Page 41 of Slay Bells Ring

My gloved hand reaches for the doorknob, and my breath catches as I try it.

It opens.

I let Kane push inside first, and he takes the cart with him. I hear Howard’s stern voice say, “Just empty the trash and go.” So off-handed, so dismissive; I bet he didn’t even look at Kane as he walked in, just saw the janitor’s clothes with his peripherals and instantly wrote him off as unimportant.

Obviously, Kane doesn’t leave. Kane walks further into the large, open office, which prompts Howard to say, “Did you hear me? I said—” Whatever else he’s about to say, the words die in his throat when I walk in.

I know there aren’t any cameras in the office here, so as I lean on the door with my back to close it, I take off my hat and let my brown hair free with a single shake of my head. “Hello, Howard,” I say, sounding cold.

Howard looks like he always does. Wearing a navy blue suit, he sits behind a ridiculously large desk, papers scattered before him, along with a tablet. His brown eyes are narrowed in my direction, his face lined with wrinkles. His gray hair is combed back, not a single strand out of place. Put together, refined, but beneath all that, I can now detect a hint of cruelty and menace.

Once he realizes it’s me, he doesn’t move. “Miss Cooper. Somehow, I’m not surprised. I did hope you were one of the bodies in the cabin, but when my messages went unanswered, I had a feeling you’d resurface.”

“You wanted me dead,” I say, slow to step towards the desk. The adrenaline pumping through my system makes it easy to ignore the dull pain in my feet. Kane leaves the cart in the middle of the room and works his way around the room. “Just like you wanted my parents dead.”

Howard places both hands on the desk, folding his hands together. “I wanted you out of the way. If you would’ve stepped aside and let me run Cooper Enterprises how it should’ve always been, the hitmen wouldn’t have been necessary.”

My jaw clenches. “And my parents?”

“They would never have stepped aside. They needed to go. You, unfortunately for us both, inherited their drive. When you want something, you stop at nothing to get it.” Howard’s mouth thins into a line as he glances at Kane. “It seems things did not progress in that cabin as I thought they would.”

Brows furrowing, I ask, “You knew?”

“Of course I did. I knew exactly what you hoped to achieve in that cabin, who you were going there for. Did you really think I wouldn’t be watching everything you do while in my care, Miss Cooper? I had hoped you’d be taken care of by the man you went there to kill, or that you’d be too distracted by torturing him to stop the new hired help from killing you. It is a pity. I guess if you want a good hitman, you really should hire through the Guild and not try to find them yourself.”

I honestly can’t believe it. Hearing it straight from his mouth feels like a knife in my heart. “If you wanted me dead, why not kill me years ago?”

At this, Howard stands and moves around his desk. Two feet away, I feel furious standing so close to him, and yet I’m frozen in place. “Please. Have the young, healthy Miss Cooper, the lone child of the slain David and Marie Cooper, suddenly find herself in the middle of a fatal accident so soon after her parents? The less attention attracted the better, and yet… you still bungled it up.”

“You knew I would come,” I say, baring my teeth like a rabid dog.

“Of course I did. If you were still alive, I knew you would come, sooner or later.”

“Then you know why I’m here.”

Howard frowns. “Yes, to kill me—but you couldn’t kill him, so tell me, Miss Cooper, how on earth do you think you’ll kill me?” He leans back on the desk, tilting his head at me, like he thinks he has me all figured out.

I reach into my pocket and pull out the knife, and before I think better of it, I lunge at him. I don’t stab him, though I’m fairly certain the knife would go much deeper in Howard’s chest than it did in Kane’s. Instead, I bring the sharp edge of the knife to Howard’s throat as I growl out, “For someone who knew his death was coming, you didn’t do much to protect yourself.”

“You didn’t come all the way up here without showing your face to a few cameras,” he tells me, unflinching. “Even if you do kill me, there will be evidence. You’ll lose the company and everything your parents worked for.”

“I don’t care about the company. I only care about giving you what you deserve,” I hiss.

The corner of his mouth quirks into a slight smile, and Howard glances at Kane once again. “And what about him? You found the man who pulled the trigger on your parents and you couldn’t go through with it. If you couldn’t get your revenge on him, I don’t think you’ll be able to kill me. All these years, and I must say, I simply don’t believe you have it in you.”

Howard goes on, “I’ll tell you what. If you lower the knife and walk out of here with your new friend, I’ll letyou go. I won’t send anyone after you. You can go where you want, do what you want, be free of all this. As long as Holly Cooper died in that cabin, that’s all that matters.”

My jaw sets, and I glare at this motherfucker hard. I hold onto the knife so fiercely my arm begins to tremble. He’s so confident in his beliefs, and he thinks he has a way out of this. The asshole really believes I’ll walk away, that I give a shit about any of this.

No, all I care about is making sure the man responsible for my parents’ deaths gets what he deserves… and it isn’t Kane who needs comeuppance. It’s Howard. My guardian. The man who wore a mask for the last thirteen years.

He deserves to die. He needs to die. If there’s anyone I should kill, it’s him. The last thing I want to do is prove him right.

Seconds pass, and when I don’t move a muscle, Howard smiles. “That’s what I thought. Now, why don’t you and your… assassin, leave before I call the police?” He grabs my wrist and pushes the knife away from his throat.

With a few strides, Kane stands behind me, and I feel his hand on my lower back. Everything in me instantly relaxes when I remember I’m not here alone. I’m not facing Howard by myself.

“Maybe you’re right,” Kane says, his voice low, the same deadly tone he took with me when he woke up tied to the bed. “Maybe she can’t kill you. Maybe she’s better than that.” In the blink of an eye, he pulls out his hidden gun and aims it right at Howard’s face, point-blank after taking off the safety. “But I’m not. If she doesn’t wantyour blood on her hands, I’ll gladly take that burden from her.”

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