Page 81 of Montana Falls
She’d used them to be undetected in my city; everywhere I was.
We walked for what felt like hours. The ground was uneven and treacherous, making each step a struggle and yet she walked with an ease that told me just how many years they had been her home.
“How did you know of these tunnels?” I asked.
“My father used to use them to run drugs and things without being caught.” She said softly, speaking with far more words than I had expected. “I took them as mine when he died.”
She went silent again. For the age it took us to walk and walk and walk. It was only when we began to ascend, that she bothered to open her mouth.
“How did you know it was me?” She asked. “Did Widow tell you? He was supposed to die when the cabin blew up – you weren’t supposed to rescue him. You were supposed to be with me, and the others would die.”
“No.” I lied a little, what with Widow not telling me first. “Lincoln did. The same Lincoln you just said you sent to die in that cabin.”
She almost faltered her steps.
“Lincoln knows?”
“John told him as he died.” I swallowed hard, my anger burning bright. “John sort of told him before; he said that Lincoln had the devil in his DNA but it wasn’t his fault because all O’Malley’s have it. He also said Lincoln was his favorite and a whole host of other bullshit that I killed him for.”
“Does Misha know?” She said, not taking my bait about murdering her brother.
“No, Misha doesn’t.” I kept the conversation going, waiting for my chance to take her unaware and get my weapon back as I told the truth; in all the chaos, I hadn’t wanted to tell Misha about his mother. Neither had Lincoln. So we just… we hadn’t. Even if it was fucked up. “Do you think Misha would forgive you for all of this?”
“No. He’s a good boy; he would want me to go to jail and repent for my sins.” She paused as we came to a sudden stop a few feet away from an old wooden door. “I never asked John to kill your mother. Or Malone. I never told him to do it. I don’tkill innocents and Lucia was innocent even if she married a Montana.”
“Don’t speak about them.” I snapped. “You have no right to mention them, least of all my mama.”
“You’re angry with me.”
“More than angry.”
“Would it help if I said I let Lincoln live, too, for a while? I don’t even like him as much.” She tilted her head, casual in the way she dismissed her first born child. “She loves him, but I don’t. He has anger inside his soul and he always looked at me funny – like he knew who I really was, but he couldn’t figure it out. But I let him live, even when I could have pulled the trigger. I only had to kill him now because he knew. I swore he knew something, and I was right – he did know.”
“He’s yourson, and he is a good man. Agreatone that you did not deserve.” The urge to hit her was overwhelming.
She scoffed as she pulled a key out of her purse, shoving it into the door’s lock. “He’s notmyson. I don’t have children.”
“Retta has children. Two of them that-”
“Three.” She corrected. “She had Charlotte first. Pretty little Charlotte with her big green eyes and blonde curls.”
“Your daughter. The one you lost.” I swallowed my nerves as I wondered what was behind the door and if I would ever get out of it again.
“She never lost her.” I could see her temper flare as the door swung open. “Charlotte was taken. The Montana’s took her like they do with everything… nowmove.”
Retta pushed me forward, her grip on my gun unyielding. As we entered a basement of some kind, the air was cold and stale, but the slight hum of alcohol in the air was almost familiar.
It only got worse when Retta shoved some old shelves and storage items out of the way, clattering them to the floor and opening up the rest of the space.
I knew this basement.
Iownedit.
“Move,” Retta said again, her voice carrying the same cold authority. She guided me through the basement and up the stairs, each step echoing through the empty club.
Myclub…
She’d brought me to Sapphires through a tunnel I hadn’t known existed. A tunnel that shouldn’t have been there, let alone in such an obvious place that nobody had ever once wondered what it was. One I was instantly sure Elaina had used to get in and out of my club undetected, when she had hurt Misha all those months ago.
