I spent the entire night and next morning searching.
Searching for signs in Jessica’s empty trailer.
Going through Mickey’s servers and phone for what felt like the hundredth time . . . only to find nothing.
I even scanned the cameras for the office building’s parking garage during the last few weeks and hadn’t found a black SUV there around the same time as Mickey.
Something nagged at me in the back of my mind . . . saying Jessica was lying.
But despite the bullshit with Mickey, I knew her.
I knew when she was real. And the girl in my old bed in the guesthouse last night had been real.
By the time I made it back to Holloway, it was nearly noon.
There was a pull inside me, leading directly toward the guesthouse. But Mickey’s car had still been parked in front of the main house. I knew I needed to play this carefully. Heading there in broad daylight when he was home and had a hit on Conor wasn’t careful.
And Beck might kill me himself.
I hurried up the stairs and down the halls until I got to Beck’s room, and let myself in without knocking.
He was already awake and pacing.
“Dude, where’ve you been? I’ve been waiting for you since I got home at four.”
“When have you ever waited for me?” I asked, settling against the door so I would be sure to hear anyone coming down the hall.
Beck lifted his arms out to his sides then dropped them. “Uh, since I got the call I did last night.” He laughed agitatedly when I only stared at him. “You need to remember to be human when you’re working. You’re kind of a robotic asshole.”
I huffed, and he let out an exaggerated breath.
“Jesus fuck, I’ve wanted to say that for years.”
“Noted.”
“You literally said, ‘Conor’s fine. Jessica’s being held by Mickey at the guesthouse. Don’t go after him,’ and hung up.” Beck stared at me, wide-eyed. “I mean, fuck, man.”
I resisted the urge to shrug and remind him I’d given him all the details he needed. “Are you done?”
Beck rolled his eyes and plopped on the bed.
“There’s a guy. Conor saw him dragging Jessica in, and she said he’s been stalking her for weeks for Mickey. He’s not Holloway.” When Beck’s eyebrows drew together in surprise and anger, I said, “I looked through everything again. I still can’t find him.”
A pent-up breath rushed from Beck. “Well, fuck. How do we find this goddamn ghost?”
“He’s . . . he’s not the ghost.” I folded my arms over my chest and tried not to show Beck how much it wrecked me to say, “Jessica is.” I worked my jaw and gave a hard nod. “You were right. She was playing me. She was with me for a reason. But if I’m right, she was doing it because Mickey has her mom.”
He opened his mouth then quickly shut it. A few seconds went by before he slowly lifted his hand and said, “I need you to let me talk and get everything out without throwing shit at me.”
My pulse immediately dipped.
“Kieran.”
“Talk,” I bit out.
He let out a sigh, mumbled a few curses, then snatched a pillow to hold it in front of him. Like that would stop one of my knives. “I know Mickey has her mom. I’ve known.”
“How long?” I demanded. My fingers ached to reach for the cool metal to help calm me, but I didn’t move.
“The morning after you told me about Mickey having us all watched. He came and asked me about this girl’s mom. I knew who he was talking about so I tried to deflect because I wanted to protect them.” Beck scrambled for a second with how to continue. “Then I realized he already knew a shit ton about Jess . . . he just wanted to confirm details about her mom.”
“Jesus, Beck.”
“What was I supposed to do?” he asked loudly. “I was afraid if I didn’t say something, he’d know I helped with the Borellos. And he already knew most of what I was telling him. It felt like he was testing me. He took her mom that night.”
That caught my attention. “No. I was in Jessica’s trailer that night—” I hissed a curse and scrubbed at my face. “The window. Jessica kept talking about the window I’d left open when I let myself in, but I’d gone in through the door. They must’ve opened the window earlier so they’d have a way in. Jessica’s mom was still there when I left.”
I looked over at Beck when he didn’t say anything, and found him looking at me with a wounded expression. “It’d already started. The night after you met her, it’d already started between you two?”
“No, Beck. She stole my wallet. I went looking for it.”
His head shifted slowly. “Jess doesn’t steal. I told you that.”
“Trust me. She does.”
“She never has before. I know her.” He raked his hands through his hair and groaned. “I thought I did. She can’t . . . she can’t be the ghost. She wouldn’t kill someone. I knew there had to be someone else.”
The ache and denial in his voice was like he already—
No.
My eyes narrowed. “Someone else . . . You knew it was her?” When he didn’t respond, I clenched my jaw and growled, “You knew it was her and you’ve had me looking for someone else? You brought that Lucas Holt bullshit to me, to what, get me off Jessica’s trail?”
“It makes sense for it to be him,” he argued. “And, yes, to get you off her goddamn trail. When you came back the night after you met her, asking for her address, I knew you were onto her and it scared the shit out of me.”
“If you thought she was the ghost, you should’ve told me from the beginning.”
“I love her,” he yelled, his voice booming. “And it doesn’t make sense for her to be the one to kill someone. Jess would never do that. Sneak in places? Get information? Yeah. Yeah, she’d fucking do that. But there has to be another ghost, so I wanted to focus on the other.”
I clenched my hands and slowly relaxed them. Then did it again. When I spoke, my voice was like ice. “Tell me how you knew it was her.”
“I wasn’t sure at first.” He blew out a slow breath. “You told me you thought Mickey knew it was you that’d betrayed him. Then when Mickey came asking about her mom, he kept referring to Jess as his. Said she was going to be the future of Holloway if she could finish a project for him first.”
My hands curled into fists. “She’s not his.”
A sad sounding laugh punched from his chest. “Right. Well, next thing I know, Jess is gone. I’ve seen her every single night for a decade, and suddenly she’s gone for days at a time. And then I walked in on the two of you in your room and it was clear as fucking day that it wasn’t a one-time thing. Which means she’d allowed you to find her. And I knew right then if she’d been letting you find her and wasn’t out looking for her mom, she was helping Mickey. Only one thing he needs help with right now.”
“I heard a recording between her and Mickey,” I said and had to clear my throat before I could continue. “She said she’d been searching my room and making me fall in love with her so she could get information from me.”
Even with all Beck had already known and suspected, he looked like he didn’t know how to digest the idea that the girl he loved could do that.
I knew the feeling.
“Jessica wouldn’t do anything for him unless she felt she didn’t have a choice. But he has her mom,” I reminded him. “She would do anything for her.”
He tilted his head. “It’s not just that. Mickey said he’d get her mom help before he took her. Jess is still holding on to the hope that he might.”
I hissed a curse. More made sense with every minute. “We need to talk to her when Mickey leaves for Raleigh,” I said firmly. “We need to know what Mickey had her doing, and we need to find the other guy. Find him, and I have a feeling we end the hit on Conor and save Jessica. Then Mickey’s breaths are numbered.”
When Beck nodded, I pushed from the door and reached for the handle but stopped at my name.
I glanced back at him to find him looking tortured.
“There’s something else.”
A heavy rock settled in my stomach. Jesus Christ. The last couple days had been one clusterfuck after another.
“What?”
“I didn’t know . . . swear to God, I had no idea. But you were right.”
That rock turned to lead. “About what?”
He looked at me warily. “She’s been paying off someone else. And I know who he is.”