Billy & The Beast (Ever After, New York #3) - Eli Easton Page 0,64
father’s death had something to do with this deal? Why? Was he going to back out or something?”
I wasn’t getting it, but I figured doing business with such people was a really bad idea. Like, you wouldn’t want to piss them off at the negotiating table.
Amanda stroked the bird, eyes downcast. “Emmanuel is the one who brought in the deal. He wanted it very badly. It was a huge opportunity. But the more we learned about this company, the more concerns Sebastian—and others, myself included—had. Those who were for the deal insisted the rumors weren’t true, that it was xenophobia or prejudice talking, just because this foreign company was founded in a certain part of the world. But Sebastian wasn’t convinced. I believe the term blood money even passed his lips. And then when Seb started working for the company, and looking into the deal, he had the same objections too.”
She pressed her own lips tight, as if she’d said too much.
“Oh, man. If all of that was going on, why was Sebastian’s death written off by the police as a hit-and-run?”
She shrugged. “They had no leads on the car or driver, and the people involved here—and by that I mean the people at our company, Montgomery Enterprises—had solid alibis. And then there were our corporate lawyers. Money and power count for a lot.”
I tried to process what she was telling me. Had Emmanuel, or someone else at the company, set up Sebastian Montgomery’s death? Paid someone to do it? Or had this foreign company, Shar McGill, done the wet work, taking out the guy with cold feet to make sure the deal went through? Kind of the way opponents of the Russian government frequently fell out of windows.
I shivered. This was scary stuff. “Did Seb object to the deal with this foreign company too? Or make waves about his father’s death? Is that why he . . . I mean. The accident.”
She coaxed the bird onto her finger and went to put him back in his cage. “I didn’t say any such thing. Talking about this again . . . it’s upsetting. It’s not good, Billy. Nothing good can come of it. If Seb remembers none of this, it’s probably for the best. It’s all conjecture anyway, there’s no proof. There’s never any proof.” She sighed. “I was forced out months ago. Montgomery Enterprises is no longer the company it once was. It’s best to let it go.”
She closed the little door on the cage and straightened up. She gave me a hard look. “I shouldn’t have told you this. I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s best to leave it alone. And safest. For all of us, but especially for Seb. Tell Seb I wish him well, but he should stay as far from Montgomery Enterprises and Shar McGill as possible. From Emmanuel too, if he can manage it.”
My eyes widened as I caught the drift of what she was saying. Aaron was in danger.
I had a sudden sense of how big this thing was. So much bigger than me. It was like fighting to start an old mower, cursing and irritated, only to look over your shoulder to see a tsunami wave approaching.
This wasn’t just about me, or my job, or my relationship with Aaron, or even about Aaron being gaslit into thinking he killed people when he hadn’t.
This could involve his very life.
Chapter 24
Aaron
I wanted to die.
Only Jack kept me going, barking and tromping on me in bed until I was forced to get up and take him out, snuggling up next to me to sleep, putting his head or paw on my knee as I sat staring at nothing, being his usually goofy self.
Human beings might be worthless after all. But at least there were dogs.
The day Emmanuel told me the truth about Billy had been one of the worst days of my life.
Billy had known who I was from the start.
He’d gotten close to me, surreptitiously taken photos of me.
And then, the coup de gras, the printout of that email Emmanuel showed me. It had been sent from Billy’s laptop, a message to [email protected] Langston Williams had been one of my biggest media critics back in the day
Dear Mr. Williams,
I enjoyed reading all your past coverage of Sebastian Aaron Montgomery IV. Are you still interested in him? I have info about his current whereabouts and condition. I promise the story is very much worth your while.