Page 257 of Wicked Brutal

“I will. I’ll do everything I can today.”

Dad doesn’t like the qualification. Neither do I. But we’ve already learned what happens when we demand the law move at the speed we want it to.

Arthur looks at me. “What else did Ally tell you?”

I take them through it fast — because they already have the pictures, and the rest is the part that kept me awake. Jane knew Marianne. Marianne was social, funny, everywhere, until she married Victor and started vanishing behind him. Victor answering her invitations, cancelling for her, until nobody heard from her directly. Jane afraid for her sometimes. Roman calling Victor disciplined.

“That tracks with everything we found,” Arthur says.

“There’s more. Ally asked what Roman gets when she marries Victor. Jane said, ‘It isn’t simply what your father gets.’”

Gideon says it first. “So Tremblay gets something.”

“Yeah. And she called it an agreement. Not an arrangement. An agreement.”

Arthur goes still. “Agreement.”

Callum leans back. “That’s not parental matchmaking.”

“No,” Gideon says. “That’s transactional language.”

My stomach turns, because whatever polite fucking word they wrap around it, Ally is the thing standing in the middle of the transaction.

“He gets an eighteen-year-old wife Roman spent her whole life training to obey him. That’s already something.”

Dad’s expression turns murderous again. Arthur doesn’t argue. “You’re right.” That almost makes it worse. “But Jane’s wording says there’s something else attached to it. And she told Ally Roman keeps everything.”

“Everything what?” Dad asks.

“She didn’t say. But Ally thinks Jane was pointing her at something.”

Arthur shakes his head immediately. “No.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were going to.” He looks at me. “Ally does not search Roman’s office. She doesn’t go through his computer. She doesn’t suddenly develop an interest in his paperwork. Especially after last night.”

“I fucking know.”

He holds my stare a second, then nods. “Jane gave her that for a reason. We let Jane decide how much farther she’s willing to go.”

“Victor called. After Roman hurt them.” Arthur’s attention sharpens. “Roman ignored the first call. Second one, he answered. Told Victor he was handling it, that he’d been containing the Edgewood fallout. Tried to tell Victor he never should’ve engaged us.”

Dad’s eyes narrow. “Roman told him that?”

“Yeah. And Victor cut him off.”

Dad goes quiet. Arthur notices. “What?”

“Roman doesn’t get cut off,” Dad says. “I’ve known that asshole for years. He barely lets people finish a sentence when he thinks he knows more than they do.”

“Which is always,” Thomas says.

“Exactly. And he let Tremblay shut him up?”

“Then said he’d be there, and left. Immediately.”

Gideon sits back. “They’re not equals.”