Page 100 of After All The Wreckage

Walden scowled at Gage, eyes dropping back to the gun in my hand before giving a shuddery breath and saying, “Whenthe people of Parkerville filed their suit against us for the silver iodide poisoning, I didn’t believe them. I thought it was just another money grab since the town has a history of toxicity from centuries of mining, but Tim wanted to do our own testing. We fought over it, and I told him it was stupid to open a door we couldn’t close.

“I happened to be meeting with Dunn that day and poured my worries out over several martinis with him and West. They told me they had a friend who could help us take care of it if that’s what I wanted. I told them I’d think about it. When I told Tim, he freaked out.

“The next thing I know, his plane has crashed, and West shows up telling me they have evidence that ties me to the wreck as if I’d paid someone to do it. Everything that’s happened since then has been out of my hands. I’m just following orders so I don’t end up dead. So my brother’s wife and son don’t end up dead too.”

“You want me to believe you had nothing to do with this? That you’re being blackmailed by Dunn?” I asked, scorn ripping through my words.

Walden’s laugh filled the air. Sarcastic and cruel. Filled with bitter venom. “Fuck. You really have no clue who you’re screwing with if you think it’s Dunn. He’s just the happy puppet whose strings are being pulled. An idiot who thinks some cheap fortune teller and his smile are going to get him into the White House someday, when really it’s his powerful friends who will make it happen.”

My stomach fell as I realized he was telling the truth. He believed there was someone, or multiple someones, much more powerful behind Dunn and West.

What had I missed?

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Gage

ANGELS (CAN’T HELP YOU NOW)

Performed by Def Leppard

My heart pounded furiouslyas I watched Rory in action. She was so damn cool and collected. Strong and calm, whereas I was rattled to my core, so when Walden dropped the line about the fortune teller, all I could see was red. He knew where Demi was.

I stepped up behind him and yanked his zip-tied arms up until he grunted in pain. “Where the hell is my mom?”

“I don’t know!” he cried out.

“Did you have my brother kidnapped?” I growled.

“I told you. I don’t know shit. I’m just following orders.”

“Whose?” Rory demanded. “West and who?”

“If I tell you, they’ll kill me, my sister-in-law, and my nephew. Hell, I may already be as good as dead.” He scanned the room furtively, and Rory’s gaze followed his.

“That’s my camera,” she told him, chin nodding to the dime-sized object she’d hid earlier on the base of a lamp.

“There’ll be more. There’s always more.”

My eyes found Rory’s, and her jaw clenched tight. She immediately started searching the room, and I stepped in to help even though I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for. We touched every piece of furniture, turning it over. Bedding was tossed aside, and every single plug, appliance, and device was inspected. When the room looked like a hurricane had flown through it, she stopped, returning to stand in front of Walden.

“The only cameras here are mine,” she said. “You were just wasting our time. Why?”

He shook his head as if not believing her.

Rory bent and pulled a briefcase out from under the bed. “What’s the gun and the cash for?”

“A drop I was supposed to make.”

“A murder for hire, just like you murdered your brother. Like you paid someone to run my mom off the road! Was this drop for me?”

He didn’t respond.

“Was it for Demi Palmer?” Rory demanded.

My heart had already been pulsing at a weird, off-kilter beat, and now it halted completely before thundering back to life as if she’d hitmewith the stun gun. Rory had said they might come after us—her. But fuck, she really thought they’d hired someone to kill her. And Demi. It hadn’t just been a precaution when she’d told me to send my family away.

“I never ask. I never want to know what it’s for,” Walden said, and for the first time since we’d tied him, he struggled again before dread seemed to scroll over his face.