The looks flying around this car are non-stop, and I have a feeling they’re only going to increase.
“Amber was there.” Rose looks at me with a smidge of resentment that is really fucking misplaced right now. “She said some pretty awful things to Beau.”
“Like?”
“Goading her. About her dad, about the money. I tried to get Beau to leave.”
Something tells me she didn’t succeed. At least, not before... I can’t think it. “And?”
“And then she called me your latest whore.”
“And?” I ask, leaning back.
Rose’s lip trembles as she chews it nervously. “And I shot her.”
“Oh Jesus.” I rake a hand through my hair, slumping back in the seat.
“Youshot Amber?” James asks.
“Yes.” Her voice wobbles. “I don’t know what happened. One minute I was cooling down, talking myself out of killing her, then I opened my eyes and my hand lifted. I couldn’t stop it. I shot her.”
“So where’s the fucking body?” James asks.
My brain slowly gets over the shock and catches up. I turn my attention to Rose. She’s frowning. “We left it—”
“Rose, baby, we’ve just come from that penthouse. There was no body.”
“But it was there on the rug! We left it and ran because—” She stops, the lines on her forehead multiplying. James and I both wait for her to find the next words, words I’m pretty fucking certain we’re not going to like. “Because Beau’s ex-fiancé showed up.”
“What?” James blurts. “Burrows?”
“Yes,” Rose whispers. “We left. He came after us.”
“Fuck!” He slams his fist into the dashboard and starts his Range, pulling off fast.
38
JAMES
“Talk to me,” I demand, sweating fucking fury.
“She’s at Mid Bank,” Otto says down the line, sounding grave.
“What the fuck is she doing there?” The bank where her mother’s safety deposit box was held? The empty safety deposit box. Empty because The Bear found it before we did with a little help from the bent manager Spittle. I hang up on Otto and look at Danny in the rearview mirror. “We should never have let that prick go.”
“The key,” Rose says out of nowhere.
The words have me losing concentration on the road for a split second, making Danny yell and me swerve. “Fucking hell,” he breathes as I miss a man on a bike by a whisker.
“A key?” I say, splitting my attention between Rose and the road, heading for Mid Bank.
“Amber had a key. Beau took it.” Her eyes dart, as if she’s struggling to piece together the events.
“Think hard, Rose,” I say as softly as I can.
“Come on, baby,” Danny says, soothingly. “We need details.”
“Amber pulled a key out. Asked if that is why we were there. I was trying to get Beau to leave. I could see she was going to snap. But then I saw Ollie on the surveillance screens in the office.I was distracted. Amber barged me to the floor and got my gun.”