Page 104 of Poor Little Rich Girl

It takes nearly five hours for the last of Brentwood’s remains to flush down the bathtub. Gabriel and I spent most of that time cradled together on the bed, clinging to each other as though every slurp and swirl of the drain washes away the lies that cloak us.

I’ll never be able to scrub the smell out of my skin, nor forget the sludge at the bottom of the bathtub as the potassium hydroxide transformed Brentwood’s considerable bulk into a human slurry. Antony picks out the remaining bones that haven’t dissolved and throws them in the pillowcase while Noah and Tiberius use bleach to scrub the blood off every surface, until the bathroom shines like new. Tiberius even repairs the broken tiles.

After it’s done, Antony drops us back at Malloy Manor, but he won’t come inside. “I still have work to do,” he says as he starts to wind his window up.

“Wait.” I grab the window. “Is it safe for us to go to school tomorrow?”

“Fuck knows, but what’s the alternative? Like it or not, you’re Mackenzie Malloy now. You need to act as normal as possible until we’ve got Brutus under control.” Antony grins. “Pull up those thigh-high white socks and those garters that drive the Pretty Boy so wild, cousin. You’re going back to class.”

I give Antony the finger as he laughs and takes off, a pillowcase filled with our bloody shoes and clothes, and the remains of Brentwood that wouldn’t fit down the drain.

I know he needs to check in at the club, that our best chance of figuring out who’s behind the shooting is to lean into his role in the family and his underground connections. I know that my continued existence is down, in part, to the fact he’s been diligently careful to not let anyone in Tartarus Oaks know that he occasionally disappears into Harrington Hills to watch horror films with his not-so-dead cousin in a mansion that’s only months away from being hers.

I know all this, and still I pace around the ballroom and stare at my broken phone screen every few minutes. I was raised to be a queen. I don’t like being helpless, feeling like a monkey in a cage watching the world falling into chaos outside my prison. I especially don’t like Antony being out on the front lines in Tartarus Oaks when there’s clearly a price on my head.

My agitation only feeds Noah’s disquiet. He spends all day poring over the paperwork from Malloy’s safe, organizing it into piles and marking certain damning passages with sticky notes. Gabriel and I play music in the ballroom, play with Queen Boudica, and kiss until my lips feel like they’re going to fall off. When it gets dark outside and Noah still hasn’t left the office, I heat up some soup for dinner and bring it in to him. He’s still staring at that pile of papers, trying to force it to offer up the answers he craves.

“There’s so much more here than just my brother’s case,” he says as he shoves aside the bowl without touching it. “Howard Malloy’s been using this deer antler velvet in supplements for years – not in his commercially-available products, but in specialized performance enhancers for a select range of clients, many of whom have suffered horrific side-effects. There’s enough evidence here that if Howard Malloy ever showed his face in Emerald Beach again, we could put him away in prison for life for gross negligence and manslaughter, not to mention what the sports boards will say if they knew just how many star athletes are taking this stuff…”

“I wonder if that’s why he disappeared?” I peer over Noah’s shoulder at the piles of paper spread out across the desk. It’s weird to think that just a few weeks ago nothing in those files had any relevance to me, and now they might hold the key to neutralizing the person who wants me dead.

If John Marlowe even is responsible for the gunshots. I know Noah believes it, but I’m not certain I do.

Noah fists his hands at his sides. Hopelessness slides into his eyes – a sense that this is too big for him to tackle. For the first time, the spoiled prince must face the fact that wealth can’t buy him answers. “We’ll never know what happened to the Malloys. I don’t believe for a moment that they’re dead, but Howard would cover his tracks too perfectly for us to trace.”

“I think there’s one person who can give us a clue.” I toss his leather jacket into his arms. “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“To have a chat with your father.”

“Wait, Claudia—” Noah bolts out of the chair and races after me as I head back to the ballroom. I grab my own jacket from the back of the couch – it has Gucci emblazoned across the back in rainbow sequins because that’s how Mackenzie’s mother rolls – and kick Gabriel in the shoulder. My rock god is lying on the floor, staring into nothing, with Queen Boudica curled up in a ball of happiness in his hair.

“Noah and I are heading out for a bit.”

Gabe bolts upright, sending Queen Boudica flying. She lands on her feet, shoots Gabriel a filthy look, and stomps off to her cat castle.

“You can’t. Antony said we shouldn’t leave the property. What if the shooter—”

“Antony’s not the boss. In this house, I’m queen.” Gabriel doesn’t look convinced. “We’ll be careful, I promise. We’ll take Tiberius with us, how about that? That leaves you with Horace for protection. And Queen Boudica – she’ll scare away anyone who dares come close.”

“Tell me about it.” Gabriel holds up his hand. His perfect skin is crisscrossed with tiny cuts. “You’ve taught her well, Claws. What’s that line from A Midsummer Night’s Dream? Though she be but little, she is a sadist who will claw your eyes out. But what’s going on? Why would you leave if we don’t know it’s safe?”

Because I’m sick of being treated like a helpless little lamb. I’m not the lamb. I’m the wolf, and I need this bastard to fear me more than he hates me.

“Noah and I have found something that might give us answers, and I’m not letting Antony do all the dirty work when we can help.” Gabriel reaches for his jacket, but I plant my hand against his chest, forcing myself to ignore the heat that sizzles along my arm. “I want you with me, but this is something Noah needs to do on his own. Your job is to hang out with my cat. She’s a needy bitch.”

Gabriel gives me a shaky smile. Queen Boudica leaps from the top of her turret into his arms, and he hugs her to his chest. “I take it Antony knows nothing about this plan? Claudia August asks for forgiveness, not permission?”

I pretend to think. “I’ve never asked for forgiveness in my life.”

Eli

Maria waits with me while I sober up. She stops asking me about why I’ve come to Everlasting Hart Ranch, why I’m drunk, why I don’t have my phone, or why I don’t want to go back to Emerald Beach. She just sits and pats my knee, and it’s fucking heartbreaking because I love her so much and I feel like a disappointment.

I follow Maria home in my car with Gizmo napping on the passenger seat, her belly round with mice from the barn. I allow myself one last look over my shoulder at the crumbling remains of my father’s folly.

As Maria exits onto the freeway into the city, I debate pulling off and losing her. But what’s the point? There’s no escaping my legacy, not even out here in the desert. I see Mackenzie in every beam of golden sunlight, in the sparkling water of the lake.

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