Chapter 26
Let me in
Dina
Declan walks back to sit at the table. He joins his hands as if in prayer, something I see him do often.
“That was nerve-racking.” I sit with him and take a bite of croissant. The moment the buttery crispness melts on my tongue, I moan. “Excuse me, but what kind of amazing is this?”
“Mary,” Connor says. “Endo’s pastry chef.”
Can I keep her? “How long is she staying?”
Connor hands Declan a black card. When Declan stares into space, not accepting it, Connor flicks it toward him. It lands on the table. Clearly, the brothers aren’t in the mood for small talk or my unnecessary diversions. I guess I’m staying for the food.
Declan leans back and stares at the black business card with an hourglass on it. I didn’t think people still traded business cards, and I’ve never seen one without a name. Just an hourglass.
I wipe my mouth with a napkin. “Who was that man?”
“Nobody,” the twins answer at the same time.
“Since we’re doing more thinking than talking this morning, I’m thinking I need to run some errands.”
Declan looks up from the card. “What needs doing?”
I take a sip of water. “The police said I’ve been released, pending investigation.
That I should probably get a lawyer in case there are legal ramifications for driving with an illegal rifle in my car.
They’re saying if those are your prints on the rifle and you go down, I go down with you as an accessory. ”
“Let me handle that entire shitshow,” Declan says.
“I could help, if you want me to.”
Declan shakes his head.
Connor nods. “Okay. How can you help?”
“Connor,” Declan says in a warning tone.
“How? Tell me.”
“I know most of these cops, and if I don’t, I know someone who does. Selnoa is a city of millions, but we’re like one big fucked-up village, and it takes a village mentality to deal with us. I can help…us. But you have to tell me what’s going on.”
“You are already involved beyond what I intended for you, so no more.” Declan ends the conversation.
“What I’m saying is I know how people here work.
They want to eat and drink and enjoy life.
Men want to leave their families and come to the mansion to indulge themselves.
Your father understood that. He provided those men with a fantasy that they couldn’t otherwise have on their own.
It…it takes lots of effort for a man to sneak around with a mistress.
” I swallow. “It drains the pocket. Fancy dinners, getaways, all the wooing costs money most of these men have but don’t like to spend.
Your father made the fantasy life accessible.
Even to the middle class of Selnoa. Like the cops. ”
That gets their attention.
“What do you think your dad had on the chief of police? I bet it wasn’t a long-lost marijuana charge or a drunk and disorderly.”
“You think the chief was a customer?” Connor asks.
“Was he?” I ask. “It’s a reasonable conclusion. What do we even know about him besides that he is the chief of police?”
“He’s married,” Connor says. “Wife, no kids. Goes to work, comes home, travels in the summer.”
“Does he love his wife?” Declan asks.
“See?” I nod. “There is always something.”
“The wife already knows about the sidepiece he banged at the police station.” Connor taps his laptop on the side of the table. “If there was anything I could use to get him, I would’ve found it.”
“Does he love his wife?” Declan asks again.
Connor shrugs. “How would I know?”
“Because you know things.”
“Not this. I don’t know anything about love.”
“Guess,” Declan presses.
Connor rubs the back of his neck. I think he’s uncomfortable, but I’m unsure why. “My guess is that he does.”
“If that’s the route we want to take with the chief, I can find out for sure.”
“No,” Declan says at the same time as Connor asks, “How?”
“All the surveillance in the world and all the artificial intelligence in the world can’t beat word of mouth.
When people get together and gossip at the barbershop or a women’s hair salon, information is shared in ways it isn’t elsewhere.
While the rest of the world sits alone on their phone staring at the endless scroll of social media, here in Selnoa, we go out and connect and gossip over a nice cup of strong coffee. ”
Declan smirks. “I sense a pitch coming.”
“A client reached out to me before I came downstairs. It’s an old friend of mine. Someone needed a hairdresser to work the bridal shower downtown at the Rolan Hotel. Glenda suggested I do it, and she asked me to come in after noon.”
“You already said yes?” Connor asks.
I nod. “I need the money, and I want to keep my business going. These clients are ones I can’t refuse. Or rather shouldn’t. The chief’s wife will be there.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I have the guest list. It’s a small, exclusive type of shower. I can get clients. So…”
The Crossbow twins are shaking their heads. It would be cute if it weren’t annoying. “I can find out all kinds of things that can help us keep me and definitely you out of jail, so I say it’s worth going. I said yes anyway, so I intend to go.”
