Page 160 of The Rising


Font Size:  

“Beau,” James calls.

Danny’s cell is still at his ear, and he takes in the scene, James coming after me, before going back to his call. “Baby, everything is okay, but I need to call you back in a minute.” He cuts the call with a slow press of his thumb on the screen, continuing to look between us, waiting. “Anyone want to tell me what the fuck’s going on?”

I look back at James and start to pace the small reception room. I know he won’t want to share. Danny hates Amber, as does Rose. Not surprising when the stupid woman threatened to kill her in a ridiculous crime of love to win Danny. But it can’t be avoided. I want her dead. And yet I can’t utter the words.

“Tom Hayley left everything he had to Amber Kendrick,” James says, his voice low, closing the door to Foster’s office behind him.

“Excuse me?” Danny coughs over his words, tilting his ear forward, as if he’s improving the chances of hearing right when James repeats himself.

“Except a car,” I add.

“What?”

“She did it.” I slap the ball of my hand into my head. “How did I not see it?”

“See what?”

“Killed him!” I say over a laugh. “Before he could change his will back. She fooled him into making her the sole heir, or as good as, was then exposed for being a gold digger, so she killed him before he had the opportunity to amend his will.”

“Beau, hold up,” James says, sounding nervous, his hand rising in a pacifying way I do not like at all. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“She’s capable!” I screech. “She had a gun aimed at Rose when Danny kicked her out of the mansion.” I look at Danny, desperate for him to confirm I’m right. To justify my ramblings. “Tell him, Danny!”

“I know that, Beau,” James says, while Danny stands awkwardly silent, not wanting to make matters worse by confirming. “But aiming a gun and firing are two entirely different things.”

“Fine,” I say, pulling out my cell and calling Ollie. He answers immediately, and I’m completely thrown after being ignored for so long. But he doesn’t have to avoid me now. I know about his new woman.

“Beau?”

I start to pace again, watchful of any hands coming my way ready to grab my cell. “I think Frazer Cartwright knew what happened to my dad.” Of course he did. He was a close friend of my father, wrote endless shining reports about him and his businesses and charity work. He must have spent time with Amber. He must have seensomething. “I need to find him.”

James is suddenly before me, reaching for my cell. I dip stealthily out of his way.

“I need your help, Ollie.”

“Beau!” James yells.

“Frazer Cartwright is dead, Beau.” Ollie’s words hit me like a brick to my face, and I swing around, my mouth lax, finding James and Danny looking as guilty as sin before me. They know what Ollie’s just said. I don’t need to tell them.

“Dead?” I ask, needing confirmation. “Frazer Cartwright is dead?”

“Yes. Washed up on the beach.”

I cut the call, my mind a mess. “You knew,” I whisper. They both knew. That’s why Danny shut up in his office. That’s why James took my cell to the kitchen with him while I was sleeping. He was worried Ollie would call me. Tell me. “Why would you keep this from me?”

Danny swallows and steps back, giving the stage to James. He looks so lost. It’s a massive insult. “I can’t lose you, Beau,” he says simply, like that fear in him makes everything he does, all the secrets he keeps, acceptable. I immediately shy away from my conscience that’s reminding me I’m no angel when it comes to secrets. What I’m doing now. That I haven’t told him something so important. But I can’t.

I step back, seeing James’s body getting taller, his muscles engaging, ready to seize me before I run. I reach into my purse and pull out my gun.

“Fuck’s sake, Beau,” Danny yells, making James lift his hand to quieten him, like he’s got this. Like he’s a pro at how to handle me. How to deal with me. That alone infuriates me. I know what’s about to happen. I’ll be disarmed before I can blink and be taken back to the mansion, maybe even locked in our room to ensure I can’t escape. One of them I could handle. Two? And not just any two, but The Brit and The Enigma.

I have one chance.

I turn the gun onto James and pull the trigger, then aim it at Danny. His face is a picture as James flies back and hits the wall. “Beau—”

Bang!

Danny joins James against the wall with a thud, and both men look utterly disorientated as they feel down their jackets. I turn and leave before James has a chance to collect himself, draw his gun, and immobilize me, because I know in this moment, he absolutely would.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like