Page 64 of Cruel Dreams

“Everyone?” she asks.

“Everyone.”

“Okay,” she says and stares out the window.

Banks and the agent who drove Quinn, Stella, and Denton back into the city drop us off in the staff parking lot, and everyone goes upstairs but me.

Stella wants to stay, pausing in the dim hallway, but Quinn urges her into the elevator. She won’t need long to convince Stella to go to New York.

The DA’s office will need months to gather the evidence in order to charge Clayton and Ash for everything they’ve done. Stella and Quinn could live in New York for quite some time before the district attorney summons them back to King’s Crossing to testify.

By then, she will surely have moved on.

Waiting for Douglas to pick me up, I sit outside on a bench the staff uses to smoke during their breaks. I tip my head back and pray for the strength I need to tell Zarah that Max Cook is dead.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Stella

The hotel feels desolate, and a pall settles over us.

The minute the elevator doors open, Mel scurries down the hallway. Quinn, Denton, and I go to Max’s room as if by rote. His executive suite has always been our meeting place, our headquarters. His cat purrs, winding his way around our ankles, looking for Max. Denton picks him up and carries him out of the room.

The German shepherds I befriended belong to Governor Guthrie, and we had to leave them at the mansion. I’ll miss those dogs. When I settle into a place of my own, I’ll rescue a pet. Maybe I’ll relate better to animals than I do to people.

Quinn tugs on my hand, and we shuffle down the hallway to our room. I’m glad she doesn’t mention Zane.

I wanted to ask if I could go to the penthouse and offer Zarah support, but with the way Zane looked at me, I felt like an outsider and I kept my mouth shut. I’m not a part of his family. He blocked me out, and Quinn’s all I have left.

He doesn’t need me anymore.

Quinn unzips my dress and I unzip hers. She skips a shower and crawls into bed, wrapping herself in the bedspread, but my cast is waterproof and I pad barefoot to the Honeymoon Suite to bathe. I’ll have the room to myself and I need the quiet.

The scent of the hotel’s complimentary bubble bath relaxes me, and the warm water soothes me. I rest my head against the wall and close my eyes as the jets massage my tired muscles.

Zane won’t want us to stick around, but besides my old apartment in the building he bought, I don’t have anywhere to go. I don’t want to stay at the warehouse in the industrial park, and that’s where Quinn will sleep until she flies back to New York. Maybe Zane will keep his word and give me a bit of money to live on until I can find a job. I don’t need much. I can keep my fake IDs, apply for a payroll job in a little town, and try to forget this ever happened.

Except, Quinn won’t let me disappear without her, and I’ll miss Zane and Zarah. I don’t know if I’m strong enough to start over without them.

I’m selfish thinking about myself when Max is dead, but I didn’t let myself get attached to him. I’ve learned not to care about people because it hurts when they leave.

And they always do.

Somehow.

Four days after Ash’s fundraiser, wearing yoga pants and a t-shirt, I’m lying on a chaise lounge on the rooftop of the Crowne dozing in the sun. Winter is right around the corner, and the cool breeze and dropping temperatures are welcome. Quinn pokes at me the way a concerned mama does, and her attention is getting on my nerves. I don’t want to stay here any longer. I don’t feellike Zane and I are together, and staying in a hotel he owns, eating food Mel orders using his credit card, feels like charity.

For right now, the FBI asked us to stay in the area in case they need to question us further. I can’t count how many times I’ve gone through everything, and I meaneverything. From the second I applied to work in the payroll department of Maddox Industries to the minute Ash fired into the crowd at the gala.

They’re particularly interested in what Ash had me work on while he kept me at Black Enterprises, how I managed to take the screenshot of Clayton’s email, the second set of books I kept for Ladies and Gentlemen, and how I escaped.

Denton, too, has gone over and over what he’s done since Zane bought him out. Why he was looking into Kagan’s death on his own, how he found me, why we went to see Zarah, and how Max found us after one of Ash’s goons pushed us into the Renegade.

He always grows quiet after mentioning Max’s name.

Using the information Mel found, the FBI looked into Maryanne’s death, and she’s another of Ash’s casualties.

The sun shines as a cloud drifts away, and I turn my head. I blame the glare for the tears in my eyes. There’s been no word from Zane. I don’t know how Zarah’s handling Max’s death.

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