Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“What did it say?”
He closes his eyes. “Follow the writing raven through the river of tears.”
A chill runs down my spine. “What does that mean?”
“Fuck if I know. I think the river of tears might have been referring to the Des Plaines river in the park where we found May. But what the writing raven is supposed to be is anyone’s guess.” He pauses a moment. “But if you’re right—if he wanted me to figure out a way to expose Rouge—there must be something to his words. But if that’s the case, why the hell would Rouge let me keep coming to the club? Why not just rescind my membership, keep herself shut off?”
“Maybe she had no idea what your father was up to.”
“Maybe. But if that’s true, who poisoned him?”
I close my eyes and mull it over. “If she did poison him, it would look suspicious if she didn’t let you come to the club. If that real autopsy report ever came out, shutting you out would create a trail of breadcrumbs leading directly to her. This way she has some plausible deniability.”
He nods, eyes wide. “And she knows my dad and I had a rocky relationship…”
“Did you ever talk to her about that?”
He blinks a few times. “She and I were…well acquainted when I first started going to the club.”
My heart skips a beat. Does “well acquainted” mean what I think it does?
I stuff my jealousy down. Not the time.
“So if she knows that you and your father didn’t have a great relationship, then she probably thinks you have no clue about what she’s doing. If she did, you might end up with a poison-induced heart attack as well.”
Ugh. Just the thought… Maddox… Dead… I want to toss my dinner.
The color leaves his face. “Shit. You’re probably right.”
“Which means this.” I look straight into Maddox’s eyes, pushing down my fear and repulsion. “We can’t allow her to know we have any inkling that she’s up to something terrible.”
“Easy enough.”
“I don’t think you understand what I’m saying.” I grab his face, meet his gaze. “We have to keep going to the club.”
21
MADDOX
I drop my jaw.
Uh-uh. Negatory. No fucking way, Jo-fucking-sé.
“Alissa. I can’t let you go back to that club. Not after what happened to May.”
She rolls her eyes. “That’s rubbish. Rouge can’t murder me in front of a bunch of witnesses.”
“Do not underestimate the kind of terrible things Rouge is capable of doing.”
If the vision I had that night at the club all those years ago has any basis in reality, strangling and beheading a young girl is one of Rouge’s more innocuous crimes.
This woman is capable of evil. Pure evil.
But I can’t tell Alissa that story. I can’t put that on her after everything we’ve been through since Sunday night.
“I don’t care how many people she owns. She can’t do that.”
“Alissa. Even if you going back to the club was a good idea—which it absolutely is not—you can’t get in without me. And I won’t allow it.”
She folds her arms over her chest. “Oh, so you’re telling me what I can and cannot do now?”
“For fuck’s sake. This isn’t about the big strong man telling his little woman what she’s allowed to do. It’s me saying it’s unsafe, that you’ll be killed if you go to that club again.”
“But Rouge doesn’t know what we’ve been doing.” Her eyes widen. “If we don’t show up, she’ll grow suspicious. You’re there every weekend, aren’t you?”
I shift my gaze. “Yeah.”
“And Chet takes the IDs of everyone who comes in.”
“What does that have to do with…” I rub the headache springing up on my forehead. “Fuck. Our addresses.”
“Exactly.” She mirrors my movement, as if she’s got a raging headache now as well. “Chet somehow knew what drinks we had ordered that second night we were there. The night I left my credit card behind. If he knows that, I’m sure memorizing our addresses is not an issue for him.”
I inhale. “So you’re saying it’s actually safer to go to the club.”
“If we don’t want Rouge to suspect that we’re on to her, I think it’s our only option.”
Fuck. Fuck.
Alissa might be right.
God damn it.
What have I gotten us into?
We don’t have to go back. But Alissa has a point. It would rouse suspicion if we didn’t return. I’ve been going to Aces every weekend for the past several years. Even after that weird night with Rouge, I kept going. I convinced myself that what I experienced with her was just the result of a bad drug trip.
Now I’m not so sure.
We could just flee the country. Change our names. Leave this all behind. Forget Chicago. Forget Aces Underground. Forget my shop. Forget Alissa’s career. Forget Rouge Montrose.
But no.
Alissa is going to audition for the CSO next week. And I love my shop more than anything.