by TJ Nichols
In that breath he knew the nightmare would never stop if he did kill Cody. All those other deaths had never changed a thing. He had to break the chain that bound him to all those other lives. Cody had to live.
“You’ll have him.” That was all he could promise Benitez.
It was a promise he would have to keep.
“By tonight.”
Olivier nodded, and without turning his back on Benitez, he left the room.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CODY SAT at the desk in his hotel room and pushed the flash drive into his computer. A password prompt flashed up.
“Fuck.” He ran his fingers through his hair and missed the length it usually had.
After all of the games, there was one more hurdle. He tried the key word for the Vigenère cipher. It was incorrect, and he stared at the screen. What the hell was the password?
There had to be a clue. He pulled out the papers and reread everything, looking for an underlined word or a sentence that wasn’t quite right.
Nothing.
He tried the name of their pet dog.
No.
How many chances would he get before the flash drive erased itself or something? He’d tried twice. He wasn’t game to try a third time.
What did he do now? Olivier hadn’t replied, and he was stuck with a flash drive he couldn’t access.
He wanted to call Lily, but he couldn’t. It hurt to breathe. She’d done nothing wrong. If he’d known that she was going to be killed for meeting him, he’d have told her not to bother. No one wanted what Connor had dropped in their laps.
But it wasn’t Connor’s fault either. It was his father’s.
Maybe he would go to that dinner. Maybe he would turn up uninvited, make a scene, and find out what the hell was going on.
OLIVIER REPLIED to Cody’s text, but his hands were shaking. He didn’t want to bring Cody in, but he didn’t know what else to do. He couldn’t damn Marie or Dani. They were family. Cody was nothing… nothing but a link to his bloody past and the lives that he kept taking.
I’ll meet you. Where are you?
Having dinner at my parents’ place.
“Fuck.” He pressed the phone to his forehead. He might get dinner, but he doubted that Anders would let his son leave. Especially if he knew that Cody had what they all wanted. Olivier paced his living room and tried to think. The wheels of his mind turned slowly, and it took him a few minutes to understand why.
He was afraid. For the first time since he was a child, death was stalking those he loved, and it terrified him. Usually fear was an abstract. He caused death, but it didn’t reach for him. Now it was knocking on the door, and he wasn’t ready to answer.
Your father is in with a man named Palmerston. Rough operator. Don’t know if he’s being blackmailed or if they were working together. Don’t go.
Just arrived.
Olivier closed his eyes.
Delete all our messages. Don’t mention what you have and leave ASAP. I’m on my way.
He scooped up his motorcycle keys and the spare helmet. He should’ve gone straight to Cody’s hotel instead of trying to avoid what he had to do. At least then Cody wouldn’t be walking into the arms of Palmerston. There’d be no coming back from that.
CODY’S CAB pulled up at his father’s house. The lights were on, even though it wasn’t dark yet. Was dinner happening even though Lily was gone? Did they even give a damn?
His phone buzzed again. Olivier. He was tempted to just call him. It would be quicker. Why hadn’t he returned Cody’s earlier messages? He read the new one.
How was he supposed to delete their texts? Did he really need to?
The name Palmerston meant nothing to him, but it meant something to Olivier. Was that why he sounded worried when he called to tell him about Lily? His throat thickened again. Her death was twisting him up more than his brother’s. That was so wrong. It had to be because he’d talked to her not half an hour before she was killed.
It was guilt. If they hadn’t been trying to work out what had happened to Connor, none of it would’ve happened. He wished he’d gone home straight after the funeral… or that he’d never come. But Lily had wanted him there. She’d known even then that she needed help. And he’d failed her.
He replied to Olivier. Connor left me a letter that mentioned blackmail.
Had Connor and their father argued about how to deal with the blackmailer? Is that what had caused the rift? But why would Benitez want Connor dead if it was Palmerston doing the blackmailing? The whole thing made his head hurt.
“Are you getting out?” the taxi driver asked, looking a little impatient.
Olivier thought Cody was in danger. Maybe he should go straight to the airport hotel, but Olivier was on his way, and his father wouldn’t hurt him—not in front of his mother. He was reasonably confident with that assumption, though not 100 percent.
“Yeah.” He paid the driver, grabbed his bag, and got out. This time tomorrow he’d be back in Vegas. Home.
He would never think of New York as home again.
Cody inhaled and then exhaled slowly. Olivier hadn’t replied. There would be no Olivier in Vegas, which was probably a good thing. Yet at the same time, he was drawn to Olivier in a way he couldn’t explain. It wasn’t just lust. There was something else.
He figured out how to delete all their texts, and he’d already memorized Olivier’s number. Then he put his phone into his pocket and slung his bag over his shoulder.
Maybe he should’ve called first, but he suspected his father wouldn’t have listened to a word he said. He forced himself to march up the driveway. The garage was closed, so he couldn’t tell if his father was home or not.
But his mother would be, and he owed her a goodbye.
He knocked on the door and waited. Then he knocked again.
