Page 110 of Devil's Riches

23

Nate

Ten days later

“You sure you’reready for this?”

I squeezed Alexis’s left hand as I stared down at her. A black and gold dress skimmed her tits and ass, highlighting her curves to perfection, and her long legs were shielded from the chilly evening wind by sheer black tights and chunky high-heeled boots. She looked hotter than ever.

She bit her bottom lip and nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

I grinned and led her through the massive park that sat in the center of Blackthorne’s massive fraternity and sorority block. Thumping music and raucous laughter spilled out into the night from the Skulls house. One of my frat brothers had set up a giant banner above the portico with colorful neon lights that spelled out ‘Congrats Alexis + Nate’, and a sorority girl from the Roses was standing at the front entrance, handing out t-shirts with photos of us printed on them.

We didn’t ask to be famous on Avalon, or anywhere else, but we’d recently uncovered one of the most shocking, sordid secrets in the island’s history, so there wasn’t much we could do about the ensuing notoriety. People loved a scandal—even one as sick and twisted as the Golden Circle scandal—so our story was everywhere.

Over the last ten days, the video I shot at the teaching hospital had been saved and shared online millions of times. People all over the world had seen it, and they were all clamoring for justice. There were even two large-scale protests over the issue the day after Edward’s arrest—one in Avalon City outside the police precinct, and one in Seattle outside a government building.

I’d always known that the police force on Avalon Island was riddled with useless, corrupt assholes, but I also knew they couldn’t ignore the glaring evidence right in front of them. Not when millions of people had seen it with their own eyes. The decent ones banded together to set up a taskforce right away, and agents from the FBI and DOJ were brought over to aid in the investigation and subsequent arrests. Interpol got involved, too, because a lot of the Golden Circle’s victims had been taken from other countries.

Over two thousand arrests were made in the end.

Many of the Golden Circle members attempted to flee from the island on their boats, helicopters, and private planes as soon as the news of Edward’s capture broke, but they didn’t make it far, because the taskforce already had their details.

It turned out that Edward had actually told us the truth about one thing: he and his father kept extensive records of their operation over the years. Every single member of the Golden Circle was mentioned in those records by name—even the ones who didn’t actively participate in the abductions and murders. They still knew where the money came from and didn’t say a word to anyone, and that made them complicit.

The organ recipients were named in the records as well, and the ones who were still living were arrested along with the Golden Circle members. They might not have gone out and killed the victims with their own bare hands, but they knew what they were supporting when they purchased a black market organ. That made them just as guilty as the rest.

Nearly 2500 people had lost their lives over the years that the Golden Circle had operated. They would never come back to us, but at least their families would have some semblance of justice now that all the arrests had been made. Once the trials were over, the people involved in the scheme would rot in prison for the rest of their lives, including Edward, Greg, and my mother.

For once, their piles of money couldn’t save them.

Everything seemed to be over now, and the whole world was celebrating the triumph of good over evil, but one thing still plagued my thoughts from time to time. Nessa Pratchett and Claire Reilly—and the wealthy people who received their organs—weren’t mentioned anywhere in Edward’s records. In fact, his records ended in 2009.

He maintained that he had nothing to do with Claire and Nessa’s murders, and so did everyone else in the Golden Circle who was willing to talk before the trials began. The taskforce and media assumed they were lying, and I accepted that for the most part—after all, they were sick, twisted assholes who’d lie about anything to save their asses—but I couldn’t stop wondering why they’d lie about this particular issue. They already knew they were going down for thousands of other murders… why not admit to two more?

Alexis had a theory about it.

She figured that the girls’ murders were so recent and fresh in everyone’s minds that they were generally considered by the public to be ‘worse’ than the ones that had occurred back in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and early 2000s.

I hated to say it, but she was probably right about that. People’s minds had a way of detaching from things that happened a long time ago, especially when it didn’t happen during their lifetime. The Golden Circle members probably knew this, so they only admitted to the pre-2009 murders in the hope of saving a tiny fragment of their already-shattered reputations. Many serial killers had been documented doing similar things in the past—admitting to a few murders while completely denying others, even though all the evidence pointed to them and everyone knew they were responsible.

“There you are!”

I snapped out of my reverie as a chirpy feminine voice called out toward Alexis and me. I looked over to the right to see Laurel and Ruby standing by the front of the Skulls house, waving frantically.

Alexis hadn’t seen them since all the shit started going down ten days ago, because we’d been caught up with the taskforce, giving endless statements on how we came across the Golden Circle, how we figured out the identities of the families involved in the scheme, and why we didn’t tell anyone as soon as we found Greg and his tapes.

We walked over to the girls with broad grins. They both squealed and wrapped Alexis up in giant bear hugs.

“It’s so good to see you!” Ruby said, face flushing with excitement as she pulled away. “I can’t believe what a badass you are! You’re literally a superhero.”

Alexis looked embarrassed. “I wouldn’t go thatfar.”

Ruby poked her arm. “Don’t be modest. You guys just took down one of the worst crime rings I’ve ever heard of!”

“Now we know why you’ve been so busy and unavailable over the last few weeks,” Laurel said. “At one point I was honestly worried that Nate was keeping you in a dungeon or something. No offense, Nate,” she added, glancing at me.

Alexis smiled tightly. “There’s actually something I want to tell you two,” she said, eyes darting between her friends. “Before we go inside.”

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