Page 133 of Arran's Obsession

Natasha hadn’t been murdered here.

She’d visited earlier and made a scene, though. Alicia had told me. The mask use made me think it referenced that. Perhaps that had been the intent.

Whoever had laid a dead body on my doorstep did so to tell me something, yet I had no fucking clue what that messagecould be. The graffiti around the other side was a single red line, mimicking a slit throat.

The fact they’d picked someone who looked like Genevieve drove fear through me like nothing else.

From across the wide harbour promenade, Shade reappeared and gave a single headshake in the negative. “Lost them. I tried every which way. They were a street ahead and I was faster, but it’s like they were a ghost. They just vanished.”

“And they wore one of our masks?”

He glanced over at the body which was quickly being concealed by a forensics unit, hours of work ahead for them. A van zoomed up, a TV crew hopping out, the female reporter instantly talking into a camera.

Shade and I strode inside without pause.

Kenney was in the operations office, one only used for CCTV monitoring. Alisha didn’t even come in here to do the rotas.

He set his gaze on Shade. “Mr Michaels. I just watched your actions on the cameras. Any specific reason why you were hanging around outside at the moment the body was left?”

“He came down with me to investigate the graffiti,” I snapped.

The chief constable huffed. “Both of you will need to come in to give a statement.”

“Later.” I turned my back and walked away.

Shade followed.

In my office, and well out of the earshot of Kenney, I dropped into my seat. “For three days, we’re on complete lockdown. All events cancelled. Staff can come here if they want to stay safe. If they were scheduled to work, they’ll be paid. I’ll make a public statement about doing it out of respect to the dead woman.”

Shade sent messages. “You’re expecting trouble.”

I exhaled hard. “I don’t know. It was a warning, but to what end? How many people saw Natasha? A couple of hundred whenthe strip club was raided. A lot more if she was still around when the club kicked out.”

My phone buzzed. I scowled at the incoming message.

Red: Not us.

I held it up for Shade.

His eyebrows rose. “The Four Milers are denying it. Would they lie?”

We both stared, baffled. They’d been on my suspects list, and in the past, Red had happily lauded his victories over me.

My phone buzzed again, Gen calling.

I let it ring out.

“Does she know what happened?” my friend asked.

“No. Go ahead and tell her, then stay up there and make sure Jamieson does, too. There’s something I need to do.”

He watched me for a beat then stood. “Stay alive.”

“Always do.”

My best friend left, and I changed into a pair of dark jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. An inverted bandanna over my hair made up the rest of my disguise, and I slipped out of the back of the warehouse unseen even by the dozens of prying eyes.

The scare I’d had at seeing Natasha and thinking her Genevieve had loosened something inside me. Gen was in love with me, she’d said the words, the first person to ever have done so. I was holding on to the mistrust that had been there since the night she came to my warehouse.

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