Chapter 8 #2
“Perhaps, but I’m thinking modesty is not part of it.”
Open the door, wench.
“You don’t need me to open it. You can go through it.”
But why should I have to when you are now here?
I rolled my eyes and opened the door. He stalked through it, a king entering his new realm.
“Hey,” Ginny called from the vicinity of the living room. “How did the date go?”
“It wasn’t a date, and were you aware Atticus was sitting outside the door?”
“Yes.”
“And you ignored him?”
“He demanded I rise and let his royal ass into the apartment. I told said royal ass he could get himself in here. He threatened to eat me.”
I glanced down at the raggedy creature stalking toward my room. “Did you?”
He mentally sniffed. In other words, yes.
I shook my head and headed into the kitchen to make myself a hot chocolate. I wasn’t going to risk a coffee, because I rather suspected I was going to have enough trouble sleeping as it was.
“Considering it wasn’t a date,” Ginny commented, “you’ve dressed rather seductively. I’m surprised he didn’t rip that thing right off you.”
He certainly wanted to.... I flicked on the kettle, then reached into the fridge to grab the milk. “Why? Everything is covered.”
“Woman, you really have no idea how a man’s mind works, do you? It’s not what is on show that counts, but where their imagination leads them.”
I snorted. “Which is why pornos and ‘business’ clubs featuring strippers and lap dancers remain so damn popular, because it’s all about the imagination.”
“That is beside the point. What happened?”
I half shrugged. “He was quite open about his reasons for being there and his connection to Tane.”
“And you believed him?”
“I spoke to Michael on the way home, and he confirmed what René said.” I hated lying to her, but orders were orders, even if they sucked. “How’d the interview with Monica’s fiancé go?”
She snorted. “Mark Marlowe and Monica Ashworth are perfectly suited to each other. They’re both arrogant twerps.”
The kettle whistled; I switched it off, then said, “You want something to drink?”
“Coffee would be good. Thanks.”
I made the two drinks, then carried them over, placing hers on the coffee table before sitting on the sofa opposite. “What did he say?”
“He tried to claim that Monica invited him up here, but when I said we had her phone records and knew that to be untrue, he declared she was diminishing his family’s reputation with her overtly obvious affair, and he’d come up here to confront her.”
“So he not only knew she was alive, but that the kidnapping was likely staged, and he said nothing to either Tane or us?”
“He claims not to have been aware of the kidnapping, which is possible given how hushed the whole thing is being kept. I mean, not even Francesca or Marnee’s parents have been advised of their murders yet.”
“Yes, but Lowell questioned the man. Mark must have suspected something was up; he’s not obtuse, surely.”
She grinned. “When it comes to women, many men are. Besides, it’s not like their marriage was based on love or caring.”
“Yes, but the thing is, her affair with Luke wasn’t overt. Have you seen anything in the gossip mags or online about them? The fact they were cousins, however far removed, would have scandalized the more conservative sections of society, but there has been radio silence.”
“Just because she and Luke weren’t fucking like bunnies in public doesn’t mean no one knew. Her friends certainly did—maybe one of them accidentally said something.”
“And maybe the person who sent me the USB via Tane also sent him one.”
Ginny’s eyebrows shot up. “Bit of overreach there, don’t you think?”
“Maybe, but something isn’t sitting right with my gut.”
“And the wise do not ignore the gut,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
“My gut has gotten us out of more trouble than in.”
“Only by mere fractions.”
I grinned and didn’t deny it. “How did he end up hog-tied and unconscious in that hotel room? How’d he even know they were there?”
“He put an AirTag in her favorite handbag and traced her location through that.”
And she didn’t notice said AirTag? Either she was an idiot—and while she was many things, she wasn’t stupid—or she hadn’t cared.
“Why do that if all he intended was to have it out with Monica and end their engagement? He could have easily done that at his family’s compound once she and her crew returned to Canberra. ”
“Maybe he thought it would be safer in a location where nobody knew them? Maybe he simply didn’t want to risk Monica getting her mitts on any more of the family jewels by calling her father in and demanding compensation.
” She shrugged and took a drink. “And yes, I know changing location to end an agreement would not stop any request for compensation.”
I grinned. “I will resist making the obvious family jewels comment here.”
She rolled her eyes. “Anyways, he claimed that the minute he stepped into the hotel room, and before he could say anything or even raise a defense, he was hit magically, then stripped, trussed up, and knocked out.”