His father opened the door, looking as though he’d seen a ghost. He’d aged since the funeral. “Why are you here?”
“To say goodbye.” Which is exactly the reason Lily had given him. He hadn’t realized at the time it had really been goodbye. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”
His father just stood in the doorway without saying a word.
“Have the cops spoken to you about Lily’s murder?”
“Why would they?” The hard, familiar mask of his father’s face reformed. “It was a hit and run. They haven’t caught the driver.”
“It was a hit. The same as Connor. We both know that, so why don’t you drop the act?” The flash drive was safe in Cody’s jacket, zipped up in an inside pocket. It felt like he was carrying a hot coal—a heavy, hot coal. Did his father know about it?
“Your brother brought this on himself and his wife. He was associating with dangerous people. I tried to stop him.”
Cody wanted to believe that, but he couldn’t. “Who is Palmerston?”
“Where did you hear that name? What did Lily tell you? I know you’ve been meeting with her.” His father’s voice lowered.
“We talked about how you and Connor argued. How she didn’t believe he’d overdosed. I defended you and said you’d never kill your own son. But you didn’t protect him either. You dragged him into your dodgy deals. What does Palmerston have on you?”
His father’s mouth opened, and then he laughed. “Me? This has nothing to do with me. Your brother got himself into trouble. I warned him not to do what Palmerston wanted, but he ignored me.”
Cody couldn’t believe that his father was telling the truth and that it was all Connor’s fault. “What have you been looking for? Lily told me how you tore the house apart.”
That erased the smirk from his father’s face. It was all the proof Cody needed to realize that his father had been lying again. In the distance a motorcycle roared down the street. It was too loud for that rich area.
“I was just trying to tidy up the mess he left.” That was a lie. “Why do you care?”
“My brother was killed, and you don’t give a damn. His wife and baby were ki
lled, and you aren’t saying anything. Why not go to the police. Tell them what was going on?” Why was he the only person who cared?
“You have no idea how things work.” He paused and studied Cody. “You seem to know an awful lot for someone who claimed to not know much.”
“I’ve been piecing things together.” His phone buzzed in his pocket, so he checked the message. Olivier was parked at the end of the driveway. He glanced at his father.
His father’s eyes narrowed. “Who was that?”
“Boyfriend.” Olivier was not boyfriend material. He was the kind of man you tried not to burn your fingers on.
“Still living like that,” his father sneered.
Cody pressed his lips together. The lower one was still tender, but the memory invoked heat, not pain. He shouldn’t want Olivier—shouldn’t be thinking about him. But he’d had his first hit, and he was addicted. He’d live with that craving for the rest of his life, always unsatisfied.
“I hear you’ve been associating with friends of mine.” The cold gleam was back in his father’s eyes. As though he were calculating what to do next.
“You’ve had me followed.” That was unsettling. First Lily, now him. He’d be more careful when crossing the road in future. That Olivier was a friend of his father’s was even more unsettling. No, he worked for a friend of his father’s, Benitez.
“Word gets around. If you want to look into your brother’s death, you should start asking your friends what happened.”
“If you knew, you should’ve gone to the police.” That was the right thing to do. That’s what he should do… once he knew what was on the flash drive.
“Why don’t you come in and see your mother. She could do with some cheering up.” His father opened the door wider to allow Cody through.
His mother hadn’t come to the door, and there was no scent of dinner cooking. Cody hesitated.
“Come in and we can talk more. I’ll tell you what you want to know, but I’m not telling you on the porch like some commoner.”
Cody stepped back. “I think I’ve heard enough.”
Coming there had been a mistake. His father didn’t care who died, it was only about protecting his ass.
“The people who got to Connor could get to you. I’m worried.” But there was no concern etched on his father’s face.
“What about Julia and Peter? Are they in danger too?”
“Your siblings have nothing to do with the business.”
“Neither do I.”
“But you look like him, and you’ve been seen with the wrong people.”
With Olivier. Did that mean Palmerston had seen him go to the bank? Stay calm. People go to the bank all the time. Maybe cutting his hair to look more like his brother had been a bad idea.
“I thought Benitez was a business partner of yours.” His father had even said they were friends. His story kept shifting and changing, hoping one lie would get him what he wanted, which was for Cody to come inside.
“He is.”
“Then why is it a problem?” Why was his father so desperate to get him inside? Cody doubted it was for his own safety.
A car swung into the driveway, and his father smiled. “Come in and we’ll talk.”
Cody glanced over his shoulder as two men got out of the car. He wasn’t sticking around for a chat with them. The men walked around the car. Cody slid his bag off his shoulder and hoped his mother would forgive him for ruining her flowers.
Then he jumped over the railing and into the garden bed and ran.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
OLIVIER DIDN’T take his motorcycle out as often as he should, but there were times when a complete break with the world was only possible if there were just a few layers of fabric between him and certain death.
As he waited near the Anders’s mansion with his lights off—it couldn’t be called a house, by any stretch—all he could think about was death. Cody was with his father, and Olivier was afraid. If Anders was tying up all the loose ends, Cody would be next. What Benitez had planned was probably no better.
