I have no idea what Caroline and Alistair have been arguing about, or what story she’s fed him about why she’s packed his Discovery with her bags, but it doesn’t matter. She hasn’t moved since Alistair said my name, and I can feel the rage pouring off her as she continues to just stand there in the middle the room, her spine ramrod straight, dressed in a sequined dress of all things, with her platinum-blond hair in a refined twist, as if she’s getting ready for a night out on the town, instead of making a run for her freedom.

  Deciding to goad her, I say, ‘Hello, Caroline. Did we catch you at a bad time?’

  ‘What exactly are you doing here, Jase?’ She crosses her arms over her chest as she slowly turns to face us, and I’m amazed to see how much older she looks than the last time I saw her, the strain of trying to have me killed clearly taking its toll. ‘I thought you were done with this place.’

  ‘I was.’ I take my phone out of my pocket, keeping my hard gaze locked tight with hers as I say, ‘But J.J. and I are here for some answers.’

  She gives a dramatic sigh, as if I’m wasting her time. ‘And what, exactly, are your questions?’

  I let a husky laugh fall from my lips as I reach up and rub the scar over my eyebrow, just to mess with her, knowing the angrier I get her, the more likely she is to give us what we want. ‘Come on, Caro. I think you already know at least one of them.’

  Her nostrils flare as she sucks in a sharp breath. ‘I’m not a mind reader, Jase. I have no idea what you’re going on about.’

  ‘Yeah?’ I start turning my phone over in my hand as I take a step closer to her. ‘Then why don’t we start with how you went about hiring the fuckers who tried to kill me in San Diego three weeks ago?’

  She pales for a moment, then flushes a vivid shade of red as her eyes dart to where J.J. stands just behind me, then down to the phone in my hand, her lips compressed into a hard, tight line. ‘I . . . I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.’

  ‘Honestly,’ Alistair slurs, giving me a look of flustered outrage. ‘Caroline has her faults, Jase. But she’s not a monster. She’s a bloody Beckett!’

  ‘You sure that’s not the same thing?’ I drawl, and I hear J.J. snuffle a quiet snort.

  Alistair narrows his eyes, and I decide it’s time to go in for the kill, just wanting this over and done with. ‘Your wife’s been screwing Cameron behind your back for years,’ I tell him, and I hear Caroline gasp. But it’s Alistair I’m watching, carefully studying his reaction, needing to know if he knows. If he’s aware of just how sick she is.

  It seems to take a moment for my words to sink in, and then he laughs so hard he falls drunkenly against the side of the piano again, sending out a discordant note from the keys. ‘Come on, Jase. Tell me something I don’t know.’

  Softly, I say, ‘Did you know it’s been happening since he was twelve?’

  His laughter dies so abruptly, it’s like I’ve reached into his throat and crushed his vocal cords.

  ‘Cameron broke into the flat I was staying in last night with the intent of killing me for her with a fucking knife. It was her second attempt, and he did it because Caroline’s blackmailing him with photos that she took of him when he was a teenager. He said she’s got some elaborate story cooked up about him being a rent boy that will ruin his credibility in London, while keeping her own name clean. He broke down after we caught him and he told us everything.’ I lift my phone up, and I can feel the seething hatred of Caroline’s glare burning against the side of my face as I press my thumb against the phone, letting him hear just a few seconds of Cameron’s confession, before stopping it, unwilling to share any more in front of the bitch than I have to.

  ‘It’s all recorded on here,’ I tell him, lowering the phone back to my side. ‘He’s fucking broken, Alistair, and it’s because of her. Because she started abusing him when he was only a boy, threatening to come after me and Oliver next if he didn’t do whatever she wanted.’

  Alistair’s bloodshot eyes nearly bulge out of his skull, and his top lip curls with disgust as he finally looks back over at his wife. ‘Jesus, Caroline.’

  ‘Don’t you dare look at me like that,’ she sneers, giving him a viperous stare. ‘I won’t take that shit from you.’

