Chapter 26

TWENTY-SIX

ELLIS

“How sweet of you guys to even drive me!” Betty says, like it’s not at all suspicious to get into the murder van. I think this woman believes she’s caught up in her own version of Magic Mike and not at all aware of the fact that literally every person in this vehicle is suspicious.

“Of course, of course!” Leland responds. “Jackson loves to drive.”

“These pictures of you guys hanging out with Miller are just the best. I really need to talk with him about refusing to show me pictures,” she says as she flips through Cassel’s photoshopped images. Half of them are pretty normal and casual, but there are a few in there—like Miller riding a mechanical bull and another of him smiling broadly while at Leland’s wedding—that make me wonder if this woman knows her son at all .

We roll up to an actual restaurant, which confuses me until I realize that there’s no one inside.

“I’m rich, so I booked the entire restaurant. How fun, right?” Leland asks.

“So fun!” she says as she hurries over to a seat next to Micah, who has somehow caught her eye. He’s doing a phenomenal job flirting with her, kind of making me feel bad for Eugene. I mean… the poor guy is off believing this is the woman of his dreams, and she’s already moved on to another man. Speaking of Eugene…

“Is Eugene alive?” I whisper to Tavish.

“Yeah, he’s fine… probably,” Tavish says, which really doesn’t reassure me at all.

We don’t even get seated before the door slams open and Miller steps in. He looks over at Micah flirting up a storm as his mother giggles and laughs and smacks Micah’s pecs—somehow his shirt has gotten more and more unbuttoned as the night has gone on.

Miller looks enraged, but the moment his mom looks over at him, he pops a smile on his face. “Mother!”

“Hey, my baby boy. Your friends are just delightful . Why have you been hiding them from me?”

“Oh, because I noticed how close you got to the last one I let you meet,” he grumbles.

“Toe-suckingly close,” Tavish mutters under his breath.

“Miller, I wanted to show you something super awesome and secret in the back,” Leland says. “It’s so fun. And don’t worry, your mother won’t be bored or alone.”

“I’d prefer to stay out here.”

His mom waves him on his way. “Oh, honey. These lovely boys did so much to give you a fun day. And did you know it’s this one’s birthday? Don’t deprive him of a fun birthday!”

Miller grimaces. “Of course not.”

Micah, Jeremy, and Henry all stay behind with his mother as the rest of us shuffle into the back where a chef doesn’t even look up at us. I notice he just works on the meal and continues on with his day, likely having been paid off by Leland to do so.

“I’m going to peel the skin from every inch of your body,” Miller growls. “And you see those deep fryers there? I’m going to fry it and make you watch.”

“So angry,” Leland says. “Your mom is so nice. Where the hell did you come from?”

Miller grimaces, kicks a trash can, and then growls like a feral animal—which is the closest to a temper tantrum I’ve ever seen from an adult—before he folds his arms over his chest. “Talk.”

“Alright, we have Arthur who wants Ellis’s father Zachary—why?”

“For the death of his daughter.”

“Zachary played a role in her death?”

“I don’t fucking know. I wasn’t around then. Things are… weird. Arthur seems quite cryptic about shit, but I’m honestly not sure why. I don’t know who is to blame, but Zachary knows something that Arthur needs.”

“We know that much,” Leland says. “You have to give us more to keep Mommy safe.”

“I don’t know more.”

“Every time you tell us you don’t know something, your mother’s going to lose a finger. Simple as that. How many fingers do you want her to have when we’re done with this? Don’t forget that you don’t owe Arthur anything. He pays your bills, yeah, but he also really doesn’t give a shit if you die. You also, weirdly enough, were at the dead guy’s house. That Nate Stewart. Why were you there?”

“I don’t know. He sent me to his house after finding out he was dead.”

“What for?”

“Stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Stuff, stuff.”

“You want me to go treat your mom to stuff?” Tavish asks.

Miller growls. “Fuck. He wanted me to check to make sure Nate didn’t have any… proof.”

“Of what?”

“I was supposed to look for anything pertaining to a woman named Sally Bower.”

“Sally… why’s that name sound familiar?” Leland asks.

“That’s the lady who killed Arthur’s daughter,” Cassel says. “What about her did he want?”

“Anything. He just said if it had her name, face, or whatever on it, I was to take it.”

“Did you find anything?”

Miller hesitates until Leland nods his head toward the door his mother is behind.

“I heard she likes having her toes sucked,” Tavish says. “She’s going to be real sad when she starts losing them.”

“Fucking hell. Okay, so I found some proof that Arthur had sent this Sally Bower some money. He’s trickled it into an account for her and arranged it to look like an uncle or someone is doing it.”

“So he’s paying off the woman who killed his daughter?” I ask, confused.

“Don’t ask me why. I have no idea. I wasn’t working with Arthur during that time. I really don’t know too many people who were besides Nate, who is now dead.”

“So we know at least two people knew what was going on,” Leland says. “Nate, who is now dead, and Ellis’s father Zachary.”

