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8

GUNN

I rub the bandage on my wrist subconsciously. It’s become a habit of mine these past two days. Something I do whenever that she-devil enters my mind, which seems to be all day, every damned day.

Yesterday I put in a call to Kyle. He’s a hacker Luca and I have used on several occasions because of how good he is. When all of the Ferryman shit began, he’s the one that helped us dig up information on Gideon Black.

Now, I want him to help me find out who his sidekick is.

“This is just between you and me,” I told him. “Luca doesn’t need to know.”

“I don’t think he’ll be happy about that.”

“Can you keep this between us or not?”

He hesitated before speaking. “I’ve dug into Gideon’s past before and haven’t come across anything on this Scarlet woman.”

“That’s because you haven’t looked.”

“Fine. Give me a few days,” he said and hung up.

A few days? It’s barely been one and I’m growing more impatient by the second.

“Gunn? I didn’t know you were here.” I look up from my wrist just as Carina enters the dining room.

Offering my most charming grin, I say, “I came for some of Nan’s breakfast.”

She smiles as she glances at the full plate in front of me. “Did you just arrive?”

“A few minutes ago.” I grab my fork and stab eggs and potatoes and shove them in my mouth. The truth is, I’ve been at Briar House a while, but my thoughts have been somewhere else completely.

“Well, we missed seeing you. I expected you’d be by yesterday.” She goes to the long buffet table set up by her and Luca’s housekeeper, Nancy.

“The trip wore me out.” Lame excuse, but it’s the quickest lie I can come up with.

Taking the seat beside me, she points to my wrist. “Luca told me you had a run in with Scarlet.”

That’s an understatement.

“I was careless.”

Carina gives me a soft smile as she reaches over and squeezes my arm. “Don’t beat yourself up. You’re lucky she let you live. You wonder why that is?”

“I can’t begin to fathom how that woman operates,” I admit. If it rings true, it’s because it is. Scarlet confuses the shit out of me.

“Mmm.” Carina takes a dainty bite of her eggs as she contemplates the riddle that is Scarlet. “You two have some strange thing between you. We can all sense it. Maybe that’s what stopped her.”

I’m not sure how to reply to that, so instead I shove more food into my mouth.

Carina studies me. “I know what Luca has ordered. I know he wants you to force Sofia’s location out of Scarlet before you kill her.” Her fingernails dig into the white table cloth. “But that’s not what I want.”

“It’s not?” I take a big gulp of juice.

“Clearly something about you made Scarlet hesitate. You can get the closest to her. I want you to take advantage of that, find her and bring her to me alive.” Her brown eyes suddenly fill with pain, then just as fast, they go stone cold. “I will get that information from her and I will be the one that kills her. Is that understood?”

I nod. Sometimes I forget how scary Carina can be. How determined she is to get her own revenge. Her twin sister’s blood is all over Scarlet’s hands, along with who knows how many others.

Guilt suddenly fills my gut like a pound of coal and I can hardly swallow down the egg in my mouth.

I had her in my grip, and I let her go.

Showing up unannounced for breakfast isn’t new for me, seeing as how I usually don’t have much food in my fridge anyway.

But the real reason I’m here is because Luca wanted me to view the photos of Sergio Ramos and Jorge Ruiz.

After breakfast, I follow him into his study. He slides the pocket doors shut behind us and indicates the seat across from him.

He tosses the printed photos Enzo Marcone sent him onto the desk.

“He’s still not getting involved, I see,” I say sarcastically as I grab them.

“Carina hasn’t looked at them.”

I raise a questioning brow. “Why haven’t you shown her? You’re aware she might murder you if you keep this a secret, right?”

“Look closely.”

I flip through the photos which show varying angles of the bodies found at the Hotel Carré.

At first glance, they don’t appear much different than the others claimed by the Ferryman’s minion. There’s the usual gore, blood and shock. Jorge is lying on the floor, his neck slashed and a pool of blood surrounding him like a damned crimson halo. 2009 pennies have been placed over his eyes, the Ferryman’s signature.

