Chapter Twenty-Five - Cindy
I am looking out the window of Nolan’s second-floor office, staring at the long, palm tree-lined driveway leading up to the resort, desperately willing Paxton to appear. I know he landed—the pilot called, per Nolan’s instructions, as soon as he left the tarmac in the limo—but that feels like an eternity ago.
My heart still hurts, although Mariel has eased it a bit since this morning. It has been quite the messed-up day on my end. All the things she told me. I just don’t know what to make of it. But it doesn’t matter. We have other issues to deal with first. Namely, the people responsible for the whole Mr. Corporate fuck-up, as it’s now being called by Nolan, who was very pissed off he was not informed of what was happening, since there was a Mr. Romantic fuck-up last summer and a less dangerous, but equally suspicious, Mr. Perfect fuck-up about a year ago.
Ivy explained them both to me. And Jesus. I don’t think I can look at Nolan Delaney the same way after the things she disclosed under the Mrs. to the Misters pact I had to swear.
Am I a Mrs. to a Mister?
“Knock, knock,” Mariel says behind me.
I turn and find her standing in the doorway with a tall, strikingly beautiful woman with dark hair and the most mesmerizing violet eyes I’ve ever seen. “Hey,” I say, uncertain what to make of her. I know who she is just from the description Mariel gave me earlier. Victoria Arias, aka Mrs. Corporate.
“Cynthia,” Mariel says. “This is Victoria, Weston Conrad’s better half.”
The things Mariel disclosed about her… It all renders me speechless. I was hoping to see Pax before having to meet her, just to give me a bit of courage. I mean… how to process it? I just don’t know. But I suck it up and walk over to her, extending my hand. “Nice to meet you, Victoria. I’m Cynthia. I mean”—I laugh—“Cinderella. Oliver’s sister. And…” I shrug. “Pax’s girlfriend. Maybe.”
“You can call me Tori,” she purrs in a sultry, sexy voice.
“Oh, OK. Well, you can call me Cindy. Everyone does. Except…” I nod my head to Mariel.
“I’ll just leave you girls,” Mariel says. “So you can get to know each other better in private.”
Mariel leaves, closing the door behind her.
And then… shit. What to say?
Victoria walks forward and takes a seat in a chair, straightening out her lavender top as she does it, then crosses her racehorse legs that spill out of her micro-mini skirt and folds her hands in her lap. “She said you wanted to talk to me?” Tori looks up at me expectantly, full of fire and defiance.
“I do,” I say, taking a seat next to her in the other chair. Jesus. Does she have to be so beautiful? And sophisticated in her fluttery blouse and giant diamond ring?
I resist the urge to look down at my gaudy silver bracelets clinking on my wrist. Or my old, worn Frye boots that most definitely make me look like a cowgirl hick, since I’m wearing them with a red flirty skirt and black and white tank top that says, Cute but Psycho across my giant tits.
I’m not even gonna bother trying to justify the two pigtail braids I have my hair in today. I thought it was cute this morning. Now, standing in front of Mrs. Corporate, I just feel childish.
“Well, I’m all ears, Cindy. Give it your best shot.”
She’s intimidating. Definitely intimidating. I’m suddenly wishing my mother was here to say what I need to say. She’d know how to handle this woman. She’d talk circles around her and threaten to kick her ass if she stepped out of line.
But I’m not that talented in the tough-chick department. I’m more of a kill-’em-with-quirkiness kind of girl. I’m not sure that’s gonna work with Mrs. Corporate.
“I’m…” Shit. Get it together, Cindy. You’re capable, and smart, and very good at what you do. “I’m just a little worried about what happened out there on Pax’s islands in the Exumas.”
“Define worried,” Tori says, her voice smooth. Calm. Confident.
“Well.” I laugh nervously. “You almost got him killed.”
“He almost got us killed.” She takes a deep breath—and a moment—to compose herself. “So I’m not sure we have anything to discuss about that incident.”
“But the reason, Tori. Surely you can see the problem I’m having.”
“Not quite, Cindy,” she says, unrattled. “Why don’t you explain?”
“He was doing it to protect Weston, Tori. You know that, right?”
“Do I know that?” she says, a little bit of bitchiness leaking through in her tone. “All I know is that Mr. Mysterious set us up to be ambushed out in the middle of the ocean. They had machine guns, Cindy. Does that sound like protecting us?”
“Nobody calls them machine guns, Tori. Please. And from what I understand Pax had no choice. That Liam guy came to our house. Our office. He was relentless. I heard the entire conversation. It’s not like Pax did it for money. He did it because Liam threatened to hire someone else if he refused. And the reason Liam was so pissed off was because West had something he wanted.”
“Well, Liam Henry beat the shit out of West when he was a child, killed his father, and then sold him to another family. Does that sound like something a seven-year-old can control?”
“Of course not,” I say, backing down. “No. I didn’t mean…” Shit. “I didn’t know that part.”
Tori remains silent for a second.
“But you,” I say. “You don’t know the whole story either.”
“So tell me,” she says, gritting her teeth. “If you know what’s happening, then tell me. Please. Because West refuses to talk about it anymore. He says it’s behind us.”
“Clearly it’s not behind us,” I say.
“Clearly.”
And this is why I’m here. To fill her in. I’m the only one, aside from Mariel, who knows what’s really going on here. I’ve been mulling everything over all day. Willing it not to be true. Wishing I could just write off Mariel Hawthorne as some delusional rich snob who’s seen too many detective movies or read too many crazy books.
But everything she told me makes sense. Everything makes so much sense right down to the part that involves my family.