  ‘Did you do it?’ he growls, turning red in the face as he smacks his hand down hard on the piano in a fit of rage. ‘Did you honestly hire someone to make an attempt on Jase’s life, and blackmail Cameron to try a second time, just because of Emmy Reed? Just so you can protect your stupid fucking secret that no one would have ever discovered in the first place? Christ, woman, it’s not Jase’s fault that you’re a goddamn desert bumpkin!’

  As Emmy would say, What the what?

  Alistair slides a calculating look my way, then shakes his head as he snorts. ‘She’s lost her bloody mind, son. When you brought the American here, Caroline became obsessed with the fear that you would somehow learn the truth about her, just because the girl lives in California. It was preposterous and completely irrational!’

  ‘What truth?’ I ask, while keeping a cautious eye on Caroline, since I don’t trust her. Especially when she’s standing there looking ready to strangle Alistair with her bare hands, her chest heaving as she pants for breath.

  ‘Caro’s mother was nothing but a fucking maid to people like us,’ Alistair says with a smarmy twist of his lips, as if he’s starting to enjoy himself. ‘She had dreams of becoming a famous actress in Los Angeles, so she ran off to America, only to end up falling in love with a two-bit conman. He took her back to his shitty little hometown in the California desert, put a baby in her belly, and then buggered off. And that’s where Caroline lived until she turned seventeen and came to England, determined to live the life of the people in the stories her mother had raised her on. Stories of the British upper-class, and the stupid cunt thought she could actually fit in.’ He shoots her a derisive look, then belches behind his fist. ‘Thought all she had to do was put on a fake accent, invent a new background for herself, and scrub up. But everyone who looks at her knows the truth. That she’s nothing but the little whore I started screwing before she was even legal. She’s prime mistress material, but has no place being the lady of Beckett House.’

  Literally vibrating with rage, Caroline gives a bitter, maniacal laugh, and I feel J.J. place his hand on my shoulder, silently warning me to be on guard. But right now, we’re not the ones she’s looking to destroy. ‘Well, if we’re going to start spilling secrets, Alistair, why don’t you tell them about the night that Sarah died?’

  ‘Don’t even think of going there,’ he hisses, giving her a sharp look of warning. ‘You, more than anyone, know how easily accidents can happen. I’d hate for you to fall down the stairs and break your pretty little neck, Caroline.’

  ‘What about that night?’ I ask, and am surprised by how calm I sound as I slip my phone back in my pocket.

  My question snags her attention, and for a moment I think she’s going to refuse to answer me, just out of spite. But then she slides a disgusted look back at Alistair, and I realize that their mutual loathing of each other is going to be their downfall, each of them so desperate to draw blood from the other with their verbal barbs that their house of cards is tumbling.

  Holding Alistair’s hostile glare, her lips curl with a cold smile. ‘This drunken idiot isn’t your real father, Jasper.’

  ‘I already know that,’ I mutter, needing her to get the fuck on with it.

  ‘What? Who told you?’ Alistair demands, clearly wanting an explanation. But I’m barely even listening to him, because Caroline’s smirking at me now, and I have no doubt that something bad is coming. And while I know it’s wrong, because I would never put her in this kind of dangerous situation, I can’t help wishing that I had Emmy here with me. Because she’s my fucking rock. The thing that makes me strong.

  And I need her more than ever when Caroline says, ‘Did you know that Sarah was pregnant with your little sister the night Alistair killed her, then staged her body to make it look like a suicide?’

  I start forward, but Harrison grips my arm, holding me back, and Caroline just keeps on going.

  ‘Mr Big Shot here is basically shooting blanks,’ she boasts with a gleeful laugh, ignoring the way Alistair’s all but starting to foam at the mouth. ‘He knew the child growing in your mother’s belly wasn’t his, but was willing to claim you as his own to save face, because people were already gossiping about how he hadn’t managed to knock up his pretty wife. But your mother wasn’t so keen to stick it out with him. She wanted to run off with the man she loved, and take you with her. So Alistair did what he does best. He threatened and weaseled and played dirty. He told her that if she ran, he wouldn’t hurt her, but would do whatever it took to see you, her baby boy, dead. Even if it meant draining the family coffers.’

