Markus’s lips curled into a smirk. “You look good in red.”
Though it was probably stupid, I said, “Watch it.”
Markus glanced at me, unimpressed. “Right. Rein in your jealousy, Jacob Hall.” Slipping my name in there told me he knew who I was, which didn’t make me too happy. “She’s not my type. I need something I can control.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out two thick leather gloves, sliding them on as he spoke to Jaz, “Tell me what happened here.”
And so Jaz did. She told him everything Bobbi had said, what she’d done, what she’d admitted to.
By the time Jaz was done, Markus leaned down over Bobbi’s body, checking her pulse before lifting up her shirt and seeing the numerous stab wounds Jaz had given her. “I admit,” he said, “you surprise me. I wouldn’t have pegged you capable of something like this. Maybe you’d do well in the family.”
Vaughn broke his silence, saying, “Markus—” A warning.
Markus waved his gloved hand. “Clean her up. You,” he paused, pointing to Oliver, “call the girl’s father. Get him over here.” He looked at me, his cold, calculating gaze contemplative. “You can stay down here with Oliver, but the rest of you, upstairs.” An order from a man who, I bet, was used to shit like this.
It was an order no one could refuse. Dante, Archer, Jaz, and Vaughn headed upstairs, leaving just Oliver and me alone with Markus and the bodies.
“It’s always good to have upstanding members of the community owe you,” Markus went on, glancing at Oliver with a deadly smirk. “Isn’t that right, Oliver?” The way he talked, it was clear Oliver owed him. “How many lives have you tried to help, hmm? How many people have died because you couldn’t save them?”
Though I wasn’t a huge fan of Oliver, I knew Markus’s words were needlessly cruel. I spoke up, “This isn’t his fault.”
“Says the ex-cop with a past of his own,” Markus said.
How the… you know what? I didn’t want to know what he knew about me, or how he knew it. Markus was a Scott, and you couldn’t trust a Scott further than you could throw him. Which, based on his wide, six and a half foot tall frame, I’d say wasn’t that far.
I folded my arms across my chest, not saying anything. No matter what I said, he’d twist my words. You just couldn’t win when it came to a man like Markus; you’d be stupid to even try, and me? I might’ve made some stupid decisions, but I wasn’t stupid when things were serious.
Oliver said nothing as he called Detective Wilde. He didn’t tell the man what happened here, instead simply saying, “There’s something you and I need to discuss. Are you free now to come to my house?” A pause as Wilde said something on the other line, and Oliver added, “It’s rather urgent.”
That, I knew, was an understatement if I ever heard one.
“Great, thank you. I will see you in a few.” Oliver hung up, shooting a look at Markus. “He’ll be on his way from the station in a few minutes.”
I wondered if he was aware Bobbi had come here after school, or if that was something Bobbi had kept from him. Was the father in on all of this too? Couldn’t help but wonder that, considering how good Bobbi had been at everything she’d done. Maybe her father had taught her a bit too much about evading the police, how to frame someone, that sort of thing.
I stood off to the side, waiting. When Wilde’s car pulled up, when he entered the house looking confused, I knew he had no idea. And when he saw me, Oliver, and Markus in the kitchen… and when he saw his daughter’s body lying motionless on the floor, I knew the man was clueless.
Wilde tried to run to her body, but Markus lunged between him, his wide frame blocking his path. “Ah. The girl’s father, I take it? It’s always good to have the police on your side, and you, sir, are going to owe me quite a lot after you hear what your dear daughter was up to.”
I hated watching a man lose everything, but as I stood there, listening to Markus explain what was going on, what Bobbi had done, I couldn’t help but feel like I was watching exactly that. Wilde’s freaked out aggression faded, his demeanor changing, his expression falling. Everything about that man broke in the next few minutes.