“If you’re still here when the cops arrive, I’m turning you in.” The words should sound matter-of-fact. They’re a simple promise, a statement of what he means to do. But they’re twisted by revulsion.
Megan tries again. “You think Iwantedthis to happen? He tied me up too!”
“For Christ’s sake,” Cole says. “You think I’ve never heard of an inside man? You played the shill for Shannon before you turned five.”
“And you worked with Mom beforeIdid!”
He shakes his head, one single, sharp movement, like a predator snapping the spine of its prey.
“I’ll have you arrested for trespass,” Cole says.“Assault. Battery. Conspiracy to commit a crime. Felony theft.”
“No onestolea thing!” Megan sounds outraged.
Cole snatches his watch from his wrist and hands it to Nilsson. “I’ll tell the police your co-conspirator left with my Patek Philippe.” Nilsson deftly stashes the timepiece into a pocket.
Megan huffs with disbelief. “He wasn’t my?—”
“You’re wasting time, Megan. Time you want to spend getting very far away from here. Building an alibi. Figuring out how the hell you’ll support yourself for the rest of your life, because you’re never getting a single penny from me, ever again.”
“I’m yoursister!”
Her cry shreds something inside me, because I’m a sister too. I’ve done terrible things, cruel things, illegal things, but I’ve always known Breagha would forgive me. Breagha loves me, no matter what I’ve said or done.
And today’s disaster isn’t just Megan’s fault. She brought Pyotr Tarasov to the gate, butI’mthe one who let them in. Me. I opened the feckin’ gate, breaching Cole’s wall. He protected his kingdom. He had a system, a plan,rules, and I destroyed everything. Whatever punishment he’s meting out to Megan, I deserve the same. More.
But Cole answers her plaintive cry with perfect calm. “My sister?” he asks. “The one who ran a Big Store scam in this very room, pulling in half a million bucks with a fake casino?”
“That was a long ti?—”
“Thesisterwho conned three different people out of earnest money when she worked with a fake realtor to sell this place while I was out of the country?”
“I waited until you were gone so you couldn’t be?—”
“Thesisterwho hung bogus paintings throughout this house, planning to sell them off as originals without one single thought about what that would do to the value of my actual collection?”
“Those counterfeits were top of the line! They cost me?—”
She hears it before I do, a siren rapidly growing closer. The blood drains from her face, making the bruises on her throat stand out like coal dust on snow. “Cocoa Puff,” she pleads.
“Megan,” he says evenly.
“Mom always said?—”
“Shannon was a liar and a thief and a top ten finalist for Worst Mother of the Year.”
“Cole…” she whispers.
The siren is closer now, rising and falling like the waves of nausea deep in my belly. I can make out the honking of horns too, as if traffic isn’t clearing some intersection quickly enough.
Megan pulls herself up to her full height, which barely clears my chin. Biting her lip, she tosses her purple hair. She plants her hands on her hips. “I know secrets about you too,” she says to Cole.
“Nothing you can prove.”
“I know names. Places.”
“And what do you know about statutes of limitation?”
“You’re my fuckingbrother!” she shouts.
