Page 79 of Hers To Keep
But beside him, I can tell Kai has caught on to what I’m saying. “That’s the secret he’s afraid will come to light. Because of them, a woman took her life,” Kai mutters, not sounding so convinced.
“Not just any woman. A sixteen-year-old girl, daughter of Gabriel Marchesi, the head of a branch in the Italian Mob here on the west coast. Because this secret was the one the blackmailer was threatening to expose, my uncle first believed that Lilith was the one who was behind it. Then he moved on to suspect Maxwell, because of his parentage of Scarlett and the fact that he was also involved in the tragedy that led to her death. It’s when he brought Scarlett to Hillcrest Hills, more specifically to Servite Academy—to keep her close in case he needed her as leverage over his blackmailer.”
“But how did he know where to find her?” Drake asks, after gulping down the bourbon I poured him. I told him he’d need it.
I sit forward, my elbows resting above my knees as I watch them try to take in all the information I’ve thus far presented. “He’s always known. Lilith has always worked for my uncle, and when she was being chased down for killing the Mayor of Hillcrest, Silas Smoak, which Wesley sent her, and Jade’s father to do, he found Scarlett. He then coerced Beckett’s Aunt Elena, who was his ex-girlfriend, to transfer the girls to a foster house nearby where he could monitor them, in case they ever turned against him. Thenyears later when the blackmailing started, he brought her to the academy to keep her as leverage. But his obsession soon turned dark, and I don’t know what his endgame is now.”
Drake stands, slamming his empty glass on the coffee table before us. “But this still makes no sense, why is Scarlett there at that filthy fucking place?”
I stand to meet him and his angry stare. “Marchesi ambushed her the night my uncle blew up our cabin hoping to take us down with it. He somehow convinced her to work for him and infiltrate The Gallows in order to find the evidence needed to bring Wesley down. You may be surprised to find out my uncle has an array of illicit businesses and activities he needs to pay for.”
“No shit, this shit goes way deeper than we could have ever fucking imagined,” Kai says, worriedly rubbing his hand over his jaw.
“So Scarlett is supposed to find this evidence? Isn’t that fucking dangerous?” Drake growls.
“This ledger contains all Wesley’s client’s names that would surely burn this world to the ground. But she hasn’t found it yet, or he hasn’t asked her to. We have to wait till she gets her hands on it. Without it we don’t have a way to stop my uncle. I have a girl on the inside of The Gallows who’s keeping an eye on her and reporting everything back to us. Soon we’ll know what comes next.”
Drake laughs nervously pacing around us. “How can you just sit around and wait? I thought you loved her. What if Wesley finds out what she’s up to?”
I rush him, taking a fistful of his shirt in my hands and dragging him toward the wall behind him. I only slam his back against it because of the element of surprise, but the asshole is quick to recover.
“Don’t ever fucking question my love for her, Dragon.”
The phone suddenly rings, startling us all and I quickly let go of him, rushing over to answer it pulling it to my ear. My hands fistat my sides as I hear Marchesi’s voice come through, as he asks her to find the ledger hidden in my uncle’s office at The Gallows.
After a few minutes I hang up, every glare in the room directed at me, a mixture of anger, worry, and frustration coming across.
“He’s asking her to get it tonight, that means we need to act fast. Once it’s in her hands I’m breaking her out of there. I don’t care who I have to go through, she’s coming home with me.” I shoot Remi a quick text letting her know what’s about to go down.
Me: I need her watched at all times, and I need you to tell me as soon as the ledger is in her possession.
I look up at the group before me, every one of them here to make sure this ends. To save our Scarlett from the devil’s clutches.
“This ends tonight!” I shout as I turn and look up to them. “I’m going to The Gallows, and I’m coming home with my girl. But I need to go alone.”
Chapter
Forty-Four
SCARLETT
One Hour Earlier
I can’t believe I’ve been here for an entire month now. Every day I spend here, another piece of my soul falls victim to its darkness. Pretty soon there will be nothing left of me but a tarred husk, a distant memory of the girl I was before I fell into the clutches of this town's terrifying evil.
I’ve almost forgotten who I am, what I came here for. Like a robot I’ve come every night to do the same damn thing. Get my makeup done, get dressed in the most provocative and luxurious dresses, help the girls get prim and proper, and strut down to the center stage where I watch the most despicable of beings commit the most deplorable of sins.
Either way, I can’t continue to be selfish and consumed by my agenda. I’m here for these girls who see me as their arbitrator, their middleman so to speak—I'm Here to ensure their safety and advocate for their well-being. Because they are trapped in the clutches of a monster, and nobody else seems to give a fuck aboutthat. Yet it’s daunting that he’s made them believe that every one of them are here of their own free will.
“The girls here thrive off the looks these horrid men give them, the luxuries, the extravagance. It fuels their dreams, feeds into their desires, keeps them feeling wanted,” Remi says, her legs crossed over my desk, in this crappy office Wesley placed me in.
“That’s fucking ridiculous, Remington,” I say, glaring at her, warning her she better put her fucking legs down.
But the bitch doesn’t budge. “It’s true,” she says, her mouth smacking loudly as she chews a piece of gum like a fucking child. I must admit when I first arrived, I couldn’t stand her, preferring the company of her twin sister Lexi. But something about Remi reminds me of what Jade was like before coming here to Hillcrest—always angry at the world. “Most girls come from shitty backgrounds, abusive, drug addicted, or absent parents. So this world, however crazy and depraved it may be, gives us an out. It’s not that far-fetched.”
I shake my head at her reasoning. It sounds crazy, but she said it with such conviction, I think she may actually believe it to be true. “No matter how bad your life is Remi, I can’t imagine you’d trade it to be gawked at like a fucking piece of meat.”
She scoffs, flipping her brown hair over her shoulder. “Judgy much,” she sneers, dropping her legs and scooting forward. “I mean look at you. Money talked and now you’re here.” I chuckle lightly at her assumption, gaining me a patronizing glare.