Page 64 of Lethal Salvation

“Then let’s go wait with the others.”

“You’re not gonna mention what you saw earlier?”

Duchess stopped and faced Lotus, regarding her closely. Lotus had a troubled past, a lost mother, lies, murder, coercion, manipulation, and more. Yet Duchess saw the vulnerable woman who lashed out with her tongue because she didn’t want to get hurt and it made her want to protect her, but she knew she couldn’t always. “Do I need to?”

Lotus tipped her chin mulishly and held her gaze, but Duchess had been doing this job a long time and wouldn’t allow her to deflect this with her attitude. “That won’t work with me, Lotus. You fucked up and you know it. We both know I don’t give a fuck who you sleep with, even if I consider that person a friend. You’re both grown-ups but what you don’t do is let your guard down on a job. You made yourself vulnerable tonight and that won’t be tolerated.”

Lotus paled slightly. “What will you do?”

Duchess ground her teeth in an effort not to give in to her instinct to reassure. Lotus needed to learn a hard lesson and perhaps a little fear over her position in Shadow would be enough. She wasn’t lying about her and damn, she didn’t care and had it been one of the others she’d be reacting the same way. “That’s up to Bás but I’ll be recommending that you be suspended from active duty until an assessment can be done. You have a death wish, Lotus, and I don’t want that on my conscience.”

Lotus went to speak but Duchess held up her hand. “This isn’t the time or place.”

Walking away she hated leaving the woman doubting her place within Shadow because the truth was, she’d always have one, but whether that was active or not remained to be seen.

In the study she found Damon and Gideon standing near the fireplace, while Marsha sat with a glass of clear liquid in her hand staring into space. Duchess headed towards them quickly.

“How is everyone holding up?”

Gideon reached for her, and she let him take her hand, as Lotus watched on, probably thinking she was a hypocrite, but her head was in the game and that was the difference.

“I can’t believe he’s dead.”

“No, the timing is definitely suspect.”

The door opened and four police officers swept into the room. One of them scanned the room, his eyes landing on her and she recognised him instantly. Her lips twitched as Alex Martinez, Eidolon’s second in command spoke to Marsha, the police badge he flashed her as fake as the boobs on the woman he spoke to.

“Do you think we’ll be held here?”

Duchess shook her head at Gideon’s question. “No, Bás has it handled. We’ll have to stay a bit but just hang tight.”

“Duchess.”

She cocked her head to listen to Bás who spoke to her through her earpiece. “Yes?”

“Just play along. Watchdog intercepted the emergency calls, so you have time for Eidolon to clear the scene for us and remove the body and get you out of there.”

“I take it the police won’t be handling this one?”

“No, they will not.”

Duchess moved closer to Gideon, sliding her arm around his waist and nodding for Lotus to resume her role of smitten girlfriend, which she’d been so relishing earlier. Laying her head on Gideon’s chest she let him move them away a little so they were standing a few feet away. His arm banded around her waist like an anchor and that’s how he made her feel. Stable and secure in a world where everything was on the edge of falling apart.

“You think she did this?”

Duchess followed his line of thought and glanced across the room at Marsha. The woman looked wrecked, her face a mess, her composure torn to shreds. “No, I don’t think so. She’s competitive and wants to win but I don’t think she’d kill her own son over it.”

“They were fighting. He told me earlier.”

Duchess pursed her lips. “If this was a crime of anger there’d be more destruction, but that scene is clean. This was a professional with a cool head.”

“He was scared. When we spoke he was nervous and jumpy. I should have listened and waited with him. Maybe then he’d be alive.”

Grief and regret rang out from every pore of the man she knew she was falling in love with. Her heart ached to take this from him but just as he couldn’t take her pain she couldn’t take his, but she could ease it like he’d done for her. “This isn’t your fault, Gideon.”

“No, maybe not, but I have to take a share of the blame for who he became.”

“No, you don’t. You were a child yourself, navigating a complex family life with no instruction manual. Your father is the one to blame.”