Page 46 of Race With The Devil

Slayer said, “Dogs and drones can help you. You know, Fox, Vera pointed out a bald eagle, soaring soundlessly as though floating in space.”

Fox perked up. “A bald eagle? We have a couple of those at our ranch.”

While the men discussed raptors, Knoxie, next to me, said, “We haven’t really talked about Lyric yet, you and me. She told us you’re a hundred percent on board about us adopting her.”

“Of course!” I cried. “It never occurred to me you could do that, but of course it’s fine! No one has heard from our mother since the day we confronted Gary. I got a subpoena to testify at the trial in February.”

Knoxie sighed. “Right. I know that’ll be difficult for you, but it’s got to be done.”

“Right. I just won’t think about it until it’s upon me. The dreading of something is worse than the event.”

“I went through all that with Bellamy, her PTSD about the suffering she went through at the hands of that psycho guru. I guess you’re working through it, being able to spend so much time with Tanner.”

I frowned. “Why shouldn’t I spend so much time with Tanner?”

Knoxie shrugged. “Oh, I just meant, you know.” No. I didn’t know. “After he spent so much time in the big house for rape and all. Something something something . . . “

I seriously didn’t hear a word Knoxie said after “rape.” It was like an aneurysm suddenly flooded my peripheral vision and all I could see was a horrible, red-tinged circle of doom and despair. I looked away from Knoxie and at his hand that held a pen. It was a circle of livid, angry red as though the flames of hell licked at his hand.

Without thinking, I swiveled to look at Tanner. He must’ve been engaged in conversation with someone, I don’t know. He was grinning and laughing, but my hell-tinged vision gave him a demon’s cast, and he may as well have grown horns.

When it felt like blood was seeping from my eye sockets, I stood. The fucking fluorescent light above my head seemed to spin like a carousel. I felt drunk, but minus the blissful lack of awareness that booze can bring.

No. I was hyper-aware. At my side sat a devil almost as bad as Gary Gregario.

“I have to . . . “ I remember saying. I wasn’t sure what I had to do, but the first thing was to get out of that conference room.

The same front desk clerk who had played the part of the Prime Minister of Montenegro tried to “help” me in the lobby, but I was nearly as rude and self-absorbed as Slayer. I shoved on past the poor woman, the parking lot a swirling blur of red cars.

“So much time in the big house for rape.”

Yes. That’s what Knoxie had said.

Somewhere in there was the nugget of a story Tanner had told me about taking the rap for something his brother had done. Buddy, was that the brother’s name? It doesn’t fucking matter. Blaming it all on your sibling was a tale as old as flip phones. Knoxie was praising me for being mature enough to handle Tanner’s filthy criminal past, and I wasn’t! I wasn’t mature enough! There was no fucking excuse for even being in the vicinity of anyone who would do that!

I jammed my lid onto my head without buckling it and straddled my saddle. Someone was yelling at me from the front door of the inn. I turned to see “The Kindly Sicario” waving at me with an exaggerated, crushed face of concern. Santiago Slayer was concerned about me, but Tanner wasn’t! Someone popped out of the door behind Slayer, but it was only Knoxie.

Fuck this! I’d been hanging out with a fucking rapist!

Buddha allegedly said, “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” Fuck that. I knew what I knew. A couple other guys buzzed from the inn like bees, but I didn’t stop to see who they were. I just barely managed to resist flipping all of them off before fishtailing it out of the gravel lot.

Now we knew where to look for Lavinia. But I didn’t want to be partners with Tanner Principato anymore.