And Cody thought Olivier was coming to help. He was no white knight—not even gray.
He wanted to collect Cody and keep on riding and never look back. But that wasn’t possible. His sister and niece were still in Benitez’s hands, and he barely knew Cody. His nightmare played through his head. He knew Cody. In all those lives, Cody had deserved to die for the games he played and the lives he ruined. This time was no different. His desire for the truth had caused the trouble.
But Olivier would’ve done the same if something had happened to his sister. He’d want to know why. He’d want revenge. Just beneath the surface, a burning need simmered in his blood. It was fueled by a rage he didn’t understand, and it was getting worse. Had it gotten worse since he killed Connor? Maybe if he’d known Connor was the first half of the nightmare that he seemed destined to relive…. No, there was nothing he could’ve done differently.
He stretched his legs. If anyone were peeking out from behind the curtains, they’d see a man on a nice bike who had been sitting on an engine for a little too long and who wasn’t as used to it as he should be. He really needed to get out more frequently—more than once a month. Or had it been more than a month?
A car turned into the street and then into the driveway.
That wasn’t good. He rolled the bike closer, unwilling to start it just yet. He could see Cody. He was standing on the porch. Men got out of the car, and they weren’t anyone he recognized. Palmerston’s people? Cody turned and shook his head. In the next blink, Cody was over the rail and running.
Olivier started the bike, and it roared to life.
It wasn’t kidnapping when the victim came voluntarily, was it?
His heart was beating too fast, and even though the weather was cold, sweat formed on his back. He didn’t want to do this, but he didn’t have a choice. Had he ever had a choice, or had it all been planned from the moment of his birth, just a repeat of things he’d already done over a dozen other lives?
Had he fallen for Cody before?
He didn’t want to admit he’d fallen for him now. In the dream only one of the deaths had hurt—the most recent. He’d pulled the trigger and made it a clean kill, but something had died in him at the same time.
He closed his eyes and took a breath. Fate was a bitch.
He wasn’t going to play that game. While he couldn’t make a deal with Anders and Palmerston, he might be able to make one with Benitez. There had to be a way out.
He just didn’t have all the pieces yet.
Cody threw himself onto the back of the bike and wrapped his arms around Olivier’s waist. “Some of Dad’s friends showed up to talk to me.”
Olivier gunned the engine and took off down the street. It was the wrong neighborhood to speed through. Curtains would twitch as the nosy neighbors wondered what was going on. After a few blocks, he slowed and then pulled into a side street. He pulled off his helmet. “You okay?”
“Yeah. No.” Cody shook his head. “I need to know what Connor found.”
“What do you have?” He needed to know what Connor had known and work out what he should do with it so they would both live to see dawn.
“A password-protected flash drive.”
That wouldn’t be hard to crack at all. Benitez would have the info in next to no time. It would be better for them to have the info first. He could take Cody to his place and call in some favors.
Cody blew out a breath and continued. “My father is going to wonder what the hell is going on.”
“Let him wonder.” Anders might think he was in charge, but the moment he got into bed with a rival, he’d been played. Palmerston never helped anyone but himself.
CODY HAD never sat on the back of a bike. Olivier had handed him a helmet and told him to hold on and move with him, but it wasn’t as simple as that. The ground was too close, they were moving too fast, and he was afraid his hands might accidentally let go of Olivier an
d he’d go bouncing down the road like a piece of trash.
He curled his fingers tighter into Olivier’s leather jacket. Olivier was one of the bad guys. Cody had never been one to fall for the bad boy—tempted, yes—so he told himself he wasn’t falling for Olivier. Couldn’t be. Yet he was drawn to him.
He liked to think Olivier was just the lesser evil, the one who wanted to hurt him the least. And the one who could help him get out of the mess Connor had made. But he couldn’t be sure. He should’ve been able to trust his own father, but it was clear he couldn’t.
They slowed near a nice apartment block, and Olivier drove into the underground garage and into a tiny motorcycle spot. Cody made himself let go and get off. His hands shook as he undid the helmet, so Olivier stepped close and did it for him. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. You aren’t safe here.” He put the helmets away and locked the compartments. When he turned, there was anger in his eyes. “You should’ve left when I told you to go. You shouldn’t have poked around.”
“I had to. Connor asked me to.”
Olivier blinked. “Asked you?”
“Left me a letter. He told me he was being blackmailed. That he had information and had hidden it.”
“And now you’ve found it. People are getting killed.”
“I know. Who is Palmerston exactly?” The name had been mentioned more than once.
“A rival of my boss. His methods are final, and he gets what he wants. Benitez has been watching him for a while, but can’t touch him.” Olivier glanced away. “My boss is scared of him.”
“Your boss ordered Connor’s death.” Of that Cody was certain.
“Yes. He must’ve known about the blackmail and decided to stop any leaks. He’s probably aware that Connor had something on him and didn’t want it in Palmerston’s hands.”
Cody shook his head. “Connor didn’t want to hand it over.”
“How can you be sure?”
