Page 122 of House of Lies

“We know why you’re here.”

I side-eye him. “You…do?” A nervous giggle escapes me. “Of course you do. Ethan probably told you we were coming.”

Myles’s expression doesn’t change one bit, but something tells me that no, in fact, Ethan didn’t mention anything.

When I look up at Smith, he’s watching me with the most neutral look I’ve ever seen. I don’t bother glancing at Rich. He’s probably still leering at me.

Maybe coming here wasn’t as good an idea as I thought. Ethan’s radio silence, the fact that the Balmont Boys didn’t know we were coming…maybe he was just lying about bringing me through to the Devil’s Den so I would shut up about my mom.

I tug at my dress again. “I have questions.”

“A hundred kay,” Myles says.

My head whips to stare at him. “Excuse me?”

“A hundred kay.” Myles takes a few puffs of his cigar, studying me through the cloud of smoke he creates. “That’s usually the first question. Thought I’d get it out of the way.”

My mind latches onto the first logical conclusion I come to.

“You want me to pay you a hundred thousand dollars just to ask some questions?” I shuffle to the edge of the sofa, about to stand up, although I still have to figure out how I’d do that without bumping into Smith. That’s how close he is to me.

“What?” Rich says through a laugh. “The hell kind of drugs are you on, girl? We want to pay you.”

“Me?” I blink at him, then at Myles.

Oh, shit. Is this about the performance art they were talking about at Ethan’s penthouse?

“No, no, no,” I say quickly, holding up my hands. “I didn’t come here for that.”

“A hundred kay is a good chunk of change.” Myles drags his knuckle down the side of my face. “Think what you could do with all that money.”

I lean away from his touch, anger roiling with panic, sending a hot flush over my cheeks. “I’d send you back to school so they could teach you some damn manners.”

The temperature in the room drops several degrees below freezing.

Whoopsie.

“I mean…”

Myles gives me a slow smile. “If you’re not here for the job, then why are you here, cherry pie?”

I stifle the urge to remind him what my name is, and that it has nothing to do with pie.

“Rebecca.”

Myles frowns. “I already told Ethan we didn’t find her.”

I swallow. “Yes, I know that, but I just…I mean...” I should have prepared something, written it down somewhere. Not my palms, because the sweat would have made everything smudge.

“You want to know how hard we tried,” Smith says. “If we did everything in our power to find her.”

I look up at him with relief. “Yes. Exactly.”

“We left no stone unturned, peaches,” Myles says. “If there was something to find, we would have found it. It’s like she vanished off the face of the planet.” Myles cocks an eyebrow and glances at Smith. “Even her car disappeared.”

I’m glad I’m sitting, because it’s as if the bottom of the world falls out beneath my feet.

Of course I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. It’s been over six months since Rebecca went missing. I should just accept the fact that she’s happier now.

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