Page 83 of After All The Wreckage

His face twisted into an evil grin, and he wiggled his fingers at me. “Go on now.”

“It’s always the smug ones who have the thinnest shells. I’m going to enjoy cracking yours.”

“I’ve been in this game since before you took your first breath. Keep digging and see what happens to those just learning how to dip their toes into the water. You can drown in the shallows just as easily as the depths.”

“Rory!” Gage’s voice held an edge of panic to it now.

I swirled around, pulled back the tarp, and eased over the rail without looking back.

“I’m here!” I called out, jogging around the corner of the restaurant and running smack into Gage.

“Thank God,” he said on an exhale, wrapping me into his embrace as the rain poured over us. “Where the hell did you go?”

As the warmth of him mixed with the cold rain, I realized I was shivering, or maybe quivering with fury. Regardless, my body was trembling. Gage seemed to feel it too, because he pulled back to look into my face, worry cresting his brow.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” he asked.

The pancakes I’d eaten felt like a twenty-pound weight in my stomach.

I looked back the way I’d come, but no one was coming after me. It meant West hadn’t told Dad’s team… not yet anyway.

“Let’s go. I’ll tell you in the car,” I said, pushing away from Gage and heading toward the valet stand where the Pathfinder waited with a black F-150 pulled up behind it.

As I slid into the running vehicle, dark emotions welled. Even with the recording, nothing West had said was enough to prove he and Dunn were involved in something underhanded. It was all vague talk that could be interpreted in multiple ways, easily explained away, and even if the authorities believed us, none of it would be admissible in court. They wouldn’t even be able to use it to get a search warrant.

It might get some airtime with a journalist, but it would be easy for West to spin.

I’d played my hand too soon.

I’d fucked up. Now West knew we were coming after them, and it might have cost Demi her life.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Gage

I CAN’T HOLD BACK

Performed by Survivor

Whatever had happenedin the few minutes I’d been gone to get the car had Rory shaking. But her face was blank, so I didn’t know if the trembling was in fear or anger or just because the rain was cold as hell.

I shifted the SUV into drive, merging into the traffic and heading toward the Capitol and the building with Argento Skies’s offices.

“Tell me what happened,” I said quietly.

As she played back the encounter for me on her phone, my fingers tightened on the steering wheel until I was almost crushing it. God. What the fuck had Demi gotten us all involved in now? What had she gotten herself into?

“The asshole basically admitted to everything!” I growled out.

“Everything and nothing all at the same time,” Rory added. “We need more proof, Gage. No one is going to listen to us. No one is going to bring him or Dunn or Shawn Walden to justice without more than what we have. And we need to do it before someone else gets hurt.”

I’d thought I’d stopped caring about our mother years ago, but ever since Monte had first told me she was in his vision, I’d been plagued with a multitude of feelings for her. As much as I didn’t want to see her again, I also didn’t want to bury another parent. Monte’s talk about Halloween last night had reminded me that we’d had good times.

After Dad was gone and we’d moved out of the apartment, I’d come home to find the entire living and dining area covered in a sea of sheets and blankets.

“We made a fort,”Monte said with a smile, peeking out at me. “And we’re having a picnic. Come join us.”

Seeing it brought back bittersweet memories of Demi making the same kind of fort for me. After a moment’s hesitation, I joined them, and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening inside the homemade tent, playing board games and eating junk food.