Page 26 of No Merciful Corruption

He leans forward and presses a chaste kiss against my forehead. Somehow, it feels worse than being hated. I know his forgiveness is sincere but I feel so deeply unworthy of it. I almost miss when he was ignoring me. At least then I was being rightfully punished.

Rian pulls away and calls up toward the mezzanine. “Come down.”

Damiano swings his head over the railing. “I’m surprised no one die—” he bolts upward and spins around, clutching the back of his head. “Ow!”

“Idiot,” Lyss murmurs.

The four of them make their way downstairs and Alejandro is last. Our eyes meet but it’s brief.

“We don’t have a lot of time.” Rian says. “We need a plan.”

Alejandro addresses Sasha. “I’ll call my lawyer as soon as we’re done here. I’ll have the paperwork drawn up for the sale no later than tomorrow afternoon.”

Sasha gives a curt, definitive nod. “Fine.” He looks at his brother. “What’s next?”

“Once the sale goes through, Narvaez and I will sit down to talk. Shares in the company were how we maintained our partnership in the past and we can’t afford to lose our support in Barcelona. Not now, at least,” he says then turns to Alejandro. “We’ll come to a new arrangement. One that’s beneficial for us both.”

Alejandro bows his head in silent approval.

Rian continues, “As for this police investigation, we need to get our story straight. Which is where Alyssa comes in.”

Lyss perks up. “Me?”

“Yes, you. You’re the one who figured out we could track Dahlia by her glow up pendant.”

“Friendship necklace.” She corrects.

I almost smile.

“The police are going to try and question you again. We need a linear account of the evening and it’s going to start with you.”

The six of us sit down and construct a timeline starting from when Lyss got home that evening up until the moment she called 911 in the park. All of our police interviews up until this point have been truthful but vague and borderline useless, which means if the FBI gets involved, we won’t be able to skirt by with half-baked responses anymore. We’ll need something concrete and consistent. Something they can’t poke holes in. Or at least, tight enough that they don’t bother trying.

“If they pull our phone records, it might be a problem saying Lyss was the one who got the call from Li.” Damiano points out.

“I’ll have my cousin Arias handle it,” Alejandro says. “He’s in Miami taking care of something for my aunt. He won’t mind a brief trip up here.”

“We still don’t have a motive for why Li wanted to kidnap Dahlia in the middle of the night and lure us all out to Central Park.” Lyss counters. “If we’re going to retract the part of our story where we all claimed to be in the right place at the right time, then we need to make the next story we’re selling them convincing.”

“Simple.” Sasha gives a light shrug. “Tell the truth.”

I rub my temples. “Aren’t we trying to avoid that?”

“Everyone knows you and Li didn’t get along. The police will be able to get plenty of interviews to corroborate that,” Sasha explains. “We tell them Li took Dahlia because the enmity between them reached a breaking point.”

Rian shakes his head. “They’ll never believe that.”

“They will if you tell them it’s because she came into possession of the gun that killed Amy Walsh.”

I almost fall off the barstool. “You can’t be serious.”

“Think about it,” Sasha has his hands shoved into the pockets of his black slacks as he walks the perimeter of the dance floor. “You’re at a poker game and the weapon is on the table but you don’t know what it really is. It looks antique and you assume it has great value. After you win the game and come into possession of it, Li is…increasingly hostile and threatening toward you. He demands to have it back but you refuse because you quickly realize it’s leverage against him. He either approves of your relationship with Rian and leaves you in peace or you take it to the police.”

The five of us exchange uncertain glances. Sasha continues his walking.

“Li can’t outright kill you because Rian is protecting you. But having the weapon poses a threat to him. It all comes apart after your fight at The Empress the week before the shootout. There’s too much bad blood between you and he decides he wants the pistol back. A week later, you go missing for several hours, Lyss can’t get a hold of you, and then she gets a strange phone call from Li.” He stops and spins on the balls of his feet to face us. “The rest unfolds from there.”

Lyss stares at him a minute. “That’s almost exactly how it happened.”