Page 150 of Feed Your Fiends

“This photo, it was inside a homemade frame, like Hale had made it in arts and crafts,” I say impatiently.

“Oh, he put his new family inside of it. That’s what that Romani word means at the top.”

I follow Rie’s long red fingernail to the dresser, to the frame, and I freeze at the sight of Gant’s black eyes staring at me over Hale’s head as he ‘crowns’ him with his fingers. A finger is midway over the flash. I assume it’s Rie’s.

“Rie?” I croak. “Did you take this photo?”

“Yeah, the other day.”

“What other day. Like, yesterday?”

“A few days ago.”

For a few days, Gant’s known Hale’s true identity… Even before he…threw me away.

He saw the photo. He saw the wrong date on the back, the beach that isn’t a beach upon closer inspection but a pool.A spring.

Panic blooms in my chest. “Did Hale say who the client was? That he’s throwing this private event for tonight?”

“Just some businessman. Hale said he got twelve per cent of his own company’s shares back.”

I freeze at that, my fingers gripping the bedspread desperately. “Twelve per cent?”

‘Her firstborn is set to inherit twelve per cent of Auclair Enterprises.’

“Yeah, I don’t understand how shares work, but it seems like a big deal. Normally, I just click the little curved arrow. Badda bing, badda boom.”

My chest caves, my ribs stabbing my heart. “Bart? Did Hale say that the private client was Bart, as in Bart Auclair?”

Rie shrugs. “Sounds like someone that would own a penthouse.”

Penthouse.

I unlock my phone and dial Hale’s number again and again until my thumb goes numb and my blood grows cold with each redial. Just when I’m about to give up, someone answers.

“Hello?”

“Rie?!” I shriek, looking up to see that she’s gone. I sprint from the bedroom into the hall, and she pokes her head out from behind the bar, Hale’s phone pressed to her ear.

No!

“Why would he forget his phone?” I ask, dropping my phone to my side.

“He was wasted when I woke him up. Once he saw the time, he was frantic to organize the girls before shoving them into the shuttle bus he’d hired. After they left, I found it ringing between some cushions.”

“I have to go,” I say frantically, bending under couches in the lounge until I find a pair of discarded stilettos, a half size too small. I shove my sausages into them, grab someone’s discarded coat and beeline it to the door.

“Where?”

But I don’t have time to answer Rie as I blast out the front doors and into the freezing night air. My numb fingers scramble to open my ride-share app, and I quickly tap Gant’s saved address. After tonight, I’d finally delete it. I’d finally delete everything.

Still, getting to the penthouse is only half the battle. How am I going to get inside? Gant obviously wouldn’t let me up, and Rin’s already left the building. Then it hits me.Aria!Aria lives in the tower, too.

I speed dial her number, and she can barely say hello before I cut her off.

“Where are you?”

“Good night. On the train, why.”

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