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“None of my business,” I quipped, right before Rex squeezed my arm perniciously again.
“I insist that you answer Rex’s question,” Laurent said, lifting Rex’s hand off my arm for some welcome relief. Rex gave him a sneer of disgust but released me, all the same. Laurent ignored him and prattled, “And I have another question: whatever happened to a certain female doll I was working on? She suddenly went missing.”
I shrugged. “Maybe you lost it.”
“I’m very doubtful of that,” Laurent replied, getting closer to me. “I believe it was stolen from me.”
Chapter Sixteen
I replied by crossing my arms and saying nothing.
I assumed they already knew the answers to their questions, and I felt like I was betraying my friends who were guilty of doing no more than helping and supporting me. I hoped with all my heart that the revolt was progressing in our favor outside. If it were, perhaps my best course of action was to stall the brothers for as long as I could.
Having only that purpose in mind, I stared at the two of them in silence for the next minute or two. Eventually, Laurent let out an exasperated sigh and turned back to his desk.
Leaning across it, he said, “Bindi, why do you persistently fail to understand the peril you are putting all of us in?”
“What peril? Peril about not meeting our quotas? Peril coming from Mr. Grey?” I snapped.
Rex scoffed and said, “If only that were the case.”
I looked at Rex and frowned. “After what he did to your brother last night, no man could be worse than him.”
My words caused Laurent to whirl around and glare at me in disbelief.
“What?” I said, shrugging, “you were yelling in what sounded like pain! And I could hear Mr. Grey scolding you from my tent.” It was a partial truth but I wasn’t going to admit I hadn’t actually been inside my own tent when I heard him. The point still remained.
“Mr. Grey is irrelevant,” Laurent said slowly. “I can assure you he isnotthe only investor in this circus.”
“Much less, the most important one,” Rex added.
“Seems important enough for the two of you to keep obeying whatever he says,” I replied. “And as to other investors—he’s the only one I’ve ever seen—first in Olathe, then in Dubuque, and now, here.”
“Our investors are free to inspect their capital at their own discretion,” Laurent said. “They also have the right to protect their investment by any means necessary.”
The fate of Brandeis at the hands of Ned flashed through my mind, and I was filled with a renewed sense of fury. “Does that include kidnapping and murder?”
“No one would have dared to kill you,” Rex said darkly, as if it were blasphemy to even suggest such a thought.
“Why not?” I asked as I faced him and shook my head. “Aren’t I part of his investment?” Then I speared my expression between the both of them. “I’ve learned that at least one previous star of this circus was murdered in cold blood.”
Even though I wasn’t sure that was exactly true, after looking at the shocked expressions on both Rex and Laurent’s faces, I realized it was exactly that. Brandeis really had been killed by Ned. As the realization fully dawned on me, I remembered the horse that was only visible to me during our final performance. I’d often heard that people who died violently and unjustly could become ghosts that continued to walk the earth after death. Was that true with animals too? Could his mistress’s unjust death be the reason why the white horse had returned to this dreadful place?
Laurent’s face grew pale. “Whatever you think you learned, Bindi, I can assure you that you are very much mistaken.”
I threw up my hands to include the whole circus as I replied, “What good are those assurances to me now? I might as well be your indentured servant! You keep fighting over me like I’m a piece of choice meat.” I shook my head.
“I wish we had not gotten off on the wrong foot,” Laurent started but my temper was now unleashed and there was no getting it back under control.
“Why do you sacrifice so much for an old man, for Mr. Grey, who only cares about the bottom line? He couldn’t give a fig for either one of you, or me, or any of our performers.”
Rex clenched his jaw. “Dammit, Bindi, why can’t you just leave it alone?”
And that was when my temper broke and turning to face him, I pulled my arm back and slapped him across the face. He simply turned his cheek and didn’t say a thing.
A pair of large hands grabbed my arms from behind. “Stop this foolishness, Bindi!” Laurent shouted as he dragged me away from his brother.
Then the door unexpectedly opened. Loud yelling spilled in from outside before a wizened figure toppled in and slammed the door. Mr. Grey!
