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“My dad destroyed all her things. There’s nothing left, and she never left anything like this for people to find. She locked it all away in her office at home.”
“Grace left these with someone,” Arabella murmurs from behind me.
Stepping around me, she cradles Fleur, and a shudder wracks through Fleur’s tiny frame. It’s easy to forget that she’s only twenty-two with all her sass and bravado.
“She wouldn’t leave any of her notebooks with anyone. Her bipolar made her paranoid, and she wouldn’t trust anyone with her work. Mum never trusted anyone with her things, that’s why she used code.” My heart breaks at her wispy sigh. “I don’t know where you got this from, but the fact that you have it is wrong.”
Leo laughs dryly, the ire palpable enough that it has Arabella scowling at him.
“She was working on something with Kit, and whatever it was…”
“We don’t know what it was exactly because Freddie and Leo have only just managed to figure out her code,” I butt in before Arabella says more than she should. “We’re tracing their paths, but there’s this one thing that doesn’t make sense.” Pointing at the big squared numbers, I show her the one piece of the puzzle that neither Freddie nor Leo have been able to figure out.
“Rose.” Scrunching with grief, her face pales with a wobble of her lips. “They were her favourite. So predictable and ordinary for someone like her.”
Something happens in that moment, and although Arabella doesn’t let go of her, Casper stands over the two of them. Fleur looks up at him, and some kind of understanding flows between them.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.” Nodding, she turns to face him.
“How’d you work it out so quickly?” Freddie rounds the pool table to crowd our huddle, pushing himself between me and Arabella to stand right on top of Fleur.
Boundaries aren’t something he’s good with at the best of times.
“Back off.” It’s an order, and it’s not given lightly. Casper moves Fleur to his side, his scowl finding me before Freddie. “You get one warning…don’t be a dick.”
“Yeah, all right. How about you get back in your flat pack and chill as usual?”
“Fred.” Nudging him away from them a little, I pull Arabella closer, because if it kicks off with these two, shit will fly off the handle quickly.
“Why are we fighting again?” Leo pulls one of the wingbacks closer to the love seat. “Right, you two sit there.” He gestures to Casper and Fleur with a tip of his head. “And you, pillock, sit here. Don’t be a twat. Be fucking cool.”
Fleur takes a step back from all of us. Arms twisted together in front of her, she looks between each of us as though the walls are closing in on her.
“How did you know what that meant without looking at it properly? You glanced…”
Her spine steels. “It’s my grandmother’s cottage.”
“Why would she have it in code?”
“Because it was my mum’s way of coping with shit. Okay? It made it easier for her to have good days.” A lone tear sluices down her left cheek, softening the clench of her jaw. “Isn’t that what you do? You’re a dick to people so that it won’t feel as bad if they don’t stick around. Well, she thought she was protecting the people she cared about by keeping everything cryptic.”
“Why?” Freddie presses loudly and brusque, his grimace looking down on her cold.
In a blink, Casper is in his face. “Do you value your brain?” Barking at him, he sits the heel of his palm over the tip of his nose.
A bored laugh hisses from Freddie. “What? You’re going to kill me?”
Casper lowers his hand down his face, a dark, promising expression. Gripping his jaw, he pulls him up enough that Freddie’s neck looks like it might snap.
In the quiet, their breaths are loud and angry. Any other person would try to free themselves from the vice hold, but not him. Freddie holds Casper’s gaze in challenge, urging him to follow through or back the fuck down. It’s all in the dead stare. Unmoving. Unflinching. Unfazed.
“Bajalo.” Arabella’s frustrated growl cuts through the air.
“Not until he learns some manners.” Casper gives him a shake.
“You need to learn how to talk to women.”
