Page 66 of Diamonds

“Fuck if I know.I think the river of tears might have been referring to the Des Plaines river in the park where we found May.But what the writing raven is supposed to be is anyone’s guess.”He pauses a moment.“But if you’re right—if he wanted me to figure out a way to expose Rouge—there must be something to his words.But if that’s the case, why the hell would Rouge let me keep coming to the club?Why not just rescind my membership, keep herself shut off?”

“Maybe she had no idea what your father was up to.”

“Maybe.But if that’s true, who poisoned him?”

I close my eyes and mull it over.“If shedidpoison him, it would look suspicious if she didn’t let you come to the club.If that real autopsy report ever came out, shutting you out would create a trail of breadcrumbs leading directly to her.This way she has some plausible deniability.”

He nods, eyes wide.“And she knows my dad and I had a rocky relationship…”

“Did you ever talk to her about that?”

He blinks a few times.“She and I were…well acquainted when I first started going to the club.”

My heart skips a beat.Does “well acquainted” mean what I think it does?

I stuff my jealousy down.Not the time.

“So if she knows that you and your father didn’t have a great relationship, then she probably thinks you have no clue about what she’s doing.If she did, you might end up with a poison-induced heart attack as well.”

Ugh.Just the thought… Maddox… Dead… I want to toss my dinner.

The color leaves his face.“Shit.You’re probably right.”

“Which means this.”I look straight into Maddox’s eyes, pushing down my fear and repulsion.“We can’t allow her to know we have any inkling that she’s up to something terrible.”

“Easy enough.”

“I don’t think you understand what I’m saying.”I grab his face, meet his gaze.“We have to keep going to the club.”

21

MADDOX

Idrop my jaw.

Uh-uh.Negatory.No fucking way, Jo-fucking-sé.

“Alissa.I can’t let you go back to that club.Not after what happened to May.”

She rolls her eyes.“That’s rubbish.Rouge can’t murder me in front of a bunch of witnesses.”

“Do not underestimate the kind of terrible things Rouge is capable of doing.”

If the vision I had that night at the club all those years ago has any basis in reality, strangling and beheading a young girl is one of Rouge’s more innocuous crimes.

This woman is capable of evil.Pure evil.

But I can’t tell Alissa that story.I can’t put that on her after everything we’ve been through since Sunday night.

“I don’t care how many people she owns.She can’t do that.”

“Alissa.Even if you going back to the clubwasa good idea—which it absolutely isnot—you can’t get in without me.And I won’t allow it.”

She folds her arms over her chest.“Oh, so you’re telling me what I can and cannot do now?”

“For fuck’s sake.This isn’t about the big strong man telling his little woman what she’s allowed to do.It’s me saying it’s unsafe, that you’ll be killed if you go to that club again.”

“But Rouge doesn’t know what we’ve been doing.”Her eyes widen.“If wedon’tshow up, she’ll grow suspicious.You’re there every weekend, aren’t you?”