Page 92 of Tell Me All Your Lies

“Can I ask you a question?”

Taby shrugs as she tucks her legs underneath her and kicks her heels off one by one.

“Who are you?”

She laughs, reaching an arm behind her on the couch.

“Baby, if you don’t know by now, then you aren’t as smart as I thought you were.”

“The Kingpin.”

“Such an odd term for a woman in power, wouldn’t you say? No matter, I fought for my place here. One kill and deal at a time.”

Got her. She’s admitted that she’s the Kingpin of Charlotte and is sharing so casually about how she came to be.

“Does that scare you?” she asks.

“No.”

“Good. It would be terribly boring if it did.”

I pause, unsure of what she expects from me.

“You’re something different, Ace. I can tell. That doesn’t mean you’re going to pan out for what we need, but time will tell.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“Not whatever it takes. You’ve just proven that.”

When I turned her down, anger had flashed across her face.

“You can go now,” she says with a fling of her hand. She gulps down the remainder of the whiskey and gets up with the glass in hand.

“Now,” she calls out as she saunters over to the bar.

Getting off the couch, I head to the door without another word.

I walk through the winding hallway and find myself back at the crossroads with the main door entrance to my left and what has to be the hallway to the office to the right.

If anyone finds me, I’ll just claim I’m lost.

I take a right and easily find Taby’s office. Her assistant is nowhere to be found as I walk past a desk and open the main office door.

It’s dark inside, so I pull out a flashlight from my pocket. After turning it on, I shine it around the room and still.

“Cara?” I whisper to the figure.

“It’s me,” she says, almost out of breath.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“I need to search one more spot.”

“It’s pointless. I’ll explain when we leave.”

Cara steps out of the darkness with a perplexed look.

“What happened?”

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