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“That lines up with the official reports, as much as has been reported,” Gideon said.
I peered at him. “You’ve got access to the police files?” Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. A sudden spurt of hope rose in my chest. “Was anyone at all from my—”
He shook his head before I could even finish the question. “Twelve dead. Your father, your grandmother, two aunts and uncles, and miscellaneous figures I believe were close associates of your father’s.”
I sank back down on the stool. “Yeah.” He’d brought them along to show off the union he’d arranged. Lucky them.
Wylder drummed his fingers, eyeing me again. “Now we get to the important questions. Starting with, why did you come to me?”
“I didn’t have anywhere else to go,” I blurted out, the stupid drug from the drink still keeping my tongue loose. Damn it. I sucked in a breath and tried to make the best of it. “Colt wanted to kill me. He’d have checked my house. And I didn’t want to just go into hiding. I want him taken down for what he did. I want him tosuffer.”
The last word came out more emphatically than I’d intended. The guys all stared at me for a moment. Then a smirk stretched across Wylder’s handsome face.
“Bloodthirsty. I can appreciate that. But whyme,Kitty Cat?”
Did he really need to ask? “Everyone knows the Nobles run things in Paradise Bend. All the gangs in the county operate only as your family permits. Who better to crush that asshole?”
“Ah, so all you see when you look at me is a ticket to vengeance, huh?”
“And a prick who’s too hot for his own good,” I muttered, and almost chomped on my tongue when I realized what I’d said.
Wylder threw back his head with a laugh, twice as hot now that he was amused. I definitely wasn’t watching the perfect curve of his throat and wondering if he tasted as good as he smelled.
Kaige rolled his eyes, while Rowan looked at me with a tense expression. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that he was trying to hide his annoyance, which didn’t make any sense. He was the one who’d essentially dumped me.
Gideon broke in, his voice as flat as ever. “Why do you think Colt turned on the Claws? Did he ever seem unhappy with the arrangement?”
Deciding the best course of action was to pretend I’d never let the slightest compliment toward Wylder slip from my mouth, I focused on his friend instead. “No. If I’d had any idea, I’d never have walked into that restaurant in the first place. We’d been engaged for a year. I thought… I thought we were at least something like friends at that point.”
Wylder and Anthea frowned. Gideon fixed me with a stare. His pale gray eyes were impossible to look away from once they’d homed in on their target. Something about him both unnerved me and made me deeply curious about what made that mind tick. Out of the four guys, he was the hardest to read.
“And how do you feel about him now?” he asked.
Hadn’t I already laid that out? “I think he’s a rat bastard who deserves to drown in a pool of blood,” I said. “Preferably while also choking on his own testicles. If you want to get even more creative than that, I won’t argue.”
Kaige let out a low whistle that sounded impressed, but Gideon held my gaze. “Is thatallyou want?”
“Yes,” I said. “Other than for this conversation to be over so we can get on with hunting him down already.”
Without realizing it, I’d started shredding a paper napkin that’d been left on the island. Kaige leaned over and tipped his head toward my hands. “What happened to your fingertips? Did you try to remove your fingerprints like some kind of super spy?” He only sounded half joking.
I dropped the napkin, my fingers curling toward my palms. I didn’t have to look at them to know what he’d noticed: the pads at the ends were mottled with tiny crisscrossing scars that’d cooled over time from angry red to faded white.
“Looks like the kitty cat almost got declawed,” Wylder remarked, his tone playful but his gaze searching.
The light-headed sensation was dwindling. I found I could control what I said a little better than before. “I scraped them up pretty bad during a job for my father. He didn’t go easy on me.”
Rowan shifted in his seat, and my pulse hiccupped. He knew the truth—I’d told him in a moment of weakness and never regretted it until this moment. I looked up and caught his eyes. He met my gaze but didn’t open his mouth to speak.
Why not? His loyalty was obviously with the Nobles now. He hadn’t given a shit about my feelings before. But maybe he just didn’t see how it was relevant, so he wasn’t going to distract from the real issues by bringing it up.
I glanced around the island at my audience. “Listen, I’m here for only one thing—getting justice for me and my family. I know you’re the only people who can help me deliver it. I’ve given you all the answers you asked for. What else do you need from me?”
To my surprise, Gideon closed his tablet. “I think we’re done here. Wylder?”
Wylder observed me for a few beats before he said, “Yeah, I think we are.”
I knew he didn’t quite trust me yet but I was getting closer. Relief rushed through me. I’d passed his first test.
Anthea cleared her throat. “I’ll just remind you that the serum only makes lyingharder, not impossible.”
There was no emotion at all in Wylder’s voice when he replied. “And if she has been lying to us, I’m sure she knows I won’t hesitate to put a bullet through her head.” A smile curved his lips. “But for now it’s time to put the princess to work.”