“Do you believe that is how it played out?”
“Hell, no, which is why I requested the urgent services of a telepath.”
I couldn’t help but wonder if the telepath’s name was Jenna. “And?”
“Apparently, before his arrival in Australia, the marriage agreement was amended to include a number of runes that had been in Mark’s family for decades.”
I frowned. “Which ones? Not the Lancet one, by any chance?”
She nodded. “He was extremely unhappy it had been done without his consent and came up here to not only confront the two of them, but to inform her she would get nothing from his family, not even compensation, because they’d fight it with every fucking penny they had.
Unfortunately for him, it was Lanie with Luke in the room, not Monica, and she magically pinned him to the wall then raged through his mind—Mark’s words, not mine. ”
Surprise ran through me. “Lanie’s working with them?”
“Apparently. It would certainly explain why she wasn’t killed with the other two. I’ve already asked for a deeper dive into her background.”
“I thought we’d already done that?”
“We only went as far back as the accident—”
“What accident?”
Ginny rolled her eyes. “The one that landed her on death’s door in the hospital? The one she made a miraculous recovery from?”
“Maybe I need to start reading the files more closely.” I took a drink. “Did our telepath confirm what Mark said about the rampaging?”
She nodded. “Oddly, she said it felt like magic rather than telepathy. Apparently, it had a very dark feel to it.”
“I wonder if that is how they’re controlling Monica. It would certainly explain her sudden fixation with Luke.”
Ginny frowned. “She’s an Ashworth of some power, so surely if he or Lanie was using magic against her, she’d know about it?”
“It would depend on what type of magic is being used. Hell, it might be another kind of rune, for all we know.”
“If Lanie is involved in this mess,” Ginny said, “why would she draw attention to herself by murdering that lad in such a brutal manner? That makes no sense.”
“As you have said yourself, nothing in any of this is making sense.” And until we really understood their motives or who might be backing them, it probably wouldn’t. “Did Mark say anything else that can help us?”
“No, but I do have other news—the security tapes for the twenty-four hours before Tane’s arrival were sent, and I’ve been going through them.”
I bit back my surprise. I’d half expected Sophie to restrict our access to them. “Find anything?”
“You could say that.”
She turned the laptop around so I could see the screen and hit Play.
It showed an empty corridor with the time ticking along in the right-hand corner.
It remained that way for several seconds, then, just on the edge of the camera’s purview, an elevator’s floor indicator lit up.
A few seconds after that, three people walked fully into view—two women and a man.
They all had their backs to us, but the scarlet hair did at least identify them as royal witches.
When they reached the door, two of them turned and scanned the corridor, one of them glancing straight at the camera.
“Lanie and Luke,” I said, although in truth it was no real surprise given both seemed to be up to their necks in this whole mess. “Why is she there and not the other bridesmaids?”
“I have no idea, but it does get better,” Ginny replied.
The other woman stepped forward and scanned a keycard. It was none other than Monica herself. “Well, I guess that answers the question as to who opened the safe.”
“Yes, and the three of them come out about twenty minutes later carrying a largish satchel, which no doubt contained the jewelry Tane said was missing. But the surprises aren’t over yet.”
She rewound the tape an hour, then hit Play again. After a few beats of corridor silence, the lift arrival light flashed again, and a man strode into view. He was tall, reasonably well built, with the signature crimson hair of a royal witch.
“No,” I said, my mind leaping to the surely ludicrous conclusion. “It can’t be.”
“Indeed, it can,” Ginny said, even as the figure arrived at Tane’s door. As he turned to swipe a keycard through the reader, his face was revealed. It was none other than our so-called cuckolded fiancé, Mark.
“What the hell was he doing there?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going back in the morning to ask.”
“With your telepath, I hope.”
“Yep, already arranged to meet Mary there at nine.” Ginny turned the laptop back around. “He came out about ten minutes later and didn’t appear to be carrying anything, so we need to know what he was doing there.”
“Especially given the AirTag and the fact he already knew she wasn’t there.”
Ginny nodded. “Is it possible Lanie was the woman you heard on the USB?”
“Maybe? It’s not like I talked much to her—or indeed any of them—over the time we were following them.”
“It’s not like we were given much opportunity to talk to them, given our orders were to keep them safe but not impinge on their fun.”