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“I’m thorough,” he sniffs, and he hasn’t sounded more like a professor than in this moment. “And lucky for you guys, I have a plan.”
Leo sips his coffee, then sets it back down on the counter. “Did no one hear the part where Eden and I have a plan?”
I peer between the professor and the tattooed caveman. “I’m siding with the professor no matter what.”
Leo flips me off, and I grin at him cheekily.
Alaric, who’s apparently on a mission now, doesn’t give the two of us a second glance as he sets the journal on the counter between him and Eden. “There’s a lot of good stuff in here, but I’m narrowing it down to the big names. The people who might’ve actually been there or would know something about how Dee died. We all know Franklin’s not in this. I even checked Vincent’s secret to see if he had anything about his grandfather, but no.”
I wonder what Vincent’s secret is—other than the fact that he has a kid somewhere, according to the file Eden and I took pictures of. I wonder if Anne-Marie knows about that. Doubtful.
“But there is something about Cameron Cabot in here. He impregnated a girl he met on vacation. She showed up at the Cabot house. They tried to pay her off. They tried to run her off. When that didn’t work, they took matters into their own hands.”
Eden, who’d been lazily flipping through the book, whips her gaze toward Alaric. “He had her killed?”
“Well, his dad was the driving force but yeah, she’s…no longer with us.”
I wish I was more surprised than I am. These unfortunate occurrences happen all the time in my family, too. We don’t kill the mother and unborn child—we’re not savages—but that child in that mother’s belly could’ve been me. I am a bastard, after all.
All of this because of social standing. For appearances. It’s sick and disgraceful.
Alaric takes a deep breath. “He’s an Elder now but not one of the big names. He might talk if he had the right motivation.”
“They’re all pricks. None of them will willingly talk,” Leo interjects. “We have to give them an incentive.”
“Threaten to out the story?” I ask.
“How would we have found out?” Eden asks. “We don’t want them to know we have The Secret File.”
“Or,” Leo says, “we go with mine and Eden’s plan.”
My gaze flicks between the two of them. I love the girl very much, but Leo brings out her crazy side. I don’t know if I want to know what they’ve come up with, especially since Alaric’s plan seems sound.
Alaric motions for him to continue, and Leo moves around the side of the counter and sits at the breakfast nook with me. “We go right to Leon Forbes. He sent the threatening bouquet, and there’s no way he wouldn’t have been at a final Trial.”
“Yeah, except he’s a Forbes,” I point out, shaking my head. “What are you going to do to get him to talk?”
Leo smirks, and I swear there’s a glint in his eye. “Good old-fashioned torture.”
My mouth unhinges.
Before I can even say the thoughts that are inside my head, Leo’s already coming back at me. “This from the guy who kidnapped Keegan Forbes? I thought you’d be all about this plan.”
“Yeah, because it was that barmy arsehole,” I defend. “If we’re suspecting Leon actually had something to do with Delilah’s death, and maybe even Alistair’s, do we really want to make a direct strike?”
“Yes,” Eden and Leo say at the same time.
I swing my gaze to her. She’s always been beautiful, and that bloodthirsty look on her face doesn’t make her any less so, but it is frightening. It makes me worry for her safety. Leon’s the kind of guy that won’t let this go. “We can’t just kidnap him and throw him back into the pond. He’ll get his revenge.”
“Not if he’s locked up.”
“That’s assuming he did it. We’ve all said that none of these guys are likely to get their actual hands dirty, right?” My heart beats in my chest as all the ways this could go wrong lap at me like ocean waves. “Which means they hired it out exactly like how we got that book,” I say, pointing at it like it’s evidence in a murder trial.
“Who said he’ll make it out?” Eden says. Her voice is so soft and tiny that it doesn’t match the meaning behind her words.
I blink at her. “Edie…”
She shakes her head. “If he’s untouchable… If the police or a judge or any other man will let him get off with bribes, then we have to take matters into our own hands.”