Chapter Nine
Crown
Rochelle Bennett had no intention of firing her weapon.
Her finger rested outside the trigger guard, and her arm shook too much to maintain an accurate shot.
That didn’t make her harmless.
The most dangerous people were often those who believed they had nothing left to lose.
“Put the gun down,” I repeated.
Rochelle looked at Jayla.
“Tell your boyfriend to lower his.”
“He isn’t my boyfriend.”
“I saw the press conference.”
“It was fake.”
“Of course it was. A man like him doesn’t marry women like us.”
Jayla’s expression changed.
I disliked the comment before I understood why.
“What does that mean?” Jayla asked.
“Malachi Devereaux’s family destroys people like ours. They use us, pay us, and toss us away when we become inconvenient.”
“You left me before any Devereaux had the chance.”
Rochelle flinched.
Jayla moved from behind me.
I caught myself before reaching for her.
“Stay back,” I said.
“That’s my mother.”
“She’s pointing a gun.”
“She gave birth to me. This isn’t the strangest thing she’s done.”
Rochelle’s weapon lowered slightly.
Dorian appeared behind her and removed it from her hand before she could react.
She spun around.
“Get off me!”
Dorian checked the weapon.
“Safety was on.”
“I knew that.”
“You were doing poorly for someone who knew.”
Jayla’s stare remained fixed on her mother.
“Are you Bishop?”
“No.”
“You just said Bishop works for you.”
“I said what I needed to get his attention.”
“You already had it,” I said.
Rochelle looked at me.
“I have information you want.”
“Everybody does until it’s time to provide it.”
“I know what happened to your father.”
The room became silent.
“Then talk.”
“Not here.”
“This is my mother’s house,” Jayla said. “You can talk here.”
Rochelle looked around the damaged bedroom.
“It belonged to your grandmother.”
“She was more of a mother to me than you ever were.”
“I didn’t come here to fight.”
“You came carrying a gun.”
“I came because people are trying to kill me.”
Jayla laughed bitterly.
“Welcome to the club.”
Dorian searched Rochelle while I called off the men surrounding the rear entrance. She carried two phones, three identification cards bearing different names, and a key shaped like the one Kenzie gave Jayla.
The second physical component.
I held out my hand.
“Give it to me.”
Rochelle closed her fingers around the key.
“Get us somewhere safe first.”
“You entered a house surrounded by my security.”
“I followed one of your vehicles before they closed the perimeter.”
That meant someone had been careless.
Dorian saw the question in my face.
“I’ll handle it.”
I looked at Jayla.
“This conversation continues at the estate.”
“No,” she said. “It continues now.”
“Your mother was followed.”
“I wasn’t,” Rochelle said.
“You don’t know that.”
“I’ve stayed alive this long.”
“Your confidence isn’t evidence.”
Jayla folded Grandma Evelyn’s photograph and placed it inside her pocket.
“Five minutes. Then we leave.”
Rochelle sat on the overturned mattress.
She looked exhausted beneath the makeup and expensive coat.
“Your father discovered Victor Devereaux was using the maritime company to move weapons and women through private ports,” she told me.
I had known about the weapons.
Not the women.
“He began collecting evidence,” she continued. “He used Evelyn’s credentials because Victor never monitored support staff.”
“Did Evelyn agree?”
“Not at first.”
Jayla stiffened.
“Meaning what?”
“Sebastian told her he needed access to protect his children.”
My father’s name sounded wrong in Rochelle’s mouth.
“What did he promise her?” I asked.
“Protection. Money. A position somewhere Victor couldn’t reach her.”
“Did he keep that promise?”
“No.”
Jayla looked at me.
I didn’t defend him.
“Victor discovered someone had copied his records,” Rochelle continued. “Sebastian allowed him to believe Evelyn acted alone.”
The words settled inside my chest.
My father had always taught me that protecting family came before everything.
Apparently, his definition of family had limits.
“What happened to her?” Jayla asked.
“She was fired. Her pension disappeared, and Victor threatened everyone she loved.”
“Why didn’t Grandma tell me?”
“Because she believed silence kept you safe.”
“That seems to be everybody’s favorite excuse.”
Rochelle looked down.
“Your grandmother kept the original records as insurance. Sebastian created an encrypted archive and divided the access between two keys. Evelyn designed the cipher using the constellations she taught you to paint.”