  ‘So she stayed,’ I scrape out, feeling like I’m staring at her down a tunnel, my pulse roaring in my ears so loudly it’s like a bloody jet engine. Roaring and roaring and roaring.

  Or maybe that’s me.

  But it must not be, because I can hear Caroline as she laughs again, saying, ‘Of course she stayed. Until Hart came back, and your mother couldn’t stay out of his bed. When she got knocked up a second time, and told Alistair that Hart had the means to protect you and your unborn sister, so she intended to divorce his pathetic arse, he lost it.’ She turns her head towards Alistair again, and there’s a revolting look of excitement on her face as she hammers the final nail in his coffin. ‘I’d been fucking him before she came barging in to their room, and I watched from the balcony windows as he put his hands around her pale throat and squeezed the life right out of her.’

  ‘She helped me!’ Alistair screams, shaking and spluttering as he points an unsteady finger at Caroline. ‘It was her idea to hang Sarah in the playroom. She said it would give the story credibility. That everyone would be so horrified, they wouldn’t question anything that seemed out of place. And then she threatened to tell everyone what I’d done if I didn’t marry her!’

  I hear J.J. make a low, chilling sound of grief beside me, but can’t even turn my head to check on him. No, I’m too locked in on Alistair’s paunchy face and frightened eyes, the rage that’s building inside me unlike anything I’ve ever known.

  Jesus. All these years, I’d thought he was this faithless, pitiful drunk. But he was a fucking killer!

  I’m moving before I even realize it, and I literally pick Alistair up and throw him against the wall. With a bloodthirsty snarl on my lips, I stalk over to where he’s landed and pick him up again, holding him with one hand fisted in the front of his shirt, while I start slamming my fist into his face with the other. There’s a crunch, and I know I’ve broken his nose, but I just keep going, the most angry, godawful sounds spilling past my lips as I think about the lives that were destroyed because of this worthless piece of shit.

  ‘Stay back!’ I hear Harrison shout, and I look up, thinking he’s telling me to stop, only to see Emmy running straight into the room.

  Her worried gaze darts between the players in this sickening family drama, then comes quickly back to me as she says, ‘I heard the crash. Are you okay? What’s happened?’

  This time, I do let out a deafening roar, so fucking furious that she didn’t keep her promise to stay in the car that I’m seeing red. But before I can shout for her to get the hell out of here, Caroline screams, ‘You bitch! This is all your fault!’

  Everything happens in slow motion then. I let Alistair drop to the floor, every hair on my body standing on end as I watch Caroline’s features distort with madness as she lurches for the small table that stands just off to her left, ripping open its top drawer.

  Then she pulls out a gleaming black revolver.

  I’m roaring again, running, but it’s like I’m moving through quicksand, and I’m on the far side of the room from her, knowing damn well I’m not going to reach her in time as she lifts the gun and aims it straight at Emmy’s chest. My muscles scream as I push them for more speed, but she’s going to pull the trigger any second now, so I shout Caroline’s name as I take a flying leap, praying she’ll turn the gun on me. The gun fires just as I slam into her, and I turn my head as we crash on to the floor, terrified I’m about to see Emmy’s chest torn open by the bullet, when my grandfather throws himself in front of her like a bloody action hero in a movie.

  I watch in horror as J.J.’s shoulder jerks back from the bullet, the force of the impact sending him careering into Emmy, who’s trying to hold him as they fall to the floor. My ears are ringing from the shot, but I can hear Caroline’s sobbing, and as I look down, ready to fight her for the gun, I see that she’s already dropped it because the bone in her forearm has nearly been snapped in two. I grab the gun, quickly flicking the safety as I scramble to my feet, and tuck it into the back of my jeans as I hurry over to Harrison and Emmy.

  The sound of the gunshot finally brings the staff running in, and I shout for Angus to watch Caroline while I drop down on my knees beside my grandfather.

  ‘Call 999!’ I growl, tossing Emmy my phone before grabbing the light cardigan that’s lying over the arm of a nearby chair. I quickly wad it up and use it to apply pressure to J.J.’s bleeding shoulder, making him hiss with pain.

