back corner with her fake plants hanging from the ceiling. I’ll let her know where your money to pay down your debt really comes from. And of course, I’ll make sure Ryker goes down with you. The little audio recording I have of him doesn’t exactly paint him in the best light. Why do you think he’s been so obedient? He’s just as scared as you are.”
Without another word, he ends the call, and I’m left staring at the television. Splendor in the Grass is on, but I don’t remember a single scene.
And for the first time since the Hamptons, I understand Ryker. Why he did what he did. His need to protect me when someone threatened me. My need to pick up the phone and call Carter back to find out what he has on Ryker so I can try to help fix it owns my thoughts.
My urge to call Ryker and ask him myself.
But Carter’s threat was loud and clear, and the stakes are so much higher this time around. His mention of the detective’s name. His threat against Ryker. His admission that my handing over my blackmail material might not appease him.
All I can focus on is that I have no way out of this. Who knew coming to Lola’s rescue months ago would cause this domino effect in my life?
His threats about Greenwich unnerve me. How he connected me to the Dillinger name. But it’s the unknown that worries me even more. It’s not like Samantha was exactly forthcoming with me about what happened that last night.
But I remember the snippets from my dream the other night. The bag of jewelry and cash that she said was his payoff. The speckles of blood on her shirt that she later told me was from a nosebleed she’d gotten after he’d slapped her while in a drunken state.
And then I remember the details that have always been there. Stealing away in the dead of night to the Greyhound station and the promise she forced me to make: to never look back at Greenwich or him. That if I searched anywhere for him on technology, he’d find us.
Are the Dillingers looking for us now? Did Samantha lie to me? Did she steal the valuables, and the police have been looking for us since that night?
Or is it something more nefarious than that?
A chill chases down my spine, and all the while I know damn well that whatever Samantha did that night, she had to. Knowing what I know now, she had to.
Is that what Carter Preston is alluding to?
But if that’s the case—if we’re technically fugitives—then why haven’t the authorities found us? It’s not like we’ve been in hiding.
I sigh and just sit in the silence as I try to rationalize my way through each and every scenario.
The tears fall without me ever realizing it. Salt on my lips, wetness on my eyelashes, fear in my heart.
It takes everything I have not to call Ryker. Carter’s threat is more real to me now than it has ever been. I pick up the phone and begin to dial him more times than I care to count during the hour I sit numb to everything.
It takes even more to get ready for work, one methodical step at a time.
And even more so, it takes everything I have not to want to pick up and leave without a trace.
But there’s Lucy.
And Ryker.
The only two people I have ever loved in my life besides my mom and Samantha.
The only two people I’ve ever needed and allowed to need me in return.
I can’t leave them.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Vaughn
I put the finishing touches on my makeup and wig. It’s weird to don these clothes, this personality, when it feels like I’ve become such a different person over the past few months.
Madam Vee feels like a ruse more than ever before. Sure, the money is coming in faster now, but it’s like I’m selling my soul for it.
That’s not a good place to be.
Add to that Carter tonight. His ultimatums owned my thoughts during my entire shift. Ahmed even noticed something was off, and I let him assume I’d had a tiff with Ryker.
And when I stare in the mirror of the hotel room I rented after work to make my transformation to Vee, I see everything I hope my potential client, Noah, doesn’t. Uncertainty instead of resolve. Fear where there should be strength. A lack of identity when I should own the red lipstick and perfectly stylish