“Why involve a child?” I asked.
“She didn’t. The designs meant something to the two of them before Jayla was born.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
A lie.
Rochelle touched her coat pocket before answering. Dorian noticed it too.
“Who is Bishop?” I asked.
“A broker. He buys secrets and sells them to whoever bleeds the most for them.”
“Name.”
“I never learned it.”
“How did you contact him?”
“He contacted me after Evelyn died.”
Jayla’s voice became quiet.
“How did Grandma die?”
Rochelle looked toward the window.
“Not from cancer.”
Jayla stopped breathing.
I could hear the change from where I stood.
“She was sick,” Jayla said. “I went to the treatments.”
“She had cancer. It wasn’t what killed her.”
“What did?”
“An overdose of potassium during her final hospital stay.”
Jayla pressed a hand against the dresser.
“No.”
“The nurse responsible disappeared two days later.”
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“Why would someone kill a dying woman?”
“Because she decided to release the records.”
Jayla turned away.
I wanted to reach for her.
I didn’t.
“What did you do after she died?” she asked.
“I took the memory box.”
“Why?”
“I knew people would search the house.”
“You took it to protect me?”
“Yes.”
“Where were you when I was planning her funeral?”
Rochelle’s face crumpled.
“I was scared.”
“You are always scared when I need you.”
“I was trying to stay alive.”
“I needed my mother.”
“You had Evelyn.”
“She was dead!”
Jayla’s voice cracked through the room.
My body reacted before my mind did.
I stepped closer, stopping when Jayla raised her hand.
Not yet.
I remained where I was.
Rochelle’s tears appeared genuine.
They changed nothing.
“What did you do with the box?” Jayla asked.
“I gave it to Kenzie.”
Jayla slowly turned around.
“You knew her?”
“I hired her.”
Every part of Jayla became still.
Rochelle continued before she could respond.
“I needed someone close to you. Someone who could watch you without making Bishop suspicious.”
“You sent her into my life?”
“She was supposed to protect you.”
“She used my business, threatened Nasir, and almost got me killed.”
“I didn’t tell her to involve your brother.”
“You don’t get credit because your plan became worse than intended.”
“I paid her to commission the shoes. Bishop believed she was working for him, but she was supposed to deliver the archive to federal investigators.”
“Which investigators?” I asked.
Rochelle looked at me.
“The ones who aren’t owned by your family.”
“That list is short.”
“Evelyn trusted one.”
“Name.”
“Berkeley James.”
“The reporter?” Jayla asked.
“She isn’t only a reporter.”
Dorian’s phone vibrated.
He read the message.
“Vehicles approaching. Three, possibly four.”
I looked at Rochelle.
“You were followed.”
Her face lost color.
“I checked.”
“You checked poorly.”
Dorian spoke into his radio while footsteps filled the house.
I moved Jayla toward the closet.
She resisted.
“Don’t touch me.”
“People are coming to kill your mother.”
“That is a complicated sales pitch.”
“Get inside.”
Gunfire erupted downstairs.
Jayla entered the closet with Rochelle. I pushed the dresser across the door before joining Dorian in the hallway.
The first intruder reached the stairs.
I fired once.
He fell backward into the men behind him.
Dorian covered the rear hallway.
“More outside.”
“Get the women out through the adjoining house.”
“The passage is still open?”
“Evelyn’s house was once part of a Devereaux safe route.”
Dorian looked at me.
“Did Jayla know that?”
“No.”
Another secret connected her family to mine.
Another reason for her not to trust me.
I entered the closet and pulled aside the false panel behind Evelyn’s dresses. A narrow passage appeared.
Jayla stared at it.
“You knew this was here?”
“My grandfather owned this property before Evelyn.”
Her expression hardened.
“You said this house belonged to my grandmother.”
“It did.”
“After your family gave it to her?”
“Apparently.”
Rochelle entered the passage first.
Jayla remained.
“I’m tired of discovering my life belonged to your family before it belonged to me.”
“It didn’t.”
“Then why is there a Devereaux tunnel behind Grandma’s clothes?”
A bullet struck the bedroom wall.
Dust filled the air.
I held out my hand.
“Be angry after we survive.”
Jayla looked at it.
Then she placed her hand in mine.
I led her into the darkness.