a fight.
She faked a coughing fit, slipping her arms through the straps of the backpack and pushing the unlock button on the door. Then she used the only weapon she had.
She pulled off her long blonde wig, threw it over Kemper’s face, opened the door, and ran.