Once they were inside, and the doors shut behind them, Robbie looked at Priest and said, “Why do I get the feeling you’re about to drop me off and then disappear?”
“Because you’re smart,” Priest said, and hooked a finger under Robbie’s chin. “I need you safe while I do what I need to.”
“And what exactly is that?” Robbie asked, but before Priest could answer, the elevator hit the eighteenth floor and dinged. They stepped out into a foyer, and Priest slipped his card into the lock. Robbie walked inside, and Priest followed.
“First, I need to call Henri.”
That brought Robbie’s feet to a halt, and he turned around to face Priest. “Why? Does he have something to do with this? With Julien being—”
“No.” Priest shook his head. “Henri knows Jimmy.”
Robbie blinked several times. “But you just said—”
“That he wasn’t involved, and he wasn’t, until I called him.”
“I…I don’t understand.”
“I know,” Priest said, and rubbed his fingers between his brows. A headache was forming there. “I grew up with Henri in a way, at least until I was seven. We reconnected again in our twenties.”
“When you were…together?” Robbie said.
“Yes. The short version? I was just out of law school and he was—doing something else.”
“What?”
Priest let out a sigh. “Private investigating, sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“Yes,” Priest said, not wanting to get into all that right now, but knowing he eventually would have to. “Sort of. And he’s here right now, passing through, and said he would help.”
“So that’s where you’re going now, to Henri? He’s going to help find Julien?”
“Yes, and if anyone can find him, it’s Henri.”
“How can you be so certain? Are you sure we shouldn’t call the police?” Robbie asked.
Priest shut his eyes for a moment and told himself to just say it. This was Robbie. He deserved to know everything. But God, it wasn’t until Priest had to actually explain his past that he was reminded just how fucked up it was.
“Priest?”
Priest opened his eyes and looked directly into Robbie’s, hoping he would believe in him just a little longer. “Because Henri is Victor’s son.”
Priest had come to realize from the moment he’d really gotten to know Robbie that he was smart as a whip. It didn’t even take a second before Robbie put it all together. His mouth fell open and his eyes grew wide. “Victor? As in your dad’s right-hand man?”
“Yes,” Priest said. “I’ll tell you everything and anything you want to know about Henri, but right now I need to call him. I need to find out where he is with what we discussed. I just had to make sure you were safe first.”
Robbie swallowed again, clearly trying to process everything he was learning. Priest took Robbie’s face in his hands and said, “I’m so sorry, Robert. I never wanted any of this to happen.”
And that was the fucking truth. This was the very reason Priest had avoided relationships, but he’d tempted fate, and fate had sent the devil his way.
Priest dropped his hands away from Robbie, and then turned to head for the door, and as he did, his cell phone began to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket, and when he saw Julien’s name on his screen, his feet froze, and his heart came close to doing the same.
“Priest…? Priest? What is it?” Robbie said.
When he was beside Priest, Robbie looked down at the screen. His eyes flew up to Priest, who raised a finger to his lips—then he answered his phone.
Chapter Twenty-Two
CONFESSION
I will give my soul for you.
If that’s what the devil asks for.
“HELLO, JOEL.”
JIMMY’S voice slithered through the phone like the snake he was, and in all the years they’d been apart, the sound of it still made Priest’s skin crawl.
“What? No greeting for your father? You were such a well-mannered boy—at least until the end.”
Priest turned his back on Robbie, not wanting him to witness the revulsion Priest felt over the memories now bombarding him. Instead, he did his best to think about Julien.
He needed to keep it together, to play this just right, for Julien.
“That boy’s long dead, Jimmy. You made sure of that.”
“Not dead, if he speaks,” Jimmy said. “Though he goes by a different name now, doesn’t he, Mr. Priestley?”
“Where is he?” Priest said, not willing to dance too long with the devil.
“Your client? Oh, he’s here. You seem much more upset than I had hoped for, though, when I first got my hands on him. Why is that?”
“I swear to God, if you’ve hurt one hair on his head—”
“You’ll what?” Jimmy chuckled, and the menacing tone raked along every one of Priest’s nerve endings. “You aren’t exactly in a position to be making threats right now. So if you want to see Mr. Thornton alive and well again, you’ll shut your mouth and listen to what I have to say.”