‘Isaid—’
‘I’ll tell you anything you want to know,’ Madeline utters, lifeless eyes fixed on the spot where her brother went to sleep and never woke up.‘Anything.’
‘Yes, but whatdoyou know of value, you old cunt?’Fenwick asks, swishing the water around in the bottle.This part of the mansion is bathed in full sunlight.Lachlan’s skin is burnt to fuck.‘Do you know who killed my brother?’
She whines.‘I… I can find out.Alistair trusts me.’
Fenwick cocks his head.‘Open your mouth.’
Stupidly, she does it.Like an eager, trusting baby bird, she waits.
Lachlan already knows what’s coming.
He likes to think he himself wouldn’t exert so much inefficient cruelty, but he’s not remotely shocked when Fenwick spits in her mouth.
She makes a truly horrified sound, gagging.
Fenwick laughs, gaze landing on Lachlan.
‘We need to get into the second panic room.Who can help?’
Richard clears his throat.‘If you find their ventilation, you could—’
‘No.’
‘Maybe if you light fires outside the door—’
‘I don’t wantsuggestions, I want solutions,’ Fenwick says, tipping water away onto the floor.‘One of you knows something.’
Madeline looks at Lachlan, wild with desperate loathing.‘Him!He can get inside!He’s fucking the boy!’
Fenwick wrinkles his nose.‘Who, him?’he asks, gesturing to Roman.
‘No, Alistair’s son!They’re together.I walked in on them.If you take the bodyguard down, Julian will open the door for him.’
Fenwick stares at Lachlan.‘Is this true?’
‘You can try,’ Lachlan tells him, ‘but they’re billionaires.They don’t care about their own friends, let alone staff.’
‘The boy is in love with him, everyone knows it!’
Fenwick looks around.‘You have anyone to back your claim?’
Richard nods.‘It’s true.’
‘And how do you know?’
‘I saw them kiss on the beach.It was dark, but I saw it.’
‘What about you, Sorrenko?Care to corroborate?’
Mikhail stays quiet.
Fenwick punches him in the ear.
Roman looks away.
‘I’ve been reasonable,’ Fenwick says, and Lachlan, despite everything, knows it’s true.There are multiple lines he hasn’t crossed.Men are capable of such things no god ever thought to forbid.‘But now I want real answers.Either get me into that panic room or tell me what happened to my brother.I think onlyoneof you knows the latter,’ he says, gaze fixed on Lachlan.‘So the first is your only chance.’