“And if you’d like a more accurate rundown on what happened,” Victoria snaps, “I’ll say this. I was running for my life. I thought West was dead at one point. I thought Paxton Vance was going to kill me. And that’s before all the shit went down. Imagine people you love being tortured in front of you. Imagine the one person you fear most being responsible for it. Imagine,” Tori says, the anger practically pouring out of her, “the worst possible outcome after all that happened.”
I swallow hard and take a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t care about apologies, Cindy. I have a plan.” She looks me dead on. “And West won’t even listen to me because he wants to think this is behind us. Well, I’ve got a child to think about. My son isn’t going to grow up with this shit hanging over his head. And so the reason we’re all here together right now had better include the words end and game. Because that’s where I’m at right now, Cinderella Shrike. End. Game.”
It takes me a few seconds to let all that sink in. Why are we here? Mariel gave me strict orders not to open my mouth to any of the Misters until she has a chance to talk to Pax about it, but she did want me to discuss it with Tori, since she is the only one of us girls who was there when that whole rape charge actually went down.
Plus, after hearing everything Mariel had to say about Tori, I’ve come to the conclusion that she’s badass. Victoria Arias is a Nikita. She reminds me of Five’s oldest sister, Sasha, for some reason. Capable, smart, and… dangerous.
“What kind of plan?” I ask.
Tori looks away. Stares out the window like she’s trying to figure out if she can trust me. But I’m Cindy Shrike. I’m in this group whether she likes it or not, whether Paxton and I are a thing or not. My brother is involved, and by extension, my sister Ariel. Because they are in business—have been in business—since this whole thing started. And even though no one ever told me, no one needed to tell me. I know it’s the business that got Oliver involved in all this. Whatever happened to him at Brown is the reason he is the way he is today. He was never so standoffish before that rape charge. He was sweet, and funny, and charming just like my dad. And now Oliver is dark, withdrawn, and secretive.
I need to fix that. And I can fix that. I know enough now, thanks to Mariel, to get to the bottom of this and set things right.
Tori looks back at me. “I know how to kill them both.”
My gut clenches. I don’t want to hear this. I really don’t want to hear any of this. But I have to. Running away won’t fix this problem. I can’t fall back on my old habits. Sure, it’s great to walk out when things start to feel overwhelming. Sell your car, donate your clothes to a thrift store, and hit the road with a backpack and a bank account knowing you can replace everything you just walked away from with very little effort.
But if I want to fix Oliver I need to stay here and participate in the solution. And I can’t replace Paxton Vance. No matter how hard I try to talk myself into that plan, it’s not happening. Somewhere along the way these past two months, things changed. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment. It might’ve been that night we were jumping rooftops in Malibu. It might’ve been the first legit case we solved together. It might’ve been the day at the races. I’m not sure, but it doesn’t matter when. The only thing that matters is that it did.
So I suck it up and ask, “Both who?”
“Liam, the guy bothering you and Pax. And Lucio Gori Senior. The guy after me.”
“That’s who’s responsible for all this bullshit?” I make a face. That’s not what Mariel told me.
Tori nods. “They need to be taken out.”
“You’re going to… have them killed?”
She smiles. “That’s the best part, Cindy. I won’t have to do anything illegal myself. None of us will need to do anything illegal. Don’t you see? We can fix it. All of it. But I need help to pull this off.”
“Whose help? The Misters? I don’t want Pax doing this kind of thing anymore. I want him out of this crazy fixer business. I’ve got big plans for us and none of it includes putting his life on the line just to wipe away other people’s mistakes.”
“Oh, Paxton Vance has no role in this job,”
“Then who?” I’m getting frustrated now. I need answers and she’s being cryptic.
Victoria Arias smiles and wow, she really is the most striking woman I’ve ever seen. I’m no wallflower. I was born to a mother who puts the bomb in bombshell and I look just like her when she was my age. But Tori has another kind of beauty. Something timeless and elegant. She is Grace Kelly to my Brigitte Bardot. “Us.”
“Us? I’m not sure I like where this is going. You need to know more. I don’t—”
“Look,” Tori says, cutting me off. “I know how to fix this but I’m the only one who can do it. Trust me on that.”
“But you just said us. As in me—”
“Listen, Cindy.” But there are voices downstairs and she stops talking to look warily at the door for a second before turning her attention back to me. “Whatever is going on with you and Mariel, that needs to wait. This is an immediate threat and I’m just lucky that Liam Henry and Lucio Gori haven’t struck yet. They will kill me. Do you understand? They will kill West and my newly adopted son Ethan and then they will come looking for all the loose ends like you, and Pax, and Ivy, for fuck’s sake. Do you want that sweet girl to be collateral damage? These people are dangerous. They do not give one shit about who they hurt as long as they get what they want.”
“Well, what the fuck do they want?”
“Something we can’t give them, Cindy. That’s the only thing that matters. What they want, they can’t have. And it’s not because we’re partial to it and won’t give it up. We don’t have it and we can’t get it. But people like this don’t care, do you understand?” She stops to take a breath because she was getting a little intense there for a second. “They don’t care. They will hurt us anyway, just because they can. Just to prove a point. Just to make sure everyone knows there’s no way out once you’re in.”
I exhale. “Well, what do you need me for?”
“Backup,” she says immediately. “I need you for backup, Cindy. You’re a Shrike and I know what the Shrike family is capable of.”
All the hairs on the back of my neck prickle and take offense. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That you’re one tough bitch, Cinderella. That’s what it means. And I need you. Ellie is not like us. She’s not street-smart the way we are. And Ivy is pregnant, so even if she had it in her, she can’t help. I need you.”
A knock at the door makes us both look at it.
“Hey,” Pax calls. “You guys in there?”
“Come in,” we say together.
I nod to Tori and she mouths, Talk later, as Pax opens the door.