“So did Arthur kill Nate?” I ask, hopeful that it wasn’t my own father who’d killed the man in his office.

“No, Arthur was cussing up a storm about it, saying that Zachary is trying to get people looking into him. He went on about how ‘He’s making a fucking mistake because once people start looking at me, they’re going to start looking at him.’ I really don’t know more than that.”

“Why do you still want Ellis? He clearly has no fucking idea where his father is,” Tavish says.

Miller puts both hands up in the air. “Fuck if I know. I’m doing what I’m paid for.”

“Well, if you want to stay alive, then you’re going to take your mom and go on vacation for a couple of weeks. That sounds like a good plan, doesn’t it?” Leland asks as he flashes him some tickets. “Look how fun. It’s either this or death. It’s really up to you.”

Miller rocks back on his heels. “This is a damn good job that I really don’t want to lose.”

“Well, you need to be alive to work.”

He curses then closes his eyes and sighs. “Fine. If you touch my mother, I will murder all of you.”

“And if you harass us anymore, the same,” Tavish says as he holds his hand out.

Miller reaches out and shakes it, but before Tavish lets go, he yanks Miller forward.

“I’m not fucking joking. You hear me? If you even look at Ellis, I’m going to tear your eyeballs out of your goddamn head, understand? And if you touch him, I’m going to chop your hands off and I will mail them to your mother .”

“I hear you,” Miller growls.

Tavish smiles at him. “Perfect.”

“Can I leave?”

“I suppose I’ll permit it,” Tavish says.

“You can stay for the birthday dinner,” Leland offers.

“I think I’ll pass,” Miller says before quickly leaving. I can hear his mom carrying on about something, sounding upset about missing out on an opportunity to feast with a roomful of men.

“What will keep Miller from just murdering us now that his mother is gone?” I ask.

“I’m watching his location,” Cassel says as he waves his phone at me. I don’t quite know what that means, but I’m hoping it means we’ll be fine.

Leland looks over at us. “Well… I guess this Sally is going to get a visit from us. She’s still in prison?”

“Yes, she’s out this year, actually. She’s at the Hillsmont Women’s Correctional Facility,” Cassel says.

“Why’s that name sound familiar…” Leland mutters. “Wait… Everly once worked there, didn’t he? I remember seeing it when we looked into him.”

“Man, it’s been a while. I don’t quite remember,” Jackson says.

“Is Everly also someone I should find quite sketchy?” I ask.

Everyone is quiet as they all stare at Leland. “Everly is… Everly. I’ll handle it,” Leland says. “But for now, let’s feast.”

“Miller’s trotting right on off. He definitely doesn’t want to miss his flight,” Cassel informs us. “It smells delicious in here. Tavish, you’re lucky. Last dinner he invited me to, he tried making me eat in front of The Fence.”

“Well, Tavish doesn’t need to beg for The Fence’s forgiveness, now does he?” Leland asks.

Cassel makes a noncommittal noise as he hurries off while Leland badgers him about gun safety.

“Do I even want to know?” I ask.

“If you want to know in vivid detail, just ask Leland. But Cassel shot The Fence. It was a huge ‘tragedy’ and shocking that Leland has even forgiven him. If I’d done that, he’d have staked my ass to that fence.”

“That does sound like quite the tragedy.”

The others eagerly hurry back to the table as Tavish turns to me. “You feeling better now that the Miller meeting went smoothly?”

I debate that. I mean… I guess I never really felt super threatened. I felt a bit anxious, but I don’t think Miller even paid me any attention when he had the others who were clearly a whole lot more concerning breathing down his neck.

“Yeah… I think I am.”

“Good. When we’re done with this nonsense, can I take you on a proper date?”

I nod. “Yes… please. I want that… really badly… if you do.”

He gives me a grin. “I wouldn’t have asked you if I didn’t want to, trust me.”

“Thought maybe it was a pity date,” I tease.

“Jackson’s the only one you’ll find me pitying.”

“As you crochet clothes onto his naked body?” I joke.

Tavish looks horrified by this. “I wouldn’t do that. Nope. You shouldn’t believe any of that.”

“You know it doesn’t bother me, right? You were allowed to like and flirt with people before you met me. It’s… questionable flirting at the very least, but… everything you’ve done is questionable.”

“That’s understandable,” he says as he turns to the door. “But I promise it was nothing. I did it to harass the weasel. Nothing bothered him more, so I found myself doing it for kicks and… it just kind of became a thing. But I promise it didn’t mean anything.”

“Tavish, you really don’t have to reassure me.” I slide up behind him and press my lips against his ear before he passes through. “And after dinner, how about I take you out for dessert?”

“Oh fuck… I don’t think I’m actually hungry for dinner now. I might as well go straight for the dessert,” he mutters.

“It smells too damn good in here to skip,” I say as I slide past him, leaving him behind and loving the way it makes him give me such a longing look.