My feet take me to the restroom, where I find Reese washing up at the basin. She finds my eyes in the mirror, hers lighting up warmly. “Everything okay, sweetie?”
“Who told you about Ford visiting his father?”
She tilts her head to one side, confusion painted so openly on her face that I falter for a moment.
Maybe you’re wrong, Em.
“Hayley did, of course. Who else, silly?”
My stomach bottoms out when she instantly confirms my suspicion as she sets about checking her makeup in the vast mirror. With my mind whirring through a million thoughts, I’m unable to focus on anything except the now blatantly obvious.
My stepmother has been working with Beckham to elevate my career for God knows how long. And more concerningly…why?
CHAPTER 37
FORD
“He wants towhat?”
Vaughn regards me with serious eyes and a hardened jaw as he steps closer, repeating himself. “He wants to make a deal. The name of his co-conspirator in exchange for a plea deal.”
I grind my teeth, intensely disliking the feeling of being powerless here as I question, “And what are they gonna do?”
My old friend shrugs, watching me closely. “He claims he’ll only talk to you. That’s therealreason you’re here today.”
“Fuck!”
I scrub my hands down my face before I pin Vaughn with a look. “Let’s get it over with.”
He leads me farther inside the detention center that’s holding Beck, and through a long line of corridors until we come to several men standing together. Vaughn greets them one by one, clearly having done his homework.
At least one of us is on the ball lately.
“There are cameras in each corner and one directly above the table. We’ll be watching at all times.”
A slender blonde man gestures to follow him, but I stop, questioning, “What does he get in exchange?”
“Instead of being sent to maximum security out of state, he wants to remain local.” The officer shrugs. It’s something about being near his sick mother.”
Something inside of me softens despite myself, and I follow after, ducking into a holding cell to find Beck waiting. His usually cocky, downright rude demeanor is gone, replaced by wide eyes and genuine fear.
“Is it a deal?”
The officer nods at Beck’s barely audible question. “The paperwork is filed with the judge. You’ll be placed close by.”
As he leaves, I slide into the seat opposite and force my shoulders to relax, projecting a picture of nonchalance when, in reality, I’m anythingbut.
“Let’s just cut to the chase, Beck. I’m bone tired of this bullshit, and I’m not entirely sure you were working with anyone?—”
“It was Reese Seering…or as you know her these days, Reese Hart.”
A chill fills my bones as I search my mind for a single hint of anything untoward in any of my interactions with Emerson’s stepmother. In any of the reports I’ve run, and I come up with a blank.
“That woman is squeaky clean?—”
“I’m sure you were obsessed with your father’s trial like the rest of the nation…” he trails off, and I clench my jaw even as heat rises on my cheeks. “So, how come Emerson’s mom, Norah, was never formally named in the victim impact statement?”
Something that’s run through my head more times than I can count since Easton’s revelation, but I’ve been hesitant to poke that motherfucking hornets’ nest amid everything that’s been going on.
