Payton smiles. “Well, if the guys are gonna start working together, you could always help Aspen and me organize fundraiser events.” Seeing my confused look, she clarifies, “Aspen is King’s other sister and one of my best friends. You’ll like her.”
My confusion was actually over her just blindly offering me a job of sorts, but I appreciate her telling me who this other woman is too.
Val snickers. “And since Aspen is hooking up with my husband’s second in command, it’s only a matter of time before they become official, and she lives out her own happily ever after.”
Savannah snorts. “Any time I want to piss King off, I remind him that he’s gonna have two sisters married into the Chicago mafia.”
I smile and nod as I eat more of my slice. There are too many new names for me to keep up with. I feel like I need a chart, or a book, to keep track of them all.
Payton goes back to her original topic of inviting me to help with their fundraisers. “No pressure or anything. But if you don’t go back to work and want something to do, we can always use the help.”
“That’d be nice,” I say honestly.
I’ve never planned any kind of big event, but I’m good at following directions, so I’m sure I could learn.
“Great!” She beams, then tips her head. “Wait, do you live here? I know Nero mentioned that Hans is somewhere in the cities…”
“Yeah, well, I mean, I do.” I cringe. “But my house kinda blew up today.”
“What?!” all three women gasp in unison.
The men’s voices cut off.
“What did she say?” King asks.
Savannah glances at her husband, then back to me. “She said her house blew up.”
“It’s not so bad,” I try to reason. “I wouldn’t have wanted to go back in there after those men went through my things anyway. And I still have all my old photobooks and stuff in my parents’ storage unit, since I bought the house after being in a tiny apartment forever and never got around to getting them out.”
They all just gape at me.
That might’ve been an overshare.
“Wait, who blew up Cassie’s house?” Dom asks, and I finally turn toward the men’s side of the island.
Hans sighs. “I’m the one who blew up her house.”
I place my hand on his thigh.
“Um…” Dom looks back and forth between us. “On purpose?”
Hans nods, and I rub my hand in small circles. I know he feels bad about it, but on the ride over, he explained that he did it to destroy the bodies and muddle evidence while also drawing the attention of the authorities since they’ll douse it all with water and finish ruining anything that wasn’t burned.
Honestly, I’m not upset about it.
It was probably overkill. But what do I know about corpses and evidence? And I really do have all my important things tucked away in the storage locker in my parents’ complex. Plus, it turns out my neighbor with the sparse house is actually super rich, so he can replace anything I need.
If I’m lucky, maybe they’ll make a documentary about it titled What the Fuck Happened on Holly Court?
Nero leans against the counter. “I think it’s time to tell us what happened after I called you today.”
CHAPTER 95
Hans
My fingers twitch at my sides.
I hate that Cassandra isn’t in the same room as me, but we came into Nero’s office to look over the intel The Alliance was able to dig up on Gabriel Marcoux. And as much as I wanted to drag Cassandra in here with me, she looked happy talking with The Alliance wives. So now I’m in here, staring at a green and purple painting of a lion’s head while Cassandra is somewhere else in the house.
“He owns three homes in the states, Texas, Arizona, and California. Then a place in Nepal and a property in France he built a few years ago that looks like a replica of the one that was burned down almost two decades ago.” King rattles off the information as the large monitor on Nero’s desk shows the exact locations of the homes.
“I’ll have to torch that one too,” I mumble as I look at the screen.
No one says anything because it should be no surprise that I’m the one who leveled his first home.
But I can’t focus on that right now because my eyes keep moving to the sprawling estate highlighted just outside of Phoenix.
Back where it all started.
King clicks a few buttons to show Marcoux’s financials, but then my phone rings.
When I see it’s Karmine calling, I put it on speaker.