Page 51 of Till Death Do Us Part

“Easy,” I said, and I scooped her up, carrying her across the room, and I sat her down in the chair facing the window just as Vera came in the room behind me, a gun out. I signaled to her it was clear, and she frowned, looking between me and Caitlyn, the gun on the floor, back to me.

“What’s going on?” she said, closing the door.

“Caitlyn found out about us, somehow,” I said. “Came in here to demand we change course. Got her hands on a 9mm, somehow. And turns out she’s a bad shot.”

“Caitlyn did?” Vera shook her head. “These Whitners… you really don’t know what to expect with them.”

“So?” I said. “What do you think we should do with her?”

She shook her head. “I’ve been wondering the same thing. We can’t just kill her. Glenn doesn’t want extra bodies piling up.”

“Yeah. Besides,” I sighed, gesturing at Caitlyn. “I mean, look at her.”

Vera smiled dryly at me. “Sentimental, Petra?”

“Well, look who’s talking, Wolf.”

She rolled her eyes, but I saw the way she subtly touched her ring with her thumb. What were we going to do if she couldn’t kill Elaine? Would I have to step up and do it?

“For now,” Vera said, “we keep her like this. If she was able to get that information on us that fast… she could be useful.”

Useful. That was all it was in the end, wasn’t it? Just how useful somebody was. I guess I’d just been useful for a bit, too. “Yeah,” I said, looking at Caitlyn’s small frame, quivering in fear, and I tried not to have my heart break at the sight. “Guess so.”

Chapter 23

vera

Night was heavy on the manor. I sat in the library, looking at the blade Petra had given me.

Whitecliffs’ mark, right there on the hilt. A good find on her part. Only the top operatives would have something like this, a status symbol.

Perfect to plant evidence with. Perfect to frame them for what I was about to do.

I didn’t want to.

It sat like a stone in the pit of my stomach, and I pressed my forehead against the glass, looking out at the gardens below, where rain had picked up again, a distant thunderstorm rumbling. The part of me that felt nothing…

She wasn’t coming out today.

Again.

My father’s voice hammered in the back of my mind.

Again, Vera.

Try harder. Do it again.

It’s like you’re trying to disappoint me.

Again.

Again.

I could do it again. I’d killed before. I’d killed someone I loved before, if you could call what my father and I had love.

Again.

I pushed away from the railing, striding through night-drenched halls to the primary bedroom. My stomach lurched at the sight.