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“I’m going to add Green and Blue teams. Blue One, no Green—oh, fuck it,” Claire’s voice buzzed from the speaker. “Eli, tell everyone what you told me.”
“We found him,” Eli said. “Lucas.”
Hartley glanced at Monty, whose gaze swung up to hers, questioning what she’d heard. He nodded at her. “And?” Monty asked, still looking at her with a bemused expression. As if he wasn’t looking forward to the reply.
“He’s dead,” Eli continued. “It looks like suicide, from the slits on his wrists.”
Monty’s body sagged. He rubbed his neck.
She sank onto the bed, not sure what she was feeling. Relief, for sure. But she didn’t feel exuberant. She was a realist. She’d known the only way Cavendish would be free was his death, so she hadn’t expected to feel sadness. But with Davos and Yuki breathing down her neck, she’d expected to be ecstatic that Lucas had been neutralized.
“That’s it,” Monty murmured, and she looked up to find him watching her.
“I guess so,” she agreed, feeling tense. “It’s too bad he’s not alive to confess to everything.”
Monty nodded, then tapped the Speak button on the tablet.
“No note or anything?” he asked.
“Not that we’ve found,” Eli replied.
“Jesus,” she breathed, offering Monty a half smile. “Am I a bitch if I say I kind of wanted to take a few shots at him for all the shit he put us through?”
Monty’s jaw was granite, his eyes hardened steel. She knew that look. He was fortifying himself against something, closing himself off. But from what? Lucas’s death should be a relief. Unless...
No. Hartley shut down that traitorous thought. Whatever Monty was grappling with, it had nothing to do with her. If he was grappling with her the way she was him, well, maybe they’d be grappling each other right now on the bed. The thought made her stand up and put a few feet of distance between them.
“So what happens now?” Claire asked.
There was a pause before Eli replied. “Spencer says he’ll make some calls and try to move the body off the estate without any of the neighbors seeing. But—” Eli broke off with a laugh. After a few seconds he came back. “He says he’s never needed to find so many places to dump a body before coming here.”
Monty’s lips twisted, but there was no humor in the expression. “What’s the verdict? Does this end the search?” he asked.
Hartley looked down at the floor, feeling something close to panic.
“It seems like it’s mission accomplished,” Claire said after a moment. “But what does everyone think?”
“Spencer wants an hour to arrange for the body, but I think we’ve found all we’re going to find,” Eli said.
Hartley stiffened. “So that’s it?” she asked, her chest constricting. It would mean Monty leaving.
She felt his eyes on her, but she avoided his gaze, staring at the tablet, breathless.
“Green team agrees,” came Eli’s terse voice. “We found what we wanted to.”
No. This couldn’t be how it ended, not yet. Hartley grappled for a reason to delay the inevitable. “Shouldn’t we finish searching the estate, though?” she cut in. “Lucas could have left traps.”
“She’s got a point,” came Karol’s gravelly voice. “I say we finish the sweep. Just to be sure.”
Relief flooded through her. Monty shifted, but she didn’t dare look at him. Her reasons were selfish, and she didn’t care. They’d search the rest of the property today, and it would give her the time she needed.
After a beat, Eli’s voice returned. “All right. We’ll finish searching the property first.”
“Roger that,” Monty said, tapping the end-call button.
Elation surged through Hartley. She chanced a sideways look at Monty. His face was stony, his lips tight. She swallowed a lump in her throat. A few hours more of fighting with him didn’t seem so bad. Maybe it was a more fitting goodbye, after all their squabbles.
“Why do I feel you’re playing some kind of game?” he challenged, voice lethally soft.
