Page 9 of Ruthless Riches
My sister let out a short, exasperated sigh and looked up at me again. Her eyes were glistening and slightly red. “Lexie, you did amazing work with the whole Golden Circle thing,” she said softly. “Really. I’m proud of you. Everyone is. But this is crazy.”
“I know, but I have to do it,” I said stubbornly.
I couldn’t even explain why. I just knew I wouldn’t be able to stay away from it, even if I tried. Nate wouldn’t be able to, either. It was in our blood now; this ardent need to dig and dig until we unearthed every dark truth on this fucked up island.
Sascha took another deep, fortifying breath. Then she spoke again, voice thick with emotion. “I spent the last ten years thinking Dad was guilty for everything that happened back in 2009. But he wasn’t. So now all I can think about is how I lost him, and how much that fucking sucks,” she said. She shook her head and swallowed hard. “I can’t lose you too. I can’t.”
“Nothing is going to happen to me. Nate will take care of me.”
Sascha looked over at Nate, eyes narrowed. “So he’s going to follow you into every bathroom from now on to make sure no one sneaks in and stabs you again?”
I sighed. “Look, Sash, I totally dropped my guard last night because I assumed everything was over when the Golden Circle was arrested. I had no idea there was still a killer out there,” I said. “Obviously, from now on, I’ll be much more careful. No more frat parties. No more going off alone in unfamiliar houses with no security. No more bathrooms that haven’t been checked first. I promise.”
“The only promise I want from you is that you’ll drop this and let the police work on it. They told me all about the message on the mirror. It said it was your final warning. I just… I can’t…” Sascha trailed off, overcome with emotion. A tear slid down her cheek, and she wiped it with her sleeve. “Please, Lexie. Just stop.”
I rubbed my eyes and sighed again. “Fine. I’ll stay out of it.”
Her shoulders sagged with relief. “Good,” she murmured. She sniffed and glanced at her watch. “Shit. I have to pick up Mom and Simon from the ferry.”
“Okay.”
She stood. “I’ll be back in an hour. Want me to bring you anything?”
I shook my head. She gave my hand a quick squeeze before leaving the hospital room. As the sound of her footsteps in the corridor faded away, Nate looked at me with raised brows. “You were lying, right?”
“About what?”
“About staying out of the investigation.”
I nodded. “I just wanted to make her feel better.”
He frowned. “Don’t you think she has a point?”
“She does. A very good one. This stuff is dangerous,” I said. “But think about it this way. While we were looking into the Golden Circle stuff, I must’ve said or done something at some point that made the Butcher afraid I was about to catch him. Why else would he try to scare me off like this?”
Nate rubbed the back of his neck. “Good point,” he muttered. “Something or someone must’ve convinced him that you were on the right track to finding him.”
“Exactly. Now he’s desperate to stop me, and that makes me think I should actually keep going, because it means I must be close, even though I don’t know how,” I said. “Also, look at how things have gone with the case so far. Claire and Nessa were murdered months ago, and the Avalon police still don’t have a single lead. It’s not exactly promising, is it?”
“They might do better now. All of the shitty, corrupt cops on the force are gone after what happened with the Golden Circle.”
“That’s true, but honestly, Nate… I really don’t know if I can stay away,” I said, twisting the bedsheets in my hand. “It was the same with Dad’s case, you know. I needed to know what happened then, and I need to know what’s happening now. I can’t just sit around and hope someone else finds something when I could be out there looking myself.”
Nate leaned forward and rested a hand on my arm. “How about this? We’ll leave the cops to do their job for the next month or so while you recover. If they still haven’t found anything by then, we can start looking into stuff again.”
I nodded slowly. “I guess I can manage that for a while.”
Even as I said it, I knew it wouldn’t last long. Soon, the urge to take matters into my own hands would reach a boiling point inside me, and I wouldn’t be able to resist.
When it happened, I was sure that Nate and I could take the right steps to find the Butcher. After all, we’d managed to track down and destroy a criminal empire in the past. Surely we could catch one more man on top of that, even if he was the most dangerous person in Avalon’s recent history.
I knew we’d do our best to work on our investigation as safely as possible, and we’d always be there to look out for each other.
With all of that on our side… what could possibly go wrong?
