Chapter 69 - The Husband I Buried

Six months later

The plaque outside my old firm had come down. The brass letters had left pale shadows on the stone, like something once carved there had been erased too quickly. Elizabeth’s name disappeared. No announcement. No explanation. She was just gone.

Like the rest of the Institute.

By the time reporters started asking questions, it had already emptied itself out. Websites offline. Phones disconnected. No leadership left to answer for it.

The police were looking for Elizabeth, to ask about some transactions she’d approved, but I had a feeling they wouldn’t find her.

*

Jess found me outside the courthouse.

Of course she did. She always knew where to find me when things were falling apart.

She stood there for a moment, watching me gather my files into my bag, like she was waiting for permission to exist in my space again.

‘Mackenzie,’ she said softly. ‘Can we talk?’

I didn’t look up. ‘I’m late,’ I said, even though I wasn’t.

She stepped closer anyway. ‘I didn’t want to hurt you.’

I closed the bag and turned to face her. Really face her. My best friend. The woman who’d known me better than anyone else.

‘You didn’t want to hurt me,’ I said. ‘You just decided I didn’t deserve the truth.’

Her mouth opened. Closed. Her eyes filled. ‘I was trying to protect you. I didn’t think you’d survive knowing,’ she whispered. The irony almost made me laugh.

‘I survived thinking the man I loved was dead,’ I said. ‘I survived realizing I almost killed him. I survived finding out my law firm was protecting people I never would have knowingly defended. What I can’t survive is knowing my best friend sold me out.’ I stepped past her. ‘Goodbye, Jessica.’

She didn’t follow me.

It was the kindest thing she could’ve done.

*

Thomas was waiting in my office when I got back.

He leaned against the window, coffee in hand, city humming below. No suit. No badge. Just quiet competence and eyes that actually looked at the world instead of through it.

‘Another article,’ he said, turning his phone around so I could see.

I’d been busy making sure the Coterie Institute, and every member I’d managed to find dirt on, got as much publicity as they could handle. A kind of safety measure.

If anything happened to me, that would be the first place the police would look.

‘Yup, now, we have things to do,’ I said with a grin.

‘You sure you want to do this?’ he asked. ‘Once you switch sides, there’s no going back.’

‘I’m not switching sides,’ I said, setting my files on the desk. ‘I’m changing the rules.’

He smiled faintly. ‘Well, I’m happy to help you celebrate.’

‘I know,’ I said. ‘That’s why I called you.’

Tess sat at his feet, waiting for him to lean in and pet her.

Carl gestured for me to go over, so I left Thomas with Tess and met Carl at his new desk.

‘He’s cute,’ Carl said in a whisper. ‘In that rugged, survivalist kind of way.’

I laughed. ‘Is he? I hadn’t noticed.’

‘Very.’

‘Well, you might see him around a little more,’ I said.

Carl held a hand over his mouth. ‘Are you two—’

I stopped him before he could finish that sentence. ‘God no.’

‘What?’ said Carl, too loudly. ‘You could do worse. A lot worse.’

My cheeks burned as Thomas walked over. ‘That’s what I told her,’ he said with a grin.

‘You know,’ I said, steering the conversation, ‘prosecutors use investigators, and I need a good one. You know any?’

Thomas raised an eyebrow. ‘You trust me?’

I thought about the Institute; Thomas’s instincts. The way he had been willing to hear me out before he really knew me.

‘I do. I’ve seen your skill with Ground-Penetrating Radar too. I think I’d like to see what else you can do.’

‘I’m licensed,’ he said, as if this were an interview. I let him speak, not telling him he already had the job. ‘Been working civil and criminal consults for a while . . .’

He gave me a rundown of his experience before I stopped him, a smile playing at the corners of my mouth. ‘The job’s yours if you want it.’

He considered that, then said, ‘How long were you gonna let me keep talking?’

I scrunched my nose, thinking.

Thomas nodded. ‘That’s what I thought.’ He extended his hand.

There was no drama to it. It was a business deal.

‘Well, now it’s official,’ I said with a grin.