Page 5 of Bottoms
Fynn carried our breakfast, despite the time, back to the table. My gun still sat on the surface, right where Fynn left it. He served my bowl of cereal and didn’t make an impossible demand that I attempt to eat with my left hand. He held his spoon in his left as he dug into his bowl.
I abandoned all presence for manners as I dug into my food with ravenous hunger. My stomach groaned and growled against the sudden intrusion, but I mentally told it to stop complaining. The last remaining corn puff still held an edge of crunch when I bit into it, and I smiled at the one victory I could claim.
“What’s the plan for the rest of the day?” I asked once our bowls sat empty on the table.
“How about I show you to your room, and you can put some clothes on? I know you are not the biggest fan of clothes, but I can’t have you walking around my house in a towel,” he said as he collected the dishes, getting up from the table.
Part of me expected him to carefully wash and put them away, but instead, he just tossed them into the sink. He turned to open a cabinet, pulling out a glass and a bottle of bourbon. Pouring himself an inch into the bottom before downing the contents in one go. He rinsed the cup before placing it back in the cupboard to dry next to the half-empty bottle.
I would need to be the one to do the dishes, it seemed.
“You coming?” he asked like I should have known; shot time equaled escorting the captive to their cell.
I got up from the table and readjusted my towel to secure it before following him through the kitchen. There was a living room with a single couch that looked like it had been here since the people before Fynn. By the buildup of dust, I would imagine that was quite a while ago. A fireplace also sat in the room, cold, empty, and uninviting.
No one had been here for a long time, and no one was likely to come by soon. I was stuck with Fynn.
He took me up a steep set of steps with wooden floorboards that groaned and whined with every step I took. There was no way to avoid the noise. A door that most likely led into a bedroom was at the end of the landing. That door was closed, and Fynn continued towards a room with its door open, down the hallway. My blood ran cold when I walked into the room and realized that Fynn had been watching me long before I met Tanner.
2
An Abrupt End
Tanner
Ifollowedbehindthehired muscle Senator Leland sent to retrieve me. I knew I should have gotten this taken care of before making another public appearance where we might brush our toes. Honestly, I had hoped it would all be swept under the rug since no one had heard from Mr. Teller since that night. And that was a much bigger problem for the elite than my behavior.
No one outside the Arsenal knew about my involvement with Mr. Teller that night. I killed him for touching Nessa. That was the first time I killed a person.
I didn't hesitate when I walked into the pool house and saw him on top of her in the dim light. My shadow had crossed over his face, blocking the soft glow of the moonlight through the still-open doorway. Blocking his view of Nessa’s peaceful, still face.
Thinking back to that night, ghosts of the cold terror wrapped around me seemed to follow into the present. She looked dead, and he was on top of her. He had looked up at me, the cause of the sudden darkness. I had already drawn my gun and squeezed the trigger. The bullet passed through his eye as I ensured he wouldn’t be able to look at her, even in death.
I didn’t even realize who it was I killed until I rolled his dead body off her and onto the floor of the boathouse. A moment later, Colten appeared, his shadow choking out the remaining light. The rage rolling off him that night was palpable. That night, politics and business didn’t matter.
No one touches her.
If Senator Leland wants Nessa, Colten and Nik can help me make him disappear, just like we did to Mr. Teller. His stockholders were not very happy with the hefty sum of money we transferred to an offshore account on the night of his disappearance.
Doing the same to someone more prestigious, such as the senator, would be tricky, but not impossible. Maybe we could pin it on a mugging in the dirty streets of Manhattan. The ones the senator claimed were so clean, yet he was one of the ones pushing more drugs into the city.
He found addicts without money to be very agreeable to his tastes.
“Mr. Ryland,” Senator Leland said, removing himself from a small group of businessmen as I entered the conversation room.
Nik moved off to the side and along the wall, his eyes observant.
“I heard you wanted a word, and I think I know what it’s about. I wouldn’t mind a little discretion if you wouldn’t mind,” I said, putting on a business smile and greeting the asshole with a firm shake. It was all part of this world.
“Sure thing,” he said, clapping me on the shoulder and leaning in close.
“My associate, Mr. Black, and I like to make a sport out of certain delicacies. My reaction to the girls auditioning had nothing to do with their skills, but it did involve a chase with higher personal stakes. I do hope that I did not offend,” I said, part of me doubting my strategy, but the way Sal had said Nessa’s name earlier at the table told me they already knew about her. It was pointless to pretend like she hadn’t been noticed. Now I needed to establish her as off-limits; unfortunately, the lawyer’s plus one didn’t work in my favor. It should have if they knew who Colten really was.
It was foolish to think Nessa would have been dismissed, even if she was just the lawyer’s date. Maybe the press didn’t care, but bringing her to a party full of hungry sharks had been a terrible idea.
She was never supposed to go in the first place.
The Senator’s head came up sharply after I finished playing my hand. I hoped he would laugh it off to the fun of impulsivity.
