Chapter Three

“Sure is.” Briley glanced over at Dux and Drake; they were looking over at her, watching her to see if everything was OK, so she gave them a thumbs up. “They say hi.”

“And I sure as hell say ‘hi’ back,” Cheryl said. “So where are you guys now?”

“Pennsylvania.”

“You left New York two days ago – that seems slow. I mean, you got yourselves from Utah to me in less than three days, and that was with a man nursing a gunshot wound in the back seat. You taking your time?”

“Yeah, well, on that trip we pretty much drove from Utah flat-out for eighteen hours a day, with just a quick stop in Denver to drop off Ice, Viking, Elle and Violet. We had to get to you and help you get all set up, and we had to do it pronto. The thing is that I want to find a place to live as many states away from Utah as possible, and I’m really liking Pennsylvania, so we’re taking the scenic route westward bound. Kind of lazy meandering instead of break-neck sprinting.”

“Hey, if you decide to settle there, we’ll be neighbors. Don’t forget it’s only an hour by train from New York City to Philadelphia.”

Briley laughed. “Right? Though I have no plans to settle in a city… I’m thinking more a small town with a view of the mountains.”

“I guess your money would go farther in that kind of place, too.”

“For sure.” Briley stretched a bit, felt the blood flow fully return to her feet. “I heard from my property agent back in Utah this morning. After deducting all fees and taxes, she figures I’ll have about three-hundred-fifteen-thousand dollars hit my bank account in the next five to seven days to go house-hunting.”

Cheryl whistled. “Thank God you paid off the place five years ago, huh? Nothing to hand back to the bank at all.”

“Yeah. And also thank God I bought it in the middle of that massive housing crisis, back when people were underwater on those sub-prime mortgages and dumping properties as part of bankruptcy proceedings. It was a clusterfuck for so many people, but I got that place for just under ninety thousand and even back then, it was worth three times that. ”

“So that’s not a bad little nest egg, Bee.”

“I know, but like you say, that won’t buy too much in a big city.”

“It sure won’t get much in New York,” Cheryl said. “But I’m an eternal renter, so I’m doing pretty damn OK. Thanks to Wolf Connor, of course.”

Briley nodded, still utterly amazed that Wolf – a man who Cheryl had never laid eyes on – had deposited fifty-thousand dollars in Cheryl’s bank account after she’d run from her life back in Miami on short notice after Briley had called her to hide. Wolf had done so without being asked, and had been full-on offended when Cheryl had offered to set up a repayment plan.

“So – how are you really feeling?” Cheryl said. “I mean – after everything that went down at that nightmare compound?”

Briley sighed. “I really hoped to talk about you, Cee.”

“What’s to say? I love the apartment that you guys moved me into, I have a job interview on Monday, and thanks to a mystery man with the sexiest telephone voice ever named Wolf, I have a financial cushion until I get a steady paycheck.” She hesitated, then carried on. “So I’m good, but then again, I’m not the one who’s been through absolute hell for the past two years at the hands of a megalomaniac cult leader. I wasn’t forced to – to keep him happy in any and every way that he demanded so that my best friend was safe. I didn’t kill him ten days ago, even if he deserved that and much worse, the sick asshole. None of that was me… that was all you, Bee.”

“Listen, Cheryl –”

“Please, Briley. Please let me say this to you now, ‘cause God knows you didn’t give me the chance when you and Dux and Drake were here and helping me.”

Briley was silent for a few seconds, hearing the need in her dearest and oldest friend’s voice. “OK. I’m listening.”

“I love you, you know that, and I know that you promised to never tell anyone what happened with Trevor… I know that Gideon found out about me when he did all that digging into you, looking for something to blackmail you with.”

“He needed a local cop in Walton, near the compound,” Briley said quietly. “He was looking into everyone at the precinct, trying to find something on someone. He had to have one of us in his pocket to stay ahead of any trouble that might come the cult’s way. It just happened to be me that he leveraged in the end.”

“Because of me!” Cheryl exclaimed. “That sick fuck only had something on you because of what I did! And then what he did to you – the things he did to you – and I know that you haven’t told me even one percent of what happened. You’ve just talked in generalities and stayed all vague, but I know that he – he attacked you. He forced you to –”

“He’ll never touch me again.” Briley’s voice was steel. “Not me or anyone else. I saw to that.”

“But it’s all my fault! Every single thing that that monster did to you… it’s because of me. If I hadn’t covered up Trevor’s death, if I’d gone to the cops on my own after you refused to arrest me, if I’d just pleaded self-defence and taken my chances in court, then Gideon would have had nothing to hold over your head.” A sob broke from her throat now. “God, Bee… you have to blame me and hate me on some level. You just have to.”

“No,” Briley cut her off. “Cheryl, no. I don’t. I never could.”

“How can you not?”