"I just don't understand," Charis Robinson says to her son over family dinner. "I know they said it was a heart attack, but I also heard that a private investigator has been at the mansion, asking questions.""Who told you that?" Charles asks, his fork freezing mid air. "I haven't heard anything about a private investigator. And I'd think I'd be the first to know."Charis shrugs. "I have friends in high places, too, you know.
"So, that's where we had to leave it," I finish, taking a sip of my tea. I'm sitting in Marcus's office, updating him on the results of the investigation. He's not behind his desk, but sitting in the armchair next to me in his little seating area in front of his fireplace.It's so cozy here. Of course, we don't have a fire lit – it's July in New England, after all. But the vibes are still so warm and soft. I could sit here every day of my life with Marcus, drinking tea and talking through our problems together.
Charles leans back in the seat of his car, silently stewing as his driver maneuvers around the streets to take him to the Hardy residence. He and Daisy are having dinner with Paul, Darlene, and Becki tonight, to discuss what the hell they're going to do next.Brodie was smart to get out while he did, Charles thinks grumpily as he watches the city lights zip past out the window. Becki's twin brother left for a study abroad program in France at the beginning of the summer, and Charles wonders if he'll ever even return.
Charles is getting more desperate than ever. Dillon refuses to pick up the hit Charles wants put out on his mother, all because he hasn't paid his debts. Yet! He hasn't paid them yet, and, goddamn it, none of them are getting paid unless Charles can get this situation under control.Infuriating how Dillon won't see that. Sometimes you have to take a little gamble, put the risk in beforehand to get the big reward at the end. Charles knows this. That's how Charles has gotten along his entire life, in fact. It's how he's gotten to the top.
I wouldn't allow Marcus to drive me home, despite his urging. Instead, we end up in his private apartment, where he's now pouring me a very large brandy and darting concerned glances over his shoulder at me.I'm trying to keep it together, but it's almost impossible. I loved Charis like a mother for most of my childhood; she was the person I was most distraught to lose when I went to prison and was cut off from the family.Her death is not only a devastating blow to me on a personal leve
At least we’re not at the same hospital I took the Alpha to, I think bleakly to myself as we pull up in front of the ER doors. The doctors would start to get suspicious of me. My god, how many more attempted murders am I going to have to handle?As a doctor, I’m of course used to seeing blood, pain, injury, even death. But it’s not usually people I care about, and it’s not usually because the person I used to trust most in the world is methodically trying to bump off half the people around him.
Marcus doesn't know it (well, yet), but I'll always be grateful to him for helping me find a way to attend Charis's funeral. I wouldn't have been able to find an excuse to go if we weren't dating, because I'd have no reason to push my way into the funeral of a woman I'm not supposed to know.But, of course, Marcus and the rest of the Alpha family will be there, because they're family to Charles. And since I'm dating Marcus, more or less officially, it doesn't look weird for me to accompany him for support.
"Will I ever run out of reasons for revenge?" I rail in the car on the way to the luncheon. "Your father, you, me, Charis's murder, and now this? Where does it end, Marcus?"I remember just in time not to mention Brady. I need to rein it in a little bit; I'm losing the thread, here. Marcus isn't supposed to know about the gang, or that I have a revenge list as long as my arm.In truth, it's been easy to lose sight of the fact that this all started because I set out to t