Page 82 of Devil's Riches

Alexis straightened her shoulders and cleared her throat a moment later. “Sorry,” she said, dabbing at her eyes with her sleeve. “I don’t know why I’m suddenly so emotional.”

I leaned forward again, hand lingering near her arm on the table. “Maybe we should take a break from this. Go outside and get some fresh air.”

“No. I’m fine,” she said, pulling her arm back. She paused to suck down a deep breath. “Let’s keep going.”

I nodded slowly. “Okay. What do you think we should do about Edward?”

“Hm.” She chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment. “I think we need to get into his house. If he’s actually the leader of the Golden Circle, he must have something there that’ll prove it for us. Records from all the transplants and financial transactions, for example.”

I furrowed my brows. “He probably does keep records, but I doubt he keeps them at home,” I said. “He’s probably got a secret storage locker somewhere.”

“Maybe. But I still think we should take a look at the house.”

“Okay. Do you want to break in?”

“No. That’s too risky. If we get caught, he’ll know we’re onto him, and then we’re totally fucked.” She took a deep breath and sat back. “I think I should call him and tell him I’m sorry about the other night. Beg for another chance to be part of the family. It might take a while to fix things with him and Deborah and get them to let their guard down, but it’ll happen eventually, and then I’ll be able to get into their house and poke around.”

“But Edward wants you gone from the island,” I said, cocking my head. “Probably because he’s afraid you’ll start poking around in your dad’s case, like you said before. So I doubt he’s going to be interested in any reconciliation attempts.”

Alexis frowned and considered my words for a moment. “I could call him and say something like: Sascha and I have decided we want a fresh start, and part of that means accepting that our dad was the Blackthorne Butcher. We don’t want to talk about it beyond that. We just want to move on and have a new life,” she said. “If I can convince him of that, he’ll think there’s no chance that we’ll dig into Dad’s case, and then he’ll think he’s totally safe. He might even rethink things and decide it’s a good idea to bring us into the family so he can keep an eye on us, just in case.”

I nodded slowly. “I guess it’s worth a shot. Do you have his number?”

“Yes.” She pulled out her cell phone and lay it on the table. “Should I do it now?”

“Yeah. Put it on loudspeaker so I can hear everything.”

She nodded and unlocked her phone. Then she took a deep breath and dialed.

Her grandfather answered on the fifth ring. “Edward Paxton speaking,” he said in a gruff tone.

“Hi, Edward. It’s Alexis Livingston here. I was just wondering if we could talk for a mi—”

Edward cut her off. “Oh, Alexis! What a coincidence. I was just about to call you.”

Alexis tilted her head slightly to one side, staring at me from across the table with wide eyes. “You were?”

“Yes. Your sister, too.”

Alexis swallowed audibly and nervously scratched her chin. “Uh… is everything okay? Did something happen to Deborah?”

“No. Her illness turned out to be a bad cold, so she should be all better soon,” he replied. “That is part of the reason I decided to call you, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“When Deborah got sick, I started thinking about a few things,” Edward said. “I know she’s going to be fine this time, because it’s just a cold, but we’re both getting on in years, so it’s only a matter of time before one of us goes. That means one of us is going to be alone at some point. To be honest, the thought of that is quite frightening to me.”

“I’m sure you won’t be totally alone,” Alexis said, still looking perplexed by the strange turn the call had taken.

Edward sighed heavily. “I don’t think you understand, dear. The ship has sailed on our relationship with your mother, which is mostly our fault, I suppose. And our other children—your Aunt Beth and Uncle Thomas—live in New York with their own children now, and they rarely have time to fly back over here to visit,” Edward said. He let out another sigh. “If I die, Deborah won’t have anyone here, and if she dies, I won’t have anyone.”

“Don’t you have friends?”

“We do, but it’s not quite the same as having a family, is it?” he replied. He cleared his throat and went on. “Anyway, I’ve been thinking about all of this ever since I saw you the other night at the Mayfair, and I have to say…” Edward trailed off and let out another nervous cough. “I’m embarrassed about my behavior, Alexis. I acted like a petulant child.”

“I wasn’t exactly polite myself.”

“You had every right to be rude to me. I was awful to you. Not just then, but during our first meeting, too,” Edward said. “My wife and I obviously have issues concerning your father, but that’s not your fault. We should’ve been more willing to spend time with you and get to know you. After all, you and Sascha are our granddaughters, and you live right here on the island. It doesn’t make sense for us to cut you off when we could be a big part of each other’s lives.”

---