Chapter 30
Damien
Ihead up to the eleventh floor, my teeth gritted in frustration. Why couldn’t they have figured it out by themselves? Can’t they ever let me be?
First, having to make my peace with letting her go, convinced that faking her death and telling her to disappear was the only way to save her.
Then, to actually believe her dead, after that fucker beat and stabbed her.
To find her alive again, but barely, and that horrific drive home during which I was convinced I’d lost her all over again.
Two weeks in a coma as we called every doctor we could count on to keep things on the down-low.
It was torture, wondering every moment if she’d live.
At last she woke, safe and sound, and another form of torture began, the waiting kind, because I couldn’t touch her.
Well, not the kind of touch I’d been aching for.
It’s only very recently that I’ve been able to possess her, mind and body, and even now, I have to hold back. In a way, it makes it even better. That constant frustration, that constant need, drives me crazy. And I love it.
They could at least leave me alone for a little while. A couple of weeks. I’ve earned it, after everything.
Sighing, I reach the conference room, where Logan, Everest and Igor are gathered. Usually, Vale makes a conspicuous absence, but today, Vincent is seated in his place.
“We’re dealing with a clusterfuck of a situation,” begins Logan, by way of hello.
“As long as my pet is here where she belongs, it can’t be too bad,” I scowl. “At least, not bad enough to keep me away from her.”
“Yes, I heard you kids having fun,” smirks Logan.
I return his smirk. There’s something so freeing about not having to hide my obsession anymore. Of not having to worry about appearing weak. I’m not weak. I killed for her, and I’d do it again. A million times over.
In fact, I have a list of people who are dead, only they don’t know it yet.
“Anyway,” adds Logan, growing serious again. “we’re all fucked.”
“What now?” I ask, passing a hand over my eyes.
“Well, for starters, as I mentioned on the phone, your pet killed a guy.”
“Yeah, I heard you the first time. So how did you find out? How did this get out?”
He stares at me quizzically. “You’re already aware of it?”
“I’m aware of everything that concerns her,” I bark. “Vincent here did some digging on her past. Wait, why is Vincent here? Did you tell them, asshole?”
My assistant blanches. “No, no. I swear…”
“He’s been pretty helpful,” cuts in Logan, “especially given how MIA you’ve been. He’s been keeping us in the loop about what the Feds are up to.”
“How would he know?” I snap.
“He’s pretty good with the whole hacking stuff. How’d you think he got us all that info to begin with? Your girl’s backstory, Angel, now the Feds…”
“Okay, but they think she’s dead. So why would they still care about her killing her father?”
Logan frowns. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fucking Feds guy she stabbed six months ago.”
I gape at him in shock.
“Guess she didn’t tell you about that, did she?”
“No,” I admit, leaning back in my chair. “Fill me in?”
“Well, his body was lying in the forest, that same dense forest Vale brought Seraphina to. So they didn’t find him for months. The Feds guy is very heavy, and someone had clearly moved the guy there, so it took them by surprise when their DNA search led them to a girl.”
I close my eyes in confusion.
“We think Vale probably put the body there,” adds Logan. “He was planning to kill her, and he didn’t want them tracing her, since obviously they’d end up figuring out what he’d done.”
“Bastard,” I grunt.
“Yeah, well, anyway. The guy who was on our case is dead. Samuel Mattson. We’d noticed that they backed off, but we didn’t know why until now.
Your girl killed Mattson, and the whole case died with him.
Until now. Now, they’re more interested than ever, and they know.
They know she’s alive and that she has blood on her hands. ”
I shake my head, trying to process the information.
“Samuel Mattson,” I repeat. “Why would she have killed him?”
“We’re pretty sure it was to protect you,” says Logan softly.
“We know he had the nanochip, and it was on him when he died, but it vanished. They figured out he died in North Astley, and they’re dragging the lake for the nanochip, but even if they find it, which is highly unlikely, I doubt it would be readable. The heat is off us for good.”
“But not off her,” I say bitterly. “Why would she have done that? She should have let me deal with it. She shouldn’t have gotten involved.”
“Well, I guess she loves you,” murmurs Logan. “Wouldn’t you have done the same for her?”
“That’s different,” I growl. “She’s mine. I’m supposed to protect her. And I failed miserably. She saved me, and I couldn’t even prevent her from getting stabbed and nearly killed. And now, she’s going to go to prison. Unless you have some bright idea to keep her safe?”
