Page 7 of The Situation Ship
“I’ll triple your yearly salary, and you only have to work for me for three months. Three years’ pay for three months of work – and then you can return to the club, if you wish, or stay on with me.” Mina had mentioned troubles, and more often than not, that meant money.
Mina perked up. “I don’t have any experience being a personal assistant.”
“That’s okay – there’s only one thing I need your help with.”
“Okay, but if you want to go to the police, I can’t be a witness. My boss won’t want me to get the club involved. I can give you the footage?”
“I don’t want to go to the police.”
“Then what do you need my help with?” Mina asked, putting her phone back in her pocket.
“That cruise they’re talking about in the video is next week. That’s when they plan on taking me out. So, I need you to help me kill my boyfriend,” Poppy said flatly, watching Joshua walk down the hill towards them.
Mina gaped.
Poppy was only half serious. She wanted to see what Mina was made of. She wasn’t going to kill him unless she had to, but she did need to know if he was still plotting her death– something that would be harder to pull off now that she’d let go of Dug.Did Joshua try and talk me out of firing him because it would ruin their plan to kill me?
“I can do that,” Mina said.
Poppy smiled. She loved a girl’s girl.
“You can do what?” Joshua asked, reaching them. “Pops, is everything alright?”
“Everything’s fine.” Swallowing her anger, Poppy took his hand. “This is my new assistant, Mina. I don’t think you two have met. She couldn’t attend the church service.”
“What happened to Gabriella?”
Poppy eyed him. Dug had mentioned he was sleeping with someone else; she wondered if it was her ex-assistant. They had always been a tad too friendly, and Joshua wasn’t the type to stray far enough to have to put in effort. Not that she cared; he could sleep with whoever he wanted, so long as he didn’t try to kill her to be with them. It wasn’t like they had feelings for each other.
She sighed. “Sadly, Gabs found a new position. Something about wanting a more challenging role? With all the funeral chaos, I didn’t get to tell you.”
“That’s a pity. I don’t know why she didn’t tell me,” Joshua said, frowning.
“Oh. I didn’t realise you were close,” Poppy said, enjoying watching him squirm.
He flushed and scratched his brow, his tell when he was nervous. “I wouldn’t say we were close, but we got to know each other when we were on tour with you.”
He was definitely sleeping with her.
“Not that it matters now.” Joshua held out a hand to Mina. “Anyway, it’s nice to meet you. I hope you look after our girl.”
“Of course! I won’t let anything happen to her,” Mina replied, shaking his hand.
“We should get back to the hotel. The guests are waiting,” Joshua said, glancing over his shoulder at the cars.
“You two go ahead. I just want to say one final goodbye,” Poppy said, and they both nodded solemnly.
Standing at the grave’s edge, she watched them walk up the hill before she dropped the poppy atop her aunt’s casket.
“I always told you I’d come out on top.” She smiled, turning her back on her aunt.
After a week at home poring over the case files, Isaiah was surprised that his captain hadn’t reprimanded him for his fruitless attempt to gatecrash Martha Roe’s funeral. It seemed Roberts assumed he had actually taken her advice and gone on holiday. However, his investigation was at a standstill until he could get in the same room as Poppy Roe. Once he made contact with the owner of Heaven’s Heart nightclub, that would hopefully no longer be a problem.
“Sorry, sir, but this area is off-limits without an invitation,” the bouncer said, prodding a finger into Isaiah’s chest and preventing him from entering the VIP area on the second floor of Heaven’s Heart nightclub.
He hadn’t pushed his way through the crowd of sweaty bodies covered in too much aftershave and perfume to be turned away.“I’m not here for the bottle service; I want to see yourboss, Mr Eckells,” he said politely, stepping back. He knew that breaking the man’s wrist would only get him kicked out, and he didn’t want to deal with that on top of his hangover.
I need to take it easy on the booze,he thought; waking up with a hangover was beginning to become a habit. But his captain had told him to relax, and catching up on
