AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m just relieved your guys could get rid of Jackal’s body,” Stone said to Eli.
“Yeah,” Montgomery agreed, looking at his brother. “That’s a favor I owe them.”
Eli raised his coffee mug. “Since you’re giving away planes…” He finished with a shrug.
“That fucker, Jackal.” Becca shook her head, looking at Porter. “At least we were on the right track with his identity. Oh, did I tell you guys?” She grabbed a piece of paper and held it up. “Look at this.”
Everyone in the room and on the TV leaned forward.
On the paper, Becca had carefully written Karol F. Hardt in capital letters. Under it, aligning letter-for-letter, was the name Harold Kraft.
“Harold Kraft was the guy in the Ban Book. He tried to kidnap a consultant before we bought the business,” Hartley explained.
“Jesus,” Georgia murmured. “The answer was right there all the time.”
“Not exactly, but yeah, sort of,” Becca agreed.
Everyone leaned back, seeming lost in their own thoughts. Montgomery assumed they were all thinking some version of the same thing—what if they’d looked harder at past clients? What clues had they missed? What if, what if, what if?
After a full minute, Porter cleared his throat. “The email mentioned Jackal’s remains being sealed and dumped farther up the coast, but what happened after Lucas’s body was IDed?” he asked.
“We got it to a location on the other side of Seattle and had one of my community officers report it as a suspected suicide,” Spencer said.
“That seems so unfair to his family,” Claire said. “He wasn’t a suicide.”
Spencer sighed, frustration building in his expression.
“You’re right, Claire,” Montgomery said. “It’s unfair.”
“Very, incredibly, awfully unfair,” Hartley agreed. “But it’s a house of cards with Lucas’s body right at the bottom. If we play that card as a homicide, everything we’ve done at Cavendish, including clients with a lot of money and a lot of lawyers, falls on us.”
Claire nodded, but she didn’t look happy about it.
“Yeah,” Georgia agreed from the monitor, Stone nodding beside her. “I called Lindsey to tell her the truth of what happened. She was in love with the guy, after all. I think she was expecting my call to be bad news, and she took it as well as could be expected. But apart from telling her, we have to take this whole thing with us to the grave.”
“Secrets…” Becca leaned her head against Porter’s shoulder. “We are keeping so many secrets. About everything. Jesus, the two dead people are almost the least of it.”
“Key word beingalmost,” Claire said quietly. Then she sighed. “Sorry. It’s the lawyer in me.”
Eli kissed the top of her head.
“In lighter news,” Hartley said, pointing at the papers under Monty’s hand, “We’re getting a kick-ass insurance settlement.”
“How kick-ass?” Georgia asked.
“Enough to get us out from under Davos for good. And enough left over to rebuild some of Cavendish. If that’s what we all want,” Hartley said.
He could feel the tension in her body as she waited for their responses.
“What about Yuki?” Georgia asked. “She may not have an ownership stake, but this place was her soul. It seems like if she wanted to, she could fuck us over, insurance settlement or not.”
“Yuki’s on board with whatever we decide,” Hartley replied. “I think she feels some remorse that Jackal came into existence on her watch.”
“Damn right, he did,” Eli murmured, and Montgomery watched his brother pull Claire close against him. Jackal had first made his presence known by trashing Claire’s room. He knew what his brother was thinking:too fucking close.
Hartley sipped more coffee, and he knew she was masking her nerves as the other women talked.
“I burned my law-practicing bridges back in South Carolina, so I’m all in,” Claire said, then held up a finger. “Although with a baby on the way, it would be nice if there was more than rubble to go to work at.”
