Page 98 of Claim

“No.”

“Did you order it?”

“No.”

“Did Cormac?”

I paused. “I didn’t hear the order. Nor did I see it delivered. But yeah.”

Imogen held my gaze, making sure I meant it. Then struck the match. “Your DNA has been found in the warehouse. And prints.”

“Yeah. They would be. I was there, sure. But it was done before I arrived. Like I said, he was used to scare me, get me back in line.”

Imogen wrote that down. “So who else was involved?”

“Cormac has a right-hand man. Niall Doyle. He handles the jobs that need burying. Keeps everyone compliant. He did Kyan. On Cormac’s orders.”

“Any witnesses?”

“One. Tyler Morgan.”

Imogen looked up. “Who’s Tyler?”

“My second. He ran things when I was…” I shifted, cracked my neck. “Unavailable one weekend. He got called to a warehouse in Battersea by Cormac. Walked in on Kyan already dead. Then I was told to give the same message to Tyler.”

“What message?”

“That he didn’t run anything without me. That he remembered who he answered to.”

“And did you deliver that message?”

I swallowed. Hated that I had to say it. “Yeah. Enough.” I glanced down at my hands. They were shaking unlike when I’d delivered that message to Tyler.

She wrote Tyler’s name down. “And have you spoken to him since?”

“No.”

“Could he be a witness for the defence?”

I shook my head. “No. He’ll be terrified. He’ll say whatever Cormac wants him to.”

And that was when it hit.

Like a blade slipping between my ribs.

My so-called mercy, bleeding heart, as Tyler used to sneer, had meant the only man in that warehouse with a voice would end up using it against me. Because I’d beaten him blue. It wouldn’t matter to him that I stopped short of killing him. That I dragged him to the hospital. That I shoved a wad of cash into his girlfriend’s shaking hands and made sure he got home breathing.

None of that counted.

All that would count was fear. And the man who controlled it. And that one choice, sparing him, was coming back to finish the job for Cormac. I thought I was being different. Better. Turns out I’d been careless. Tyler had warned me. Said my leniency would come back on me. It was biting now.

Hard.

Tristan blinked as if only catching up. “So…just to clarify. You’re not guilty.”

I turned to him. “No. Not on those charges, no. You knew that.”

“And that’s how you’d like to plead?”