The headshaking stops.
I smile. “Thank you for understanding that I cannot be a doll inside a glass house and that after many years spent cooking and cleaning after a man who ended up leaving me broke and broken, I will never depend on a man again. I must keep my business. At all costs. I want to win my lawsuit against Sergei.”
“I mean, I can help you with Sergei.” Connor opens the flaps of his jacket, showing me his weapons.
I chuckle, but I’m sure he’s not joking. “They’ve scheduled me for two o’clock. If I leave now, I’ll have enough time to stop by my salon and grab supplies.”
“No,” Declan repeats.
The brothers lock gazes, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say they were speaking telepathically.
“I said no,” Declan repeats yet again.
“She will go regardless,” Connor says. “Best fold on this, brother.”
Declan pockets the business card and takes out a wad of cash. “How much do you want to stay at home?”
“What are you offering?”
“I want to know how much you want to stay in the house?”
“Oh, you mean like be your private, little whore?” I give him an outrageous figure.
Declan grinds his teeth. “Don’t be unreasonable.”
“I’m not. This is a private party that I want to work that will be good for my business.”
“You just got out of jail and—”
“Exactly! Great point. I need to get my life back.”
“You can never have that life back.”
I wince as if he slapped me. “Well, some of us…some of us want to live normal lives, and we want normalcy back, not necessarily the same life I lived. And why can’t I have it back?”
“Because you’re with me.” He pushes the wad of cash toward me.
I’m starting to think I’m one of the majority of people who can’t handle the truth. I’m not ready to hear it, and Declan knows, but he wants to make his point even if it hurts me. I push the money back. “It’s not about the money.”
Declan stands and buttons his suit. He pierces me with a glare that makes me shiver. It’s almost like he withdrew into himself, and all that’s left is his physical presence. “You cannot leave.”
I stand too. “Did you get me out of a police station to make me your prisoner?”
“I owed you that much.”
“I consider your debt paid, then. We’re even.”
“Dina.” He says my name as if it’s a prayer.
“I don’t have the police, the International Security Command is breathing down my neck, and Ivan put a price on my head.
All those people already know I’m willing to go to great lengths for you, and they will use you to get to me.
There is nothing normal about this. I’m sorry, but until I have secured that power, you are staying in the mansion. ”
“Your father had all the power and look what happened to him. Can’t you see? It’s not about power either.”
Declan scrubs his face. “Fuck.”
“If you won’t let me out, then you have to let me in.”
“In?” His eyes are saucers.
Connor’s eyebrows shoot up.
“Yes, in. I go to the bridal shower, and I inform on whatever I hear. I’m already involved. I know the rifle was yours. I know what you did with it. They all know but can’t prove it. It’s why they’re here trying to extract a confession from you.”
“She’s right. The rifle is a problem,” Connor says.
“You don’t say! I thought it was a solution,” Declan barks.
“She’s right,” Connor says.
“Leave her out of this.”
“Unless you get rid of me, I know everything. It’s a little too late to deny my involvement. “
“Which is precisely why you can’t go anywhere. Enemies are circling. There will be blood, and I can’t have it be your blood.”
“Then why didn’t you send me on the cruise with my family?”
Declan sighs.
“Got ya there, bro,” Connor pitches from the sideline.
“Why?” I put my hands on my hips.
“Because.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is when I say it.”
“Oh, are you a big shot now?”
“I’m Declan Crossbow. I’ve always been a big shot.”
My chin quivers, so I poke his chest with my finger.
“I’m going to the salon for ten minutes to load supplies.
After that, I’ll drive to the hotel and spend a few hours doing hair with just us girls.
We’ll drink mimosas, paint nails, and gossip.
It’s what girls love to do. I need this, Dec.
I… Don’t clip my wings when I’ve just learned how to fly again.
” My eyes fill with tears that I wipe away.
Declan Crossbow can leave whenever he chooses. And where will that leave me? My business is worth fighting for, dammit.
I can tell the moment he folds because he cups my face and wipes my tears.
“Con?” he says.
“Still right here, holding the candle.”
“You like mimosas, don’t you?”