Page 176 of Unorthodox
“Think about what I’m asking you,” I interrupt, a cold sweat breaking out over the back of my neck. “Did youspeakto him? Did you hear his voice, at any point during your grand plan to free Addison fucking London, did you actually have a conversation with her fucking brother on the phone?”
Mamie swallows, her eyes wide. Slowly, she shakes her head. “But I vetted him, Max, I asked questions. I didn’t just go in blindly, I—”
I smile at her and watch her falter, take a small step away from me. “Luca,” I say quietly. “Did you have any part of what he did here last night?”
A look of indignation crosses her face, her brow furrowed, jaw clenched. “I would never betray you like that. I wassaving Addison’s life,I had nothing to do with Luca.”
The sharp slice of betrayal cuts through my gut.
She’s not lying to me.
I close my eyes, imagining Dante’s on mine as he closed my office door, leading Luca out that night he invited Addison to his birthday party.
I know he wouldn’t work with Luca to sell her.
He’d do it to save her.
Which means Luca betrayed him too.
Both of them lied to me.
At the expense of my fucking brother.
For just a second, I think about my mother’s body in our apartment, the year after we fled Pretoria. Ollie was nowhere.Ollie was gone.
I take a shuddering breath.
“DidDanikcontact you, or did you look for him?” I ask Mamie, not wanting to believe Jameson’s words, but knowing the truth in them. Feeling the sting of it like glass in my throat.
“H-he contacted me,” Mamie whispers. “Danik contacted me,” she repeats.
I keep my eyes closed, my breathing shallow as I stay slumped against the door. “Get in the fucking car and follow her.”
It’s an airport.
A private airport of beige hangars capped with blue roofs.
I glance at the clock.
It took me an hour to drive here, my foot shaking on the gas pedal as I looked in the rearview mirror more times than was really safe, and I thought about Max more times than I should have.
An hour, and it isn’t even noon.
The phone Mamie gave me beeps and I see a message pop up from “D”.
Mamie was not very original, and there’s no lock on this phone.
Did she really believe Max trusted her this completely?
But he did.
The fact that I’m here, in a parking spot of the empty, paved lot is proof of that.
He trusted her.
She betrayed him. Just like Dante.
Just like me.
