Page 130 of Arran's Obsession

She curled her lip. “He was in tonight. What if cutting him off from the brothel means he looks for other street workers?”

“You want me to keep him close?”

“It might be better. Just make sure he’s monitored.”

I considered the choice. “We have a protocol for men like that. Weapons checks and safeguards for the women.”

My gaze lingered on Gen’s choker.

“Originally, I couldn’t work out a motive for him.” She brushed back her blonde hair which was escaping the bun. “If you were going to kill someone, you’d need a really good reason, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes. Random murders are extremely rare. People kill for all kinds of reasons, but they’re always specific.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Revenge. To hide secrets. To send a message.”

“Is it safe to assume Cherry could’ve been killed because she was pregnant and that was a secret that needed hiding?”

Shade nodded. “It isn’t a smoking gun, but it’s a motive. A counsellor wouldn’t want it to be known that he’d had a baby outside of a relationship, let alone with a sex worker. What doesn’t make sense is how that tracks back to you, Arran.”

Genevieve looked between us. “Why would it?”

Jamieson lifted his eyebrows at me. “You’re shite at sharing information.”

From the depths of my flat, Cassie called, “I told him that already. Did you clock the choker? Pretty, indestructible, kinda wide.”

My woman squeezed her eyes tight shut for a moment then trained them on me. “Would you please fill me in to what everyone else obviously knows but I don’t?”

I reached for her. She moved away.

“Before the information you discovered about councillor Slaughter, I’d believed that Cherry was killed as a message to me.”

Jamieson rolled his hands. “Because…?”

I kept my gaze on Genevieve. “Because the murder method was exactly the same as how my father killed my mother.”

She stilled, then her fingers crept to the jewellery at her neck.

To save her the trouble, I continued. “He slit her throat with a knife. She was naked and restrained. Then he left her to bleed out on the floor where she fell. I already told you she was a sex worker. The parallels are there.”

Shade spoke. “I had a feeling the Four Milers were behind it. They enticed away Sydney then Convict. They’re taking potshots.”

Genevieve’s gaze shot to him. “What happened with Convict?”

“He betrayed me,” I admitted. “He was there at the Four Milers standoff.”

She stared at me. “My brother came to find me this evening, his girlfriend, too. He said Don, her cousin, had something happen to him and he’s not around anymore. That man was my first suspect because he was on the scene, but that’s another tie-in.”

Shade nodded. “Unless Red is the orchestrator. He leads the gang, and if he’s smart, he has a route into the police where he could have discovered what happened to your ma.”

He and Jamieson started a conversation, Shade recalling all the minor gang interactions we’d had over the past year. Mostly, they were territorial scuffles. Nothing major. I sensed the weight of Gen’s stare on me.

She groaned in annoyance. “I hate what happened to Cherry. Why would someone do that? Why do men have such a problem with caring about others?”

I worked my jaw, but she wasn’t done.

“You, for example. You claim that you’ll never love. What’s up with that? Why would anyone not want something so perfect?”

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