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“What do you mean?”
“I mean, has he put anything in motion, started the transfer of assets? He’s supposed to notify any heirs. He hasn’t spoken to me. Has he spoken to you?”
“I…Frank has been a little distracted,” I say diplomatically. “But he’s a good guy; I’m sure he’s?—”
“Areyou sure, though?” Holden asks, his voice so serious that I’m taken aback. “Because Frank Colombo isnota good guy, Brie.”
I want to laugh, but I can’t. Holden is right. Frank, just like everyone else in the Colombo Family, is not a good guy. “Trustworthy,” I amend. But that doesn’t feel quite right, either.“Honorable,” I try. “He’ll carry out Terry’s wishes. And Holden—even if he doesn’t, I’ll make sure you get your fair share of?—”
“I don’tcareabout that,” Holden says impatiently. “Brie, I think you’re putting way too much faith in Frank. He found Terry that night, didn’t he? What if he…” He trails off.
I glance at the monitors again, wondering if Nik is alright.Prayingthat she’s alright. “Nik and I have talked about Frank as a suspect, too,” I admit softly to Holden. “So it’s not that I’m blind to his faults. I just think he’s too…” I don’t want to call Frank dumb. “He doesn’t have the technical knowledge to erase that footage, for one thing,” I point out. “Anyway, right now we have other things to worry about.”
But Holden doesn’t seem ready to come back to the present. “Do you remember the night you and Terry and I first met?” he asks wistfully.
“Of course I do. You’re the reason I’m still alive now.”
“What do you mean?”
I laugh sadly. “Don’tyouremember, Holden? Terry was ready to kill me then and there when I saw him with you. It was only because of what you said that he didn’t.” I think about the Holden I’ve known these past years—sweet, smart, always eager to please. And like me, he has a way of influencing people. Convincing them to do things.
A less charitable way of describing us would be manipulative. But people like us wouldn’t survive in this world without that skill. People like Nik, on the other hand…she’s survived by being brave and taking action, just like she’s doing now.
And I’m the one who manipulated her into this whole situation. There’s no denying that. “Goddamn it,” I snap, angry with myself, and frustrated all over again by just sitting around. “Move over a sec. Let me get a look at the security cameras.”
Holden obligingly shifts over, and it’s easy enough to search through the cameras and find where the action is happening after I turn on the night vision. Fear clutches at my gut when I see Lyssa’s getting too close to Nik. Maybe I can help…
With a few taps on the control panel, I raise the downlights right over where Lyssa is standing, blinding and distracting her long enough for Nik to sneak away.
“But what are they doing now?” Holden asks, as transfixed as I am by the images. “They’re all juststandingthere. Turn on the microphones.”
I lean over and switch them on.
“—here to hurt you,” one of them is saying. “There’s a bigger picture you’re not seeing.”
“Enlighten me,” I hear Nik growl, and as she defends me again to them, my heart swells with relief.
The fear is still there. But Nik reallydoestrust me, enough to have my back even when she doesn’t know I’m listening in. “She’s not a killer,” she’s saying. “Don’t you think she’d be out here facing you with me if she was?”
And then the scene is interrupted by a deafening crack that splits the air—and thehouse. The floor rumbles even here in the safe room as though an earthquake is passing through, and the monitors show the east side of the house exploding in a shower of glass and sparks before they go dark.
I lunge for the door, terror for Nik overriding everything else, but Holden’s hand clamps down on my arm, yanking me back with surprising strength. “Are you crazy?” he hisses, his fingers digging into my flesh. “Nik told us to stay putno matter what. We’re safe in here.”
“Let go of me.”
“Brie—”
“Let go of me,” I say again, my voice low and dangerous.
It’s the same voice I used that night my mother’s boyfriend cornered me in the trailer. I’ve never heard myself sound that way in all the years since, but now it comes naturally, as if fear for Nik has unlocked something in me.
Something malevolent.
Holden’s grip loosens, and he steps back, hands raised and shaking slightly. “Seriously, Brie, you should stay right here. Niktoldyou?—”
He breaks off as I press my palm to the biometric panel, open the door, and bolt. My bare feet slap against the cool tile as I race toward the noise. This house that was meant to be my sanctuary now feels like one big trap, shadows lurking in every corner.
But I’ll be damned if I letanyonekeep me from Nik right now.
