Page 75 of Point of No Return

"What?" my mother snips.

"Lorelai Benenati was murdered by Prevyains."

I can only guess it's the reason that Skar hates me. He knows. The cause of death all but confirms it. And if his mother was murdered then it can only mean someone was hired to kill her. When I found it, warning bells went off in my head.

My mother had to have known. It can't just be a coincidence that she married me off to Skar when his mother was murdered just a year before we moved to Westos.

"And you learned this, how?"

"You knew?"

She rolls her eyes, scoffing as her hands drop. "Please, Lottie. The Benenatis have hated us long before Lorelai passed. Find somethinguseful-"

"This is-"

"Enough, child. If you'd done your job properly, he would have given you the information willingly. He still doesn't trust you, does he?"

Something sour stews in my gut at her words. It's a confirmation and a warning. "No."

“Fuck him,” she slurs. “And when the time is right, kill him.”

My breath feels tight. “Yes, Moma.”

I don’t look away as her eyes drag over me. But I’m still too late to stop what happens next. Her hands slap down hard on both my ears. My vision blurs, and everything sounds shrill as pain lances through me. Her nails dig into my chin, forcing me to look at her.

Her voice is distant, fading in and out. “-never taken this long before.”

Blood hums under my skin, and the ringing in my ears only becomes louder.

“Clean up your mess… Your husband is waiting." She squeezes my face once more and then her hands fall away.

Her heels click as she strolls back down the hall and disappears. It’s several moments before I can stand upright again and several more before I can hear in my right ear.

What the hell am I doing?I ask myself.

But no matter how many times I ask the question, I never have an answer.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Skar

My phone’s been buzzing non-stop for the past hour since I stopped at the club.Most of the texts are from heads of separate branches checking in after the last regional meeting.

Fuck, I just want to put off answering until tomorrow. But when I dig my phone out of my pocket and see three new texts, everything else ceases to matter.

3:09 Crew: Aleks is awake.

3:15 Charlie: Call me.

3:22 Charlie: Please.

Fuck, I think. She never texts me. And with the shit that went down this weekend, with the distance she’s put between us since seeing her parents, my mind is fucking flooded.

Something happened.

“Mr. Benenati?” The lead bartender is still standing on the opposite side of my desk, hovering by the door as he waits for my reply. We’d been going over inventory and a couple of things right before I checked my phone. “I just asked if there was anything else you needed.”

“No,” I stand, my phone fisted in my hand as I turn to leave. “Actually, can you tell me how much Aleks charged to my tab this weekend?”

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