Sergio, too, has the copper coins. He’s lying on the bed, his neck pierced with a large blade. And that’s what wrong with this picture.

“The knife is still there.” I frown as I stare at the weapon.

“Exactly. It’s a match to the one she used to kill Alma.”

So that’s why he didn’t want Carina to see. The reminder of her sister dying with Scarlet’s blade embedded deep in her chest will be painful. But eventually, he will have to show her.

I bring the image closer. “Scarlet wouldn’t make the mistake of leaving the weapon. I mean, she did it with Alma because she had to run. But this?”

“She wouldn’t.”

“Unless…” I study the angle of the hilt still protruding from Sergio’s throat, his right arm resting on his chest. “She didn’t kill him.”

Luca shakes his head. “The preliminary report from the medical examiner concurs. It was suicide. He must have done it before she could.”

“With her knife?” I rub my temple in thought. “How would he have gotten a hold of it?”

“Perhaps she gave it to him,” Luca offers. “Coerced him to do it somehow.”

“But even so, she wouldn’t have left her weapon.”

“Tell me why she would, then.”

I stare at the pictures. “How did she get in?”

“Through the suite next door. They share a balcony.”

“Is there any security footage?”

“Erased.”

“Of course.” In my mind, a movie begins to play. One where Scarlet is a cat burglar dressed in black, moving like a shadow beyond the guards.

At least, that’s what I imagine until Luca adds, “The Ramos Cartel has been quiet. No word of retaliation.”

“Maybe they don’t know who they’re going against.”

“Maybe. Or maybe it’s all a set up. Maybe Scarlet was let in.”

“To take out which man? Sergio or Jorge?” The movie in my head changes. Scarlet walks past the guards as they look the other way.

“You tell me.”

She goes in through the adjoining suite, and emerges to find both men. But which one was the intended target?

“What else did the examiner find?” I ask.

Luca reads from a text on his phone screen. “There was no sign of struggle with either man. The gash on Jorge’s throat appears to have come from the front, right to left.”

I think about that for a moment. About the way the two men died. “She caught Jorge by surprise. She was standing right in front of him and he didn’t know she was going to kill him. He’s the one that let her in.”

“And Sergio? She didn’t kill him but marked him with the coins. Why?”

“She had to take credit, but didn’t want the blame. She let us know she was there with the pennies, but didn’t want to touch the knife because she didn’t put it there.”

“Why?” Luca pushes, as if just because I have more blood on my hands than he does, it automatically gives me insight into the mind of a killer. “She took the blame for Renzo Gianni even though Noah killed him.”

“I don’t know why.” I pinch my brows together. That’s the thing with Scarlet, she confuses me. Her actions contradict what is expected of her. She took out one man, but let the other live long enough to end his own life. She answered Maisie’s call for help in spite of her being the enemy.

She should repulse me, but instead all I want to do is find her to finish what she started two nights ago.

“I don’t know why she didn’t kill him herself!” I’m exasperated with myself for my inability to explain anything related to that woman, and with Luca for demanding it of me. After a beat where I calm my frustration, I add, “What I do know is, if Scarlet was there on a mission to take out Ramos, then she wouldn’t have had Sofia with her.”

He nods and something painful comes over his expression, as if he’s been trying not to think about this. “Where is she if not with Gideon or Scarlet? Is she already fucking dead?”

I don’t know how to answer that either, but the thought did cross my mind.

“When are you going to show Carina?” I ask, returning the photos to him.

“Immediately.” He sits back and runs his hand through his hair. “I want the alliance to meet tonight. Or what remains of it. With Gavin and Rowan on Gideon’s side, maybe even the Ramos cartel, we have to stay united now more than ever.” He blows out a breath full of regret. “I should have helped Gavin.”

“You couldn’t have known he’d turn to Gideon,” I tell him.

He rubs his chin thoughtfully. “But I knew Rowan would. My gut told me he’d choose his brother. I would have.”

“You still have Noah and Arran. And you have me, brother. I’m not going anywhere.”