Page 193 of Chandelier Enthralled
The apartment went silent except for the ticking of that clock with the wrong time.
It was the shocked expression on Chad’s face that made me follow his line of sight back to the man. He wasn’t dead after all. He’d rolled onto his side and was pointing a gun right at me with a smug smile.
A shot rang out.
Iliked this room.
Mia had decorated it with an enduring elegance. Their sitting room conveyed a warmth that was inviting and homey.
“Drink your tea, Willa,” said Cameron, his voice gentle.
I wondered if my hands would ever stop shaking.
He sat beside me on the blue velvet couch, and I knew he would try to get me back intothatroom. I knew how this worked, because I had witnessed my brother do it so many times with his clients and friends and family…
A warm blanket had been placed over my shoulders. He had tactfully offered a medication to soothe my panic attack.
But I was fine.
Just fine.
I sipped the hot beverage, wrapping my palms around the mug, finding it soothing. The tea was soothing, too.
I tried not to think of the events of a few hours ago.
Chad’s eyes stared at me, his pupils wide, too wide for life, his breath gone.
Tea rose in the back of my throat, making it hard to swallow. I wanted to cry, but no tears came, even as I sat here trying to figure out what had happened, trying to piece the clues together, clutching the notebook I had grabbed fromhispocket.
Despite panicking, despite my confusion at seeing both men dead, I had done one thing right.
Hadn’t I?
What I now gripped between tense fingers was the reason everything had gone horribly wrong for so many people.
“Willa,” said Cameron. “Let me take you to the hospital.”
“No!”
“I would very much like you to get checked out by another doctor.”
I was vaguely aware of Cameron’s fingers brushing a strand of hair out of my eyes.
“He saved my life,” I whispered.
“You were all very brave.”
Chloe’s instinct to run had been right, but she had turned on us.
A chill shuddered through me. “She called Jewel. Told her we were in Dean’s apartment.”
“Chloe?”
“I work with her.” I tried to shake off the fog that clouded my brain. “She betrayed us.”
Betrayed Chad.
All along, she had worked for Jewel. Chloe’s ambition had twisted her moral compass until it was unrecognizable.
