Page 24 of Queen of Anarchy (Dirty Broken Savages 2)

I nod. “Yeah, that’s right. I was their guest. I’d never met anyone else at the gala, and I mostly stuck with them all night.”

“Can you walk me through what happened that evening?” he asks.

I furrow my brow. “The whole night?”

“Just the part where the body was discovered will do.”

That’s even easier. “We were all standing around talking, and they announced the silent auction was about to start. The guy in charge did the whole thanking everyone song and dance and then revealed the piece. Only, it wasn’t just the art piece. There was a body on top of it.”

“Did you recognize the body?”

“Not at first,” I answer smoothly. “It just looked like a dead body to me. But then someone in the crowd said his name. They called him Ivan St. James.”

“Do you know who that was? The person who said his name?”

“No. There were so many people around, and everyone was freaking out.”

He nods and scribbles down more notes. “That seems to be the general consensus. Chaos. Pandemonium.”

“Oh, yeah,” I agree. “There were people running everywhere. Like a stampede. We got out so we wouldn’t get crushed in the panic.”

Carter eyes me for a second and then writes something else down. “And once the body was revealed, you left?”

“Well, yeah. I wasn’t going to stick around, in case whoever did it was looking for more victims or something. It didn’t seem safe.”

I try to answer all of his questions as easily and openly as possible. Being cagey around the feds just makes them think you have something to hide. I play the part of the helpful, concerned citizen, as interested in getting to the bottom of this as he is.

Carter’s facial expression doesn’t change, but I can tell he doesn’t completely buy the act. My tattoos and hair paint a picture of a different kind of person than the one I’m acting like right now.

He doesn’t challenge any of my answers, though. Either he buys them enough to accept what I’m saying, or he’s not fazed one way or another by the fact that I might be lying.

“And what is your relationship to these men?” he asks me. “The four who own this house?”

“Oh, I’m fucking all of them,” I reply, keeping my tone even.

Carter’s brows twitch at that, as if theyreallywant to move up toward his hairline, but he keeps his stiff professional façade in place. It’s almost impressive that he doesn’t take that bait even a little bit.

He writes it down though, and I can just imagine him noting down something like “relationship: sexual” in those clinical terms cops and feds use.

“Since the night of the gala, have you had any contact with any of the other guests? Anyone reaching out to ask you for your story or get information?”

“No. Just the guys. And now you.”

“No one else has contacted you?”

“Nope,” I say again. “Like I said, I didn’t know anyone else there.”

I can’t tell if he’s fishing for something or trying to catch me in a lie, but either way, my words are the truth. Aside from the guys, I wouldn’t be able to pick most of those rich fuckers out of a lineup. Maybe the woman Ash went off on or a couple of the super rich guys he pointed out, but other than her being rich and snooty and them being bland and middle-aged, I don’t remember much about them.

Carter isn’t done, though. Apparently, he’s going to ask every question in the book before he’s satisfied.

“Did you plan on bidding on the art piece?” he wants to know.

I snort because I can’t help it. “No. That’s not really the kind of thing that’s in my price range.”

“What about your… companions?”

I shrug. “You’d have to ask them, but I doubt it. I don’t think a solid gold pedestal is really their style. We just stuck around to see what it would look like since everyone was talking about it all night.”

Before Agent Carter can ask any more questions, I hear the sound of a car in the driveway. As if talking about the Kings has summoned them to the house, the front door opens a moment later. Dog starts losing his mind again, barking joyfully and running to the door to greet the guys as they come walking in.

Their footsteps grow louder as they all stride toward the kitchen. Gage enters the room first, but he stops short the moment he notices that I’m not alone.

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