  Emmy talks to the emergency services, then helps me get J.J. comfortable, grabbing a pillow off one of the sofas and gently tucking it beneath his head. He’s conscious, but in pain, and I just keep talking to him, telling him he’s going to be just fine, while a shattered-looking Emmy holds his hand and Angus barks orders at the staff, taking charge of the room.

  When the paramedics finally arrive, I move back, giving them room to work, and then take the recording device from my pocket, making sure it didn’t get damaged when I hit the floor. Or rather, Caroline hit the floor, and I landed on top of her. But the device is fine, and I slip it back into my pocket as they wheel the trolley they’ve put Harrison on out the door, Emmy right beside him, still holding his hand.

  ‘I’ve always despised you, because you remind me of your bitch mother,’ Caroline sneers, and I turn my head to look back at her. Spittle falls from the corner of her snarling lips as she struggles to sit upright, cradling her broken arm to her chest, while Angus stands over her, still ensuring she doesn’t try for another weapon. ‘Even when you were a little boy,’ she yells, wanting to be heard over all the commotion as a second medical team hurries into the room to deal with her and Alistair, along with four policemen, ‘you were so like her.’

  ‘I’ll consider that one of the best compliments I’ve ever had,’ I tell her, and I could swear there’s a warm breeze that blows across my forehead at that moment, as if my mother’s spirit has just reached down and placed a kiss there. It’s a fanciful thought, but it still brings a brief smile to my lips.

  Then I turn my back on her, hand the gun over to one of the policemen, and head outside to join Emmy in the back of Harrison’s ambulance.

  As we speed away into the night, I take a final look at Beckett House through the rear window, knowing that I’ll never set foot in it again.

  And neither will the killers who murdered my mother.

  EMMY

  As Harrison is wheeled into the operating theater at the local hospital, Jase turns to look at me, and I realize that despite the harrowing things we’ve been through this week, I’ve never truly seen him angry.

  Until now.

  I have a feeling it’s about more than the horrible confessions he heard tonight and the fact that his grandfather’s been shot. It’s about me, and the fact that I broke my promise to him and nearly got myself killed.

  I want to talk to him and tell him I’m sorry, but before I can even get started, he’s got a doctor and two nurses looking me over and checking my vitals, even though I’m perfectly fine, thanks to his and Harrison’s bravery. But I know he’s also worried about how aggressively he fucked me earlier tonight, and I swear to God that if he says anything to the cute female doctor about what we did, I’m going to punch him right in his beautiful nose.

  I make it through the check-up with flying colors, and head back into the waiting room for family members of those in the surgical theaters. I find Jase sitting in one of the spindly plastic chairs, looking breathtakingly gorgeous, with his tousled ink-black hair and dark scruff on his rugged jaw.

  ‘Are we going to talk about it?’ I ask as I slip into the chair beside him, giving him back the same words that he said to me after we’d learned about the Chloe article.

  Instead of answering, he just tightens his jaw, tilts his back against the wall, and shuts his eyes.

  ‘Fine, sulk,’ I say with a huff. ‘But you’ve got to talk to me sooner or later.’

  His jaw gets so tight that a muscle starts to pulse at the side, but he still doesn’t relent. So I sigh and pull my phone out, using the time to text Tyler and fill him in on what’s happened. Once I’m done relaying a brief version of events, and assuring Tyler that I’m fine, he tells me about this awesome new guy he met out on the waves. They’re having their first date tonight, and I wish him luck, making him promise to text me first thing tomorrow to let me know how it went. I’m hoping this guy knows how lucky he is to be dating my best friend, and that he treats him right. Because if anyone deserves a beautiful happily-ever-after, it’s Ty.

  Intent on getting on with my own, I turn to Jase and say, ‘I’m sorry I scared you. And, yeah, I know I broke my promise by getting out of the car and sneaking up to the house. But I only did it because I was worried about you and wanted to make sure you were okay.’

  His nostrils flare as he sucks in a deep breath, but he still doesn’t open his eyes to look at me. I bite my lip as I settle back in my chair, ready to kick him for being so stubborn, even though I know I really did scare the hell out of him. That he thought he was going to have to watch me die right before his eyes.