They’d all moved throughout his office. Jason was leaning against a wall, as usual. Both Razor and Reyes were sitting in the chairs across from him, while Duke and Ink had taken seats on the sofa. He looked over them all.
“Millie came here to try and find who murdered her sister.”
“Fuck,” Ink said. “She’s only just told you that now?”
He winced and ran his hand over his face. “My fault. I haven’t exactly been forthcoming with my own shit. Was trying to keep some distance between us.”
“Yeah?” Ink asked with amusement. “Seems to have gone well for you.”
Spike shot him a look. Asshole.
“Anyway, she’s always been adamant that we couldn’t let Luther pick up where his father left off. I figured it was just because she didn’t like the idea of Luther selling pussy. But it’s more than that. Her sister was Daria Marshall.”
Silence fell through the room.
“What the fuck?” Reyes spat out. “How?”
“They’re half-sisters. Different last names from different dads. Millie is ten years older than Daria. Millie’s mom couldn’t be bothered looking after her kids. She dropped Millie off at her grandparents when she was four. Years later, she dropped off Daria. But by then, the grandparents were quite old. Millie had to help out a lot. The granddad died then the grandma got ill and Millie was taking care of her and working and trying to watch over Daria. When she was seventeen, Daria ran off and Millie couldn’t find her. She didn’t know where she was until two cops knocked on her door and told her that Daria had been found murdered. Oh, and that she’d been working as a prostitute.”
“Fuck,” Razor said. “That poor girl.”
“She blames herself,” Spike said. “Feels guilty for her death when it wasn’t her fault.”
“I know someone else like that,” Duke said dryly.
Spike shot him a look. He got it. It was the same thing he’d been doing all this time. But he wasn’t going to let Millie make the same mistakes he had.
“Wait. How did she know about Luther’s connection to Daria?” Reyes asked. “Was she following him that night and that’s how she overheard that conversation between him and that rat who was inside Steele’s ranks?”
“No. That was total coincidence. She doesn’t know that Luther’s old man was the one who recruited Daria. Who fucking sold her to the senator. Or that the senator killed her.”
“You haven’t told her yet?” Duke asked incredulously.
“She’s got a migraine. I can’t tell her right now. And I asked her to let me talk to you guys first. Because there’s more.”
“Fuck me,” Ink groaned. “Why can’t things ever be simple?”
That just wasn’t their lives, it seemed.
“Few days after the cops told her about Daria, she lost her job. Thought she was going to lose her home. Her friends are all elderly, they couldn’t help. She gets a knock on the door. Seems she’d won a contest she can’t reme
mber ever entering.”
“Let me guess, she won enough money to pay all her bills,” Razor said dryly.
“And to help her grandma’s elderly friends with theirs. With enough left over to want to hire someone to take out Luther. Something she’s quite keen on doing.”
Jason whistled.
“So what was this contest?” Reyes asked.
“Well, she didn’t remember much about the guy who brought her the check. He was tall, with a belly. But the contest was run by a company called For Fox Sake and there was a picture of a fox’s head on the emblem.”
“Fuck. Me,” Ink breathed.
They all looked to Duke, waiting for him to explode. Duke was normally a very calm guy. But the Fox knew how to push his buttons. Mainly because the Fox adored Sunny and he wasn’t afraid to send her expensive gifts or threaten Duke if he thought Sunny was at risk in any way.
“Why would the Fox send money to Millie?” Duke asked.