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DECLAN
If I could calm the fuck down, this would go by easier. I’m nervous as fuck and with the way my foot keeps tapping against the table leg and how often I readjust in my office chair, everyone in this room knows it.
My family’s main lawyer, Michael McHale, plus Carter and Nate. Forcing out a steady breath, I do everything I can to focus as Carter’s hand comes down on my shoulder.
As if that will be enough to bring me back to the conversation.
They continue to discuss the possibility of a deposition or facing charges now that they’ve ruled Scarlet’s disappearance a murder. How the fuck that happened, I don’t know. I don’t even fucking care. My gaze continues to drift to my phone that’s facedown on the desk.
I could so easily flip it over and watch her. All I want to know is whether or not she’s going to take the out. It’s fucking killing me.
Don’t leave me, Braelynn.
How fucking selfish of me to want her to stay when I know I should have never touched her. The photograph of Scarlet that aired on the local news last night is placed down in front ofme. She’s younger in the picture than when she started working here; that much is obvious from a glance at her fresh face with no makeup and her hair pulled back. Smiling and celebrating completing basic field training.
Remorse and regret spark a dull flame that’s quickly extinguished. She knew what she was doing and she knew there were only two ways for it to end.
And she brought my Braelynn into this.
“They aired that she’s believed to be dead although her body hasn’t been found.”
“On what basis?” Carter questions.
“They announced they had clear persons of interest who were potential suspects, but we haven’t received or heard anything from the DA.”
“How soon can we expect to be questioned?” Nate asks. I’ve known him for years and I know his tells. He’s anxious and for good reason. He’s the one who disposed of her. If he fucked up anything, they’ll be able to pin on it him first.
“It depends on how the deposition in the—”
“Who’s being deposed?” Carter asks for clarification.
“Nate first.” At the confident declaration, a quiet Nate meets my lawyer’s gaze and nods in understanding. “Then we can expect them to make the rounds until they’ve gone through every employee.”
“Working from the bottom to the top,” Carter comments dryly and then leans back in his seat. I’m at the head of the desk with Carter beside me. Nate is seated across to our right and Michael is to our left. While we’re all in suits, Nate wears a thin tie, our lawyer a bow tie and Carter and I have none. My sleeves are rolled up to my forearms and without my jacket and not having shaved since yesterday, I’m certainly the least professional-looking one in the room.
“Anything in particular I can expect in questioning?” Nate asks.
“If it’s just being hauled in for questioning, demand a lawyer and don’t say shit,” I tell him.
“I meant deposition,” Nate clarifies. It’ll be his first if they go through with it.
The cops arrested one of the men who work here, Bardot, and the DA brought charges of drug trafficking. Now they’re using that to force every single person who’s worked for us to testify under oath in a deposition.
It’s not the first time we’ve been through this shit. Won’t be the last.
But given the murmurs and questioning around first Scarlet, then Ronnie, then Hale … loyalty is questionable.
“I’ll be there and object to anything and everything. Don’t answer without a nod from me. I don’t care what they ask; until I nod, you stay silent.” Our lawyer is a shark and we still have a firm grip on enough of the DA’s office that it’s not too concerning.
So all of this is simply eating up the time between now and the moment I check to see if Braelynn is waiting for me.
“We should talk about the girl,” McHale brings up and my gaze is quick to move from the hardwood desk to his pale blues behind wire-rimmed glasses.
“Is she all right?” he asks. I know the hidden question behind those four words.Is she dead?
“She’s fine,” I answer over Carter who opened his mouth to speak. Pushing my sleeves up further, I ignore the prick at the back of my neck and all the nerves on high alert at the mere thought of her being pulled into this. Now is not the time to let her run. I was the one who pulled the trigger to get it over with. I only pray I haven’t fucked up everything even more than I already have.
“Does her family know that?” he asks. “Her mother has been calling around and even showed up at The Club looking for her.”