“I was hoping you would. But I guess you’ve been too busy with your head up her pussy to think about actual important things.”
“Fuck off,” I mutter.
Everest runs a hand through his thick blond hair. “That poor girl. One shitty situation after another. And now, prison.”
“Over my dead body,” I snap. “We’ll figure it out.
Are you sure they’ll pin it on her? Maybe we can get some sort of deal.
She was badly injured when I found her. What do you think, Vincent?
Your dad’s a prosecutor, isn’t he? What kind of bullshit do we need to come up with so the charges don’t stick? ”
He hesitates. “Well, the good news is I think they’ll let the dead father case go. It’s pretty iffy anyway. The guy killed her mother, and she was only fourteen anyway. I think it’s likely they’ll decide this is the better case and bury the other one.”
Logan stares at us, and I realize he didn’t know about the patricide, after all. But I keep my focus on Vincent.
“Great,” I growl. “So she’s even more screwed than she was before. How reassuring.”
Vincent grows red, but presses on. “The first thing to do about this new case, I think, is to look at the time it happened. Middle of the night, in a desolate area, she’s already been beaten by her boyfriend.”
“Ex-boyfriend.”
“Ex-boyfriend,” he agrees politely as both Logan and Everest roll their eyes. “So, the immediate thing I would say is, she didn’t realize he was a federal officer. Self-defense.”
“Good boy,” I approve. “See, Logan? Solution.”
He shakes his head. “He was found with his card in his hand. He had obviously identified himself to her. And the stab wounds were not consistent with self-defense.”
“Why not?”
“Well, for starters, there were twelve of them.”
Everest lets out a low whistle. “Who’d have thought that girl had such anger issues?”
“Fuck off,” I spit out through gritted teeth, “and don’t talk about her in the past tense.”
“Right, right. Sorry.”
He backs off, raising his hands in the air in a gesture of apology, and I turn back to Vincent.
“Well? What else have you got?”
He clears his throat and readjusts his frameless glasses on the bridge of his nose.
“I’d say we might have another shot by pleading temporary insanity.
She had been attacked pretty viciously by her boyfriend—ex-boyfriend, sorry—just a little while before.
It could be argued that she was feeling a heightened sense of danger, and maybe something in her snapped, temporarily at least, causing some sort of exaggerated reaction that… ”
“Fine. Temporary insanity. Perfect.”
“Except for one thing,” cuts in Logan, and I grunt in exasperation. “One thing that invalidates either of those arguments. The fact that it was confirmed he was carrying the nanochip on him right before he went to see your girl. Meaning, she had to have stolen it.”
“Or,” I interrupt, “the guy who moved him into the forest did. Isn’t that a possibility?”
Logan pauses. “Yeah, I guess. It’s true there will be a major flaw in the prosecution’s argument. She couldn’t have moved the body by herself. Especially not injured as she was.”
“Petty theft,” I suggest. “Someone stumbled upon the body and took advantage of the opportunity.”
“Perfect,” smiles Everest, looking relieved. “Simple, straightforward, and…”
An uncomfortable cough interrupts him, and Vincent intercedes nervously. “There’s still a problem, though. Nothing was stolen. Nothing but that nanochip. He had a wallet with more than one hundred dollars in cash on him.”
I groan, letting my head fall between my hands.
“What if,” attempts Everest, “she stabbed him because he approaches her in the dark and she’s a little cuckoo in spite of him identifying himself, due to her injuries.
Then she flees, and some other guy, who was already following him in order to get his hands on the nanochip, seizes the opportunity to rob him of it? ”
“Starting to sound like some shitty detective fiction,” I grunt.
“The fact is, there is a real flaw in the prosecution’s case,” states Vincent.
“It’s supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, so that should be enough to get her off.
But when you’ve got twelve idiot jurors deciding on a person’s fate, generally, if you can’t present another plausible theory as to what happened, the person’s not getting off.
At best, they’ll agree she didn’t act alone, but that won’t get her off the murder charge. ”
I rub my hands over my eyes, the old migraine returning. “Meaning we’re screwed.”
“Our best shot,” says Vincent slowly, “is to try to get a plea bargain. Maybe ten years.”
“Fuck. Me.”
I bang my head angrily on the table. There’s got to be another solution. There’s just got to be.
Then I sit up abruptly. “Igor, do you still have that connection at the airport?”
He nods.
“You’re really thinking of sending her off to fucking Bangladesh or something?” snorts Logan. “Come on, man, be serious.”