Page 92 of Poisoned Pawn

“Oh it fucking does matter. Who was he?”

“He’s dead, Carter. He’s the same Shadow that was hired to kill Miss Kavanagh.”

“Fuck!” I curse.

“There’s no way that’s a coincidence,” Maddox says.

“Absolutely no way,” I agree. “I need a laptop,” I demand, looking to Lennox.

Lennox nods to one of the Shadows by the door who quickly retrieves a laptop from the desk, giving it to Lennox, who then opens it and after tapping away for a couple of seconds passes it over to me.

I quickly log in to my message centre and retrieve the video Koda sent me, then I place the laptop on the table, positioning it so both Lennox and Maddox can see and press play.

The second Rook speaks, Lennox’s eyes snap to mine.

“That’s not possible.”

I take the laptop and find the message I received from Rook after I killed Brian.

“No, then explain this to me?” I spin the laptop round again. “Rook is alive, Lennox, and he’s out for revenge, on me, you and Pavel. Now let’s try this again, tell me about the Shadow from the night I shot Rook?”

There is the smallest movement from the taller of the two Shadows, the one who passed Lennox the laptop, and is the only warning I get before he draws his gun and fires.

CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE

STAR

“Er…what the hell was that about?” I ask as Carter heads down the corridor. Before Roxy can answer, Maddox comes into the room having passed Carter in the corridor.

“Where the fuck is he going in a hurry?”

“To see Lennox,” Roxy replies. “I think you should go with him.”

Maddox’s brows raise as though to disagree. He looks between the two of us.

“Star and I are going to see Carter’s sister. He wants her moved, but I’ll explain later. Go before he leaves. We’ll be fine,” she assures him.

“Go, I’ve got this,” Zak mumbles through a yawn as he walks over. Maddox drops a kiss on Roxy’s lips then races off after Carter.

“What did I miss?” Zak asks as he refills the kettle and switches it on to boil.

“You missed the part where Star here was hiding out right under Rook’s nose.” She turns on me, hand on her hip and giving me a disapproving look.

“Hey, I didn’t know. And anyway, you can’t have a go after you just called Carter out.”

“I absolutely can,” she says.

“Not a kid, Roxy, remember? What is this about Erica?” I ask quickly changing the subject.

Zak carries over a tea for me and coffees for him and Roxy, then she explains that Carter wants us to move Erica to a new location, but she looks confused about something.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Carter never told me where Erica is.”

“Oh… Maybe Frankie knows,” I say.

“What is it I know?” Frankie queries as he strolls into the room.

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