Page 64 of Dirty Liars

“Like you.”

“Like me,” he agreed, looking pleased that I understood. “I was special. Paul saw it right away. I had the right…temperament. Not everyone’s suited to be a soldier.”

“Is that where you met Chloe?” I asked.

His face softened slightly at the mention of her name. “We were in the same education group. New Dawn is very progressive—we had schools, medical facilities, everything we needed. Chloe was smart. Too smart for her own good.” The momentary softness vanished. “She escaped right after graduation. Hid on a supply ferry. I’d just been selected as an apprentice then.”

“And they sent you after her.”

He grinned. “Not right away. I had to study, train. Learn to shoot, to fight, to blend in. Paul always keeps track of his children, even the ones who try to leave. When I was ready, he told me a secret—he knew exactly where Chloe was.”

Emmett began to pace, his movements fluid and controlled. “She was a traitor, and she hadn’t paid the price to leave. There are laws for traitors.”

“So he sent you to kill her,” I said. “You and Josef.”

“Josef was already in place. Paul had helped Max get a position with Ambassador Vasilios years ago, after Theo had paid the price and freed himself. Chloe meeting Theo—” he laughed, “—that was just good luck. That idiot she was sleeping with connected them.”

“Dickie,” I said, closing my eyes.

“Once Chloe and Theo were together, Paul arranged it so Max went to Theo, and he sent Josef into Nicholas’s security detail. Chloe was good at staying off the grid. But once she hooked up with Theo, it was game over.” He stopped pacing, his expression animated now. “She never questioned how I found her. I made it seem like Theo had helped me just like he’d done with her. Poor kid escaped from a cult trying to make something of himself.” His voice took on a mocking tone. “I made sure I got an invitation to the wedding, pretending to be her friend.”

“And then what?” I prompted when he fell silent, staring into the middle distance.

He snapped back to the present. “Then Josef and I drove to The Mad King and checked in as father and son. Room 314. We were already there when the happy couple arrived. Max was driving them. He knew exactly what time to arrive.

“It wasn’t hard to take a golf cart out where people were playing glow disc golf and leave it there,” Emmett continued. “We’d planted bikes behind some trees earlier in the day. Then we rode to the honeymoon villa and waited for them. The rest is history. We were back playing disc golf within half an hour.”

The clinical way he described the double murder sent chills down my spine.

“Why’d you kill Max if he was one of you?” I asked.

“Because he was getting soft,” he said. “He didn’t care about killing the girl, but he was pretty pissed when he found out Theo was dead.”

“You killed Theo’s dad. And Derek Rogan.”

“All soldiers who fell in battle,” he said, with an odd formality. “Josef handled Max and Nicholas. They were too well trained for an apprentice like me. Nicholas knew too much, of course. He’d been through all this before when he’d paid for Theo’s freedom. It had been my job to drug the wife while Josef made Nicholas eat his gun. I heard she still hasn’t woken up. Maybe I gave her too much.”

A flash of pride crossed his face. “But I did pull the trigger on Rogan. He would’ve tried to stop us from killing Nicholas if we hadn’t tranqued him and tied him up.”

“You shot him in his car. Execution style.”

“Clean. Efficient.” He mimed a gun with his fingers, pointing at my forehead. “Just like you’ll be.”

“You made mistakes,” I said, desperate to keep him talking. “You left your gun behind at the honeymoon murder scene. Your fingerprints were all over it.” And then I don’t know why I said what I did, but I opened my mouth anyway. “Cory Maybury. Isn’t that your name?”

The change was instantaneous. His face contorted with rage, and he backhanded me so hard my head snapped to the side. Stars exploded across my vision, and I tasted blood.

“Don’t call me that!” he screamed, looming over me. “That name is dead! I am Emmett Parker! I am a soldier of New Dawn!”

I spat blood onto the concrete floor. “That name is in the system now. Your juvenile record. The FBI knows who you are.”

His hands closed around my throat, fingers digging into my windpipe. “You don’t know anything about me!”

“I know Paul Prather is using you,” I choked out, vision darkening at the edges. “You’re just a tool to him. Expendable.”

He released my throat, and I gasped for air, lungs burning.

“You’re lying,” he said, but uncertainty flickered behind his eyes. “Paul chose me. He saw my potential.”

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