Page 52 of The Twins

“He’s the guy who was killed when Finn got arrested for being at the warehouse.”

“Yep.” Finn nodded. “That’s him.”

“And,” I went on, “he is, or rather was, an asshole who was slippery, got off twice, if I recall, with serious charges that should have sent him away for a good ten years or so.”

“You’d be right there.” Cillian shrugged.

“I wasn’t his lawyer, it was a guy called Joseph Gooding; he’s good, too good in this case.”

“Yeah, and he got a guilty guy off the hook.” Andrew stared in the direction Chelsea had gone.

I clasped the back of the chair until my knuckles ached. “And now he’s dead. Murdered.”

“Killed,” Finn said quickly. “Not murdered. Killed.”

“Good riddance,” Phil muttered.

I studied the faces around me. They all wore the same certain conviction that Ranson was better off dead, or rather the world was better off that he was dead.

“So…” I paused and cleared my throat. “Was Ranson on your kill wall along with Chelsea’s mother?”

“Sit down, doll,” Finn said with a frown.

“No, I won’t.” A steely determination gripped me. The way it did in court when I wasn’t going to let anything stop me getting information from a witness.

“Sit,” Cillian ordered.

Being told what to do had always irked me. “No, I won’t, and don’t think I can’t handle knowing this stuff. You know what I have to deal with at work.” I pointed at Mitch. “Same assholes he has to.”

Mitch raised his right hand. “She does. That’s true.”

“So, where is this kill wall and what’s it all about?”

Everyone was quiet.

“I’ll find it,” I said, “I’m like a terrier after a rat when it comes to finding things out. You should trust me on that.”

“Yeah, I think I do.” Cillian said. He looked at Andrew.

“We’ll walk and talk.” Andrew tossed his beer bottle into a bin. It landed with a clatter. “Come on.”

“You ain’t going after your woman?” Phil directed at Andrew.

“No, she’s boiling with anger, I’ll let her simmer down.”

“What if she doesn’t?” I asked.

He scowled at me. “Then she’ll get thrown over my lap and spanked until her ass is red raw and she’s begging me to stop.”

The curl of his lip and the flash in his eyes let me know he wasn’t joking. That’s exactly what Chelsea was in for if she didn’t have a rational conversation with her boyfriend—much older boyfriend.

Finn and Cillian stood. They didn’t seem happy.

“What’s up?” I asked, folding my arms.

“We’d rather you didn’t get involved in this, you’ve got your own shit going on. We need to find out who’s been tailing you.”

“Don’t baby me, I’m a grown woman.”