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“Christopher can’t come to the phone right now,” I say. “Can I take a message?”
“I’ll make it quick then,” Alaric says. “You should know that Frederick James met with Stephanie last night. He wanted to strike a deal to trade their immunity for your life.”
I don’t reply, keeping my expression neutral.
It can’t be true… can it? Alaric’s deceived me before. He’s the king of manipulation, but a nagging doubt creeps in. Freddie did leave the house yesterday without saying where he was going, and I know he’d do anything to protect his men.
“If you don’t believe me, listen to him yourself,” Alaric says, reading my mind. He hits play on what must be a recording, and I hear a snippet of a conversation. Stephanie’s talking, but it’s Freddie’s words that cut deep as I listen to his bargaining, “You leave us to continue running our security operations, and we’ll return Ivy...she’s our prisoner…nothing more.”
“I see,” I say in a clipped tone when the recording comes to an end.
“And Ivy?” Alaric says. His voice tells me that he’s smiling and enjoying every second. “I don’t take kindly when my clients turn up dead.”
It’s a good thing that Trout won’t be found then.
I hang up and stash the phone in my pocket, reeling from his revelation. All my excitement over killing Trout has been dashed. I planned to prolong his death and make him suffer, but I’m done toying with him. I need to see blood.
“Who was it?” Freddie questions.
“His dry cleaner,” I lie, trying to keep my cool while calculating my next move. “Move your foot.”
Freddie does as I ask, stepping back and giving me room to work.
I channel my anger into forcing Trout’s chin upwards. I use the knife to slit his throat cleanly and step back to watch his blood gush down his front like a pretty, red waterfall. Who needs to visit Niagara Falls? I grin as he takes his final squelchy breaths.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Ivy?” Freddie asks, cautiously approaching me now that the deed is done.
“I’m fine,” I say, heading to the far corner of the room to wipe the knife on a blanket. “Check he’s dead.”
While Freddie and Callen check Trout’s pulse, I use Trout’s phone to dial 999.
“Police!” I put on a Cockney accent and speak in a high-pitched, panicked voice that causes the others to spin around in disbelief as it echoes through the crypt. “You need to come to Greywood Cemetery. I’ve seen two men drag a man into the woods. There was so much blood. I think they stabbed him!”
Before the operator can ask questions, I throw the phone against the wall to smash it into little pieces.
“What did you do?” Callen asks in horror.
My heart thumps in my throat as I turn my attention to Freddie, ignoring Trout bleeding out at our feet.
“Did you meet with Stephanie to make a deal?” I accuse, already knowing the answer but needing to see whether he’ll be honest.
Sadness lurks behind his eyes. “Ivy—”
“Yes or no,” I yell. “Just answer the question!”
“Yes,” he admits, holding his hands up in the air. “But I can explain.”
He’s a hypocrite. He was furious when he found out I’d planned to kill them, but he’d done the same thing. His deal with me was his backup option, and I was stupid enough to believe it was genuine. I believed we could have had a chance at being a real team, but I was wrong. Wrong about him. Wrong about everything.
“You don’t have time to explain.” I point the knife in his direction. “I’m leaving, and you’re going to let me walk out of here because you need to make a choice. You can clean up your mess before the police arrive or come after me.”
CHAPTER 46
IVY
Irace out of the crypt and don’t look back. The wind stings my cheeks as I pick a direction and sprint, unsure where I’m going but knowing I have to leave. The Dukes can’t stop me. Not if they stand a chance of getting away before the police arrive. Hopefully, they’ll get caught. I’d like to see how they enjoy being locked up in a cell.
I try to push away my thoughts and keep a lid on my emotions, but it’s hard. Freddie betrayed me. Even though I thought we were making progress, he’s proved that he’s no better than Spencer. As soon as he realised I wasn’t the imaginary woman of his dreams; I became disposable. He used me and had the audacity to fuck me after his betrayal.
