Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
I frowned. “What? Who is Blaise, and what do you mean, the investigator needs me to…lie?”
She sighed. “The less you know, the better. It’s not a trust thing; it’s for your protection. Just know that Blaise is Liam’s son-in-law, and he is powerful. He and his, uh…men handed over Lord and those with him to the DEA last night. That’s all they care about. What happened to Hatter and Kendrix aren’t important to them when it all boils down to it. They just have to legally document their causes of death and prove that there is no one who should be held accountable. We tell them what they want us to say, and then we leave,” she explained.
“Oh, but we aren’t free to go back to our lives just yet. Lord’s reach is wide, and there are those under his command who are free. Trust me, I want to go home too. But this is the safest place for us. At least until everything is handled and the Landiagos—or what is left of them—aren’t seeking revenge. Blaise will handle that too.”
I sat there, silent. I didn’t know this Blaise guy, but she sure seemed convinced he had it under control. How had I ended up in this mess? I was a curator, for crying out loud. I’d been one in Boston years, and the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me there was that Bill Clinton had come in once to see the ’90s Era exhibition we had held eight years ago.
“Look, I know this is a lot. But your boss was into some illegal shit with dangerous people. You couldn’t have known that when you took the job. But it happened, and thankfully, you’d met me.” She smiled then. “Because this isn’t my first rodeo with things like this. When your dad is in an MC and your brother is raised in one, you see all kinds of things. Being here is not something I want to do, and under any other circumstances, I would refuse, but this is better than witness protection. And right now, you and I would most likely be shot dead within hours if we were to leave.”
I was going to have to stay in this…this…place with Rome across the hall for an uncertain amount of time. I’d convinced myself we’d only be here for a few days. When would I get my life back?
“What about the others I worked with? Marlana and Banner? What have they been told? Will they be safe, going to work, or has the gallery been closed down?”
Pepper tightened the towel she had wrapped around her and scrunched her nose like she didn’t want to answer that question. My stomach sank as dread pooled inside of it. Had something happened to them already?
“Banner Roe is safe. He was advised to go back to his hometown in North Dakota for an extended visit,” she said. “And Marlana Newbury is a DEA agent who was working undercover. They’d figured out that Kendrix was affiliated with Lord, and they were going to use him to get to the Landiagos.”
Stunned. No…that word was not strong enough. It didn’t quite fit the description. A bulldozer could not have floored me as thoroughly. Holy shit.
Pepper sighed. “It seems Marlana hired you because of your appearance. She hadn’t been able to get close enough to Kendrix, so she needed someone she could use to distract him. Their curator was offered a much better job with more money in order to get rid of him and get a female in there who was…well, hot. Someone Kendrix would pursue, giving Marlana more opportunity to dig into his connection to the Landiagos.” She let out a small laugh. “It’s fucked up, I know. When Liam told me this last night, I was shocked too. She did not seem like an undercover agent. Her name isn’t even Marlana, but I don’t know what it is. After meeting with his son-in-law, Liam relayed the information to me and Micah.”
I was staring at the wall. All the interactions I’d had with Marlana. Her quirkiness and inability to stay focused on a task. I’d believed she was the most ADHD person I had ever met. And I had felt bad because I thought she liked Kendrix. But she had hired me because she knew Kendrix would like me.
“She should have been an actress,” I finally muttered.
“That’s kind of what undercover agents are,” Pepper replied. “But, yeah, she was good. I liked her, but I think she’s a bitch now. It was a shit move to hire you and put you in the middle of this without you knowing what was going on. They should have brought in someone he would have been attracted to who knew what they were getting into. Using you was fucked up.”