Page 79 of Shattered Dreams

I raise my eyebrows.

“Black shot me, too, but luckily it was a simple flesh wound that healed quickly.”

“When we spoke, he insinuated someone told him to shoot Max. Do you have any idea if he and Nora were working with someone? For someone?”

Shrugging, Guthrie says, “I assumed that was his father.”

I slump. Of course. The one person who wasn’t on my list. Clayton Black. He would want Max dead because Max started the whole thing, investigating Lark’s and Kagan’s deaths and the plane’s missing black box.

A silence falls over the table, and Guthrie looks at us, waiting. I don’t want to be done asking questions but there are no more questions to ask, and since there aren’t, there’s no reason to hang around and hold up this man’s breakfast.

“Did you and Willow Black have an affair?” Zane asks, stabbing blindly. I may not know Guthrie well, but what I knowof his love and loyalty for his daughter, he’s a family man and would never have an affair with a married woman.

Guthrie leans back and rests an ankle on his knee. He rubs his lips. “Willow Black. She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?Truth or Darereported seeing her outside the Crowne Royale yesterday. Yours, isn’t it, Maddox? I wonder what she was doing there. I used to see her around the city, before her husband and son were arrested. We would attend the same dinners and fundraisers. She’d always be made up to perfection, almost to the point where she looked untouchable. Simply stunning. What man could resist? But, to answer your question, no. I never had an affair with Willow Black. If two of the most powerful men in the United States lay claim to a woman, you steer clear.” He twists the wedding band on his left hand. “Besides, I miss my wife. She’s been gone a long time now, and I still haven’t found a woman who can compete. Maybe I never will.”

“Twoof the most powerful men in the United States?” I ask. “I’m assuming one of them was her husband.”

“Black wanted Willow because everyone else did. That’s the only reason he didn’t divorce her. He knew she could replace him in an instant, and it was a point of pride he was married to her. Of course, that didn’t stop other men from drooling, and there was only one man in King’s Crossing who could tell Black he wanted his wife and there was nothing Black could do about it.”

“Rourke Cook.” I fill in the blank.

Zane huffs in frustration. “But what did Cook have over Clayton Black?”

“Well, son, it’s one of three things. Sex, money, or power. I told you that when you came out to the house. Men can’t keep it in their pants. Trust me, the world would run more smoothly if they could keep it zipped up. You know that firsthand, and you,” he says to me, “will find out if you haven’t already. Now that mybreakfast has been properly ruined, I’ll take my leave. I’m sure you won’t mind picking up my check in exchange for the time I gave you. Good day, gentlemen.”

He leaves the dining room and doesn’t look back, just the way, I think, he’ll leave King’s Crossing.

“That was a complete waste of time,” I grumble and pour more coffee out of the carafe Guthrie left behind into my cup.

“Not so much. He implied Willow didn’t have a choice, and I thought she was sleeping with Cook because she wanted to. Maybe Cook really did have something on Clayton, and Clayton couldn’t stop him.”

“I don’t care about the bedroom games of the rich and famous. Zarah’s missing and I just want her back.” My voice cracks, and I look out the window, embarrassed. We’re no closer to finding her, and even though I shouldn’t have, I had a lot of faith Guthrie knew something that could have helped us.

Zane sighs. “I’m choosing to believe Jerricka’s intentions are good and that she’s not going to hurt her. That’s the only thing keeping me going right now. Let’s go back to the Crowne. Maybe Stella and Willow found something.”

“No. Drop me at home, please. Baby needs to go out, and I’m going to touch base with Pop. Maybe get a couple more hours of sleep.”

“Okay.” Zane pauses. “We’re going to find her.”

“Yeah. We will. And then what?”

Zane purses his lips and gets up from the table without saying another word.

Baby’s happy to see me after such a short time. It’s easy for me to be gone all day, and she bounces in excitement when I step intothe apartment. I let her run outside and suck in the cold air in a poor attempt to clear my head.

There’s one vital piece we’re missing, and no matter how much we dig, we don’t find anything except shit that has nothing to do with what we’re looking for. Guthrie had little to offer us, though I suppose it was unrealistic to hope that even if we had the right questions he’d give us all the answers we needed to find Zarah and figure out what they were doing to her at Quiet Meadows.

Jerricka is linked to the facility through Dr. Pederson, collaborating with him after the facility closed, and by her engagement to a doctor who used to work there and ran tests on the patients.

It’s possible Clayton told Ash to shoot Max, but when we talked to Ash at the prison, Ash didn’t say it was his father. He was on a level of crazy I’ve never seen before—which is saying something in my line of work—but I think Zane had a point. If Clayton had told Ash to shoot my brother, he would have said so.

And he didn’t.

Someone else told him to kill Max to shut him up, and even Ashton Black was afraid to say his name.

I wonder now that Willow’s free if she’s hiding at the Crowne to stay off Rourke’s radar, or maybe now that Clayton’s behind bars, the game lost its fun. It’s interesting Willow was under Rourke’s thumb the way Zarah was under her son’s. What goes around comes around, even for the rich.

I call Baby inside, and I don’t try to avoid my bed any longer. Traces of Zarah’s scent linger on the pillow and I hug it to me, breathing in deeply. I miss her so much. How am I going to be able to let her go if after all this she decides she doesn’t want me anymore?

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