“I—” Natalie looks like she wants to argue or make some bitchy comment. But she cuts herself off, swallowing down her words as she shrinks back against the wall again.
It might’ve been satisfying to watch this, once. To see this about-face from the girl who’s taken such delight in tormenting me for no reason I’ve ever been able to figure out.
But a hole gapes in my chest, yawning wide and threatening to swallow me up.
This isn’t about some petty tit for tat. This is about actual, real things she did. Things that might’ve gotten someone I care about killed. I don’t care what Carson offered her, or how little she knew about what he intended. She’s complicit, no matter what.
“We hooked up a few weeks ago,” Natalie says quietly, her gaze dropping to the ground as she speaks. “He... things got intense really quickly. He bought me stuff and took me places I’d never been able to afford. He told me I was the most beautiful woman he’d ever—”
“Skip the dick sucking.” Ryland crosses his arms over his chest, glaring down at her. “Why did he rent you those two apartment units? What did he tell you about the fire?”
Natalie flushes, looking equal parts angry and terrified as she continues on.
“He rented the apartments so he could get close to her.” Her gaze barely flicks in my direction, but Theo steps closer to my side as if daring her to try something stupid. “He told me she was important to you guys, and that you guys had stolen from him. That you ripped off his family, and he was trying to get you back. He rented me another apartment—a nicer one, closer to campus—so that I’d have a place to live after…”
Her voice dies out. I get the feeling she doesn’t want to say the words, as if speaking them aloud will condemn her fully.
But it’s a little too late to play innocent.
“After he torched the place,” I finish for her, my voice like steel.
She shrugs. “Yeah.”
“And he offered you, what, more money to lure Ayla to the building once the fire started to spread?” Ryland demands. “Did you know he was going to drug her? That he and Dominic were willing to kill her if they didn’t get what they wanted?”
Alarm flashes across Natalie’s face, and she shakes her head. “What? No! I didn’t know that, I swear. Carson never mentioned killing anyone. He wasn’t like that. If anyone tried to kill her, it was probably that guy Dominic, or the other person Carson was working with.”
My heart lurches in my chest.
Other person?
Disregarding the fact that Natalie obviously doesn’t know shit about Carson if she doesn’t think he was capable of murder, I take a step forward, my body going tense.
“What other person?”
Her pale face twists into a frown as she darts a glance my way. “I don’t know.”
“Then how the fuck do you know there was another person?”
“I don’t!” Her lips curl, and she glares at me. “It’s not like he told me. I only met Dominic once or twice, and I never met anyone else. But I heard Carson on the phone a few times, speaking to someone else. From the way he was talking, I know it wasn’t Dominic.”
She huffs, managing to regain some of her superior tone despite the fear that still emanates from her like a thick aura. “You told me to tell you everything I know, so that’s what I did. God.”
Irritation prickles through me, but I ignore it, focusing on the words she just said.
Someone else was working with Carson and Dom. But they were either on the outskirts of the plan or played a role in it that I couldn’t see. Both during my captivity at the old house and later, when they drove us off the road in the warehouse district, I only ever remember seeing Dominic and Carson.
If there was a third person, who were they? Where were they?
And is there a chance they killed Carson?
It’s more likely than Marcus somehow regaining consciousness and shooting him.
“Give us something else,” Ryland says, stepping closer to Natalie as he lowers his voice. With his broad shoulders, tattoos, and almost-black hair, he’s intimidating even when he doesn’t want to be. But right now, he clearly does want to, and Natalie visibly quakes as she leans away from him.
“I don’t know anything else!” she blurts.
“Think of something.”
His voice is cool and even, but a threat hovers just below the surface of his words.
Natalie’s eyes dart back and forth as if she’s searching for a way out, and her breathing quickens as she shakes her head. “I don’t know. I don’t! He never used a name. I never heard his whole conversation, just little pieces. But he talked about the plan. Whoever the other person was, they knew about all of it.”
Ryland stays right where he is, looming over her as he stares at her with hard, unblinking eyes for a long moment. Then he nods and steps back, although his posture doesn’t relax at all.
He believes her.
So do I.
Natalie might be a bitch, but part of what makes her such a bitch is her selfishness. Telling us everything we want to hear would benefit her in this moment. Especially now that she knows Carson is dead, she’s got no reason to try to protect him. It’s possible she’s trying to cover up for Dominic and whoever else was involved to avoid their reprisal—but the more immediate threat is us.
If she had more dirt, she’d spill it.
And she already gave us something. Maybe Dominic wasn’t lying when he said he hadn’t killed Carson. Maybe it was this third player who did it.
“Look.” Natalie turns her attention to me, fixing me with a wide-eyed look. “I’m sorry, okay? I shouldn’t have done it. But, I mean, come on. We do what we have to, right? We survive. You know that just like I do.”
My blood chills in my veins, numbing my whole body from the
