Page 79 of Knot for Sale

I tilted my head curiously. “Well, that’s certainly ominous. How about this? My lips are sealed unless it’s something that puts anyone in this house in danger.”

Her pale, pixie-like features were pinched. “It might putyouin danger.”

Interesting.

I waved the words off with a careless hand. “Not necessarily a dealbreaker. Dangerous shit is already kind of in my job description. Go ahead.”

She took a deep breath, her slender shoulders rising and falling. “I might know a way to get Gabriel what he needs.”

I didn’t reply that what Gabriel needed right now was a good, hard fuck. “Oh? How’s that?”

“Tommy Huntwell is my uncle,” she began. “Jimmy Huntwell was my father. He was the head of the Huntwell syndicate until he was shot down in a hail of bullets when I was sixteen.”

I frowned, being somewhat familiar with the history there. When Jimmy Huntwell had been offed by persons unknown, a lot of people had assumed Tommy—the younger brother—would step into his shoes. Instead, Hugh Rathbone, one of Jimmy’s lieutenants, had swooped in and consolidated power—right up until he’d been spectacularly brought down on corruption and kidnapping charges with his son Percy. Both of them were currently occupying prison cells at his majesty’s pleasure.

“Go on,” I said.

She turned away, fiddling with a wooden cutting board. “My mum was already dead. She was in a car accident when I was thirteen. So, I went to live with my nan for a while—my mum’s mum. We didn’t really... get on. I left as soon as I got my first high-end modeling gig.”

“But your nan’s still kicking around?” I asked cautiously.

Emma nodded. “She isn’t in great health, but as far as I know, she’s still alive.” Huge gray eyes met mine and held. “She’s also an old-timer in the family. She didn’t talk about it much, but Curran—she knows where the Huntwell bodies are buried.”

I caught my breath as I realized where she was going with this.

“You didn’t get on with her,” I offered, “but how do you think she’d feel if she found out what your uncle and cousin tried to do to you?”

Emma licked her lips. “I don’t know. But I don’t think she’d be happy.”

Finding out her orphaned granddaughter had been auctioned off to the highest bidder as a sex slave?

“No,” I agreed. “I don’t imagine she would be.”

She took another fortifying breath. “It wouldn’t shock me if they keep tabs on her phone. But she’s old and frail. She must have people coming in and out—grocery deliveries, that kind of thing. Curran—do you think you could get to her somehow? Set up a meeting for me, somewhere the syndicate wouldn’t be able to find out about it?”

Plans and logistics were already whirling through my head.

“I dunno, sweetheart,” I said. “But I can sure as hell try. Get me everything you have on her, starting with her last known address. Let me take it from there.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

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