Page 70 of The Law of Deceit

“Yeah. You don’t have to worry about me, Aunt Sloane.”

I drop down to give him a kiss on his head and he playfully pushes me away. I’m going to fix all of this. My family. Dempsey. My love life. It’s time to harness that fiery, stubborn girl who climbed her way out of her hard life and into something better. I can do this.

I’m tempted to call Dempsey on the way to the apartment complex, but since he’s already had an altercation with Lenny and Trevor both, I don’t want to make things worse. I’ll be protected because I have a weapon. Hopefully, it won’t come to that. If Lenny put his hands on Trevor, I’ll call it in and get that prick arrested.

The trip goes by in a blur and all too soon I’m at the building, storming inside. When I reach the apartment door, I try the knob. Locked. Softly, I rap on the door.

“Trevor?”

Footsteps thud toward the door and the lock disengages. Trevor slowly cracks open the door, his entire body slumping with relief when he sees me.

“Aunt Sloane!”

He throws himself at me, hugging me so tight I nearly lose my breath. “Thank God you’re here.”

I squeeze him back, cringing at how frail he feels. Whatever he’s been mixed up in is bad for his health. The last time I’d seen him, he’d been stocky from playing basketball with the neighborhood kids. Now he’s a waif.

“Tell me what happened,” I say, gently pulling away from him. “It’s okay.”

He shrinks away from me and slowly walks into the apartment. I close the door behind me, surveying the space. It’s still a mess from earlier, but Lenny’s missing.

“Did Lenny do something to you?” I demand, unable to keep my anger in check.

He shudders and shakes his head. “No, uhh…you better go look for yourself.”

Trevor points toward the bedroom Rhiannon and Lenny share but makes no moves to go that way. I withdraw my weapon and turn off the safety, unable to shake the sinister feeling crawling up my spine. This time, with Lenny, I won’t be caught unaware. I’ll shoot his ass in the kneecap if I have to.

I prowl toward the bedroom. On the other side of the bed, legs stick out on the floor. Bile creeps up my throat as I approach. As soon as I see the body, my heart sinks. Not because of whom it is, but because of how he died. Lenny, eyes wide open and tongue lolling out, has had his throat slit and now lies in a huge puddle of dark, sticky blood.

Despite my hatred for this man, I snap into police officer mode and carefully approach to check for a pulse. His skin is cold, firm, and rubbery to the touch. No pulse. Time of death must’ve been hours ago—sometime between when we left and now.

Who all came here in that time?

Just Trevor?

Sickness roils in my gut as I rise to my feet. He stands in the doorway, a horrified expression marring his once-handsome face that’s now littered with scabs.

“What happened?” I ask, voice even and calm.

He stares at Lenny’s feet. “I came home to get some stuff and…and I found him like that.”

Trevor’s hands don’t have blood on them and he appears to be terrified of entering the room. I believe him, but I’m not sure if that’s the aunt in me or the cop.

“It’s okay,” I assure him. “I just need to call this in. You can explain everything to the police—”

“The police?” he hisses, stepping back with his palms raised. “You are the police, Aunt Sloane. That’s why I called you.”

As much as I want to take the lead on this, I can’t. I’m too close to this case and Tanaka would can my ass. If I want Trevor to have any hope of getting out of this unscathed, everything needs to be by the book.

“I’ll be here the whole time,” I say gently. “We’ll explain it together and get to the bottom of what happened.”

He shakes his head in vehemence. “N-No. They’ll arrest me. I’m an adult now. I don’t want to go to prison.”

“But you didn’t kill him, though, right?”

“What? No!”

“Then you don’t have anything to worry about, hon.”

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