Cataclysm (Four Horsemen #4)(35)

I almost shook my head. I hadn’t cared about that fucking site until recently. To be honest, I wanted to forget it ever existed, considering it was an ugly reminder of the worst night of my life. Discovering it was owned by none other than Zayn Villetti put a whole new spin on things.

Everyone liked to think the mafia wasn’t a big thing in this country, but they kept a low profile. Knowing the Met Police Commissioner was likely in bed with the kingpin himself, Gennaro Villetti… well… it was obvious how they flew under the radar now.

Garrett leant back a moment later, staring down at the table for a long moment before he met my eyes.

“You’re asking me to turn a blind eye to what, exactly?”

“What we do about Stuart.”

He tapped his fingers against the arm of the chair.

“I don’t owe you any loyalty.”

“No, but you do want to keep your job, don’t you?”

If he had been any other man, we would have butchered him to get him out of our way. We didn’t kill members of the police force. That was just asking for trouble. It took enough coordination to kill a normal citizen and not get caught. It would be infinitely more difficult to kill an officer of the law and get away with it.

“We’re fair men, Commissioner. We understand betraying your lifelong friend is no easy matter, but you would be stripped of your position and go to prison for all of this. Do you really want to destroy the reputation of the force?”

He didn’t answer for a moment, but I knew I had him there. Besides, if he refused, we would go public with not only this but everything else. We would ruin his reputation for good. We could do that to Stuart too, but we wanted him dead. He deserved it after the way he’d treated Scarlett.

Garrett stood up and straightened his sleeves. His eyes went to me again.

“You have my word I will not interfere in your plans for Stuart.” He paused and fidgeted for a moment. “What did you do with the rest of my son?”

“Who said we did anything with him.”

“We both know I cannot tie any of you back to it.”

I leant forward.

“Your son took her with the intention of keeping her locked away for the rest of her life. Not to mention he murdered her mother on behalf of Stuart, something else you covered up. And yet we still did nothing to him.”

I wasn’t going to admit it was Scarlett who’d murdered his son in an act of revenge, but if Garrett read between the lines, he would see the truth.

His eyes narrowed.

“I see.”

Garrett took a moment to look at all of us before he nodded.

“Keep to your word and I keep to mine, not that I trust any of you, but this doesn’t come out in the open.” He pointed to the papers. “Are we clear?”

“Very.”

“Good.”

Then he strode from the room, leaving the four of us staring after him. West got up and walked to the door. He stayed there for a long moment as if he was making sure Garrett didn’t go looking for Scarlett. Then he turned to us.

“Well, that was easier than expected.”

“I don’t trust him,” Prescott said, leaning back and scowling.

“We shouldn’t,” I replied. “But that’s one hurdle we’ve overcome for now. Next… we go after Stuart head-on.”

“We should sit down with Scarlett later to discuss what we’re going to do,” Francis said.

I nodded and stood. I’d speak to her now and make sure she was okay. No doubt I didn’t trust Garrett Jones as far as I could throw him, but we’d given him and Stuart more reason to fear us. Perhaps our greatest enemy would finally understand we were not to be messed with. Nor were we ever going to back down.





Sixteen


Scarlett





It had been several days since the Police Commissioner had visited Fortuity. We’d not heard a peep from either him or Stuart, something that had put all of us on edge. The boys were in the midst of coming up with a plan for what they were going to do going forward about Stuart with my help. We knew we wanted to go after him directly. We all wanted him dead. The only problem was the how of it. We didn’t want to get caught. Killing a man with a profile as high as Stuart Carver required careful planning and precision. Drake didn’t want to go off half-cocked. I was inclined to agree with him. If we were going to rid the world of Stuart Carver, it had to be done as cleanly as possible.

Today, as it was the weekend, I’d persuaded the boys to let me go see my mother’s grave. I’d asked them about where she was buried a few days ago. Drake had insisted on taking me since he didn’t trust I would be safe on my own. After being kidnapped by Mason, I agreed with him and didn’t complain about it. I was sure Prescott wanted to accompany me, but if anyone was going to go with me, the stoic one was my choice, anyway. Drake would keep silent whilst I said goodbye to my mother. He wouldn’t interfere or offer me platitudes and comfort. I didn’t want those. All I wanted was a space to tell her everything I never got to when she was alive.

The cemetery was on the outskirts of London. For a city of millions, it was a quiet, peaceful place with trees planted amongst the graves. Drake parked the car in the car park next to the crematorium in the middle of the cemetery and took my hand.