2025-12-03 23:04:17
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Chapter 822
Alex did not move.He sat slumped in the corner of the cellar with his head against the stones, and in the light from the doorway his face was perfectly white."No," Serena said. "No, no, no."She was on her knees beside him before she knew she had crossed the floor. Along the walls the family pressed back and screamed, sure the Brotherhood had come for them at last: the Baroness, Gideon, Marissa, the aunts."It's me," Serena said, without turning round. "It's only me."She put her hand on Alex's cheek. It was warm.Then, from somewhere deep in his chest, came a long, slow, perfectly peaceful snore."He's asleep," Serena whispered. "He's only asleep.""He's what?" said the Baroness.Nobody could believe it."We sat in the dark all night," the Baroness said slowly, "arguing over which of us they would kill first, and whose fault it was. And he slept. Like a baby.""He sleeps out in the dog kennels," an aunt said faintly. "Of course he can sleep in a cellar."Somebody laughed. Then they
Chapter 821
In Victor Russell's hall, it was so dark that nobody could see his own hand."Lights!" Curtis Bennett's voice cut across the black. "Somebody get the lights!""The switch is dead, boss!" his right-hand man shouted from the stairs."Then use your phones!"A screen woke by the far wall. Its torch came on, bright and white, and the beam swung across the stone floor, across a boot, across the hem of a long coat."I've got light! Over here, I've got—"The man was gone from behind it. The light leapt out of his hand, as if something had struck him and the phone in the same blow, and it went spinning end over end across the hall and burst against the wall.Black again.A second screen lit up by the door. It lasted less time than the first.After that, nobody tried.Then, from the far wall, a thud. A gun hit the floor and slid away across the stone, and nobody had fired it."Who's that?" a man yelled. "Who's moving?""Answer me! Somebody answer me!"The thuds came along the wall, one after an
Chapter 820
"It was the idiot!"Preston flung out his arm. His shaking finger pointed down the line, past Serena's shoulder, at the man behind her."Him! It was him!"Alex looked over his own shoulder to see who Preston meant. There was only the wall. He turned back and gave Curtis a small, friendly wave."Listen to me!" Preston shuffled forward on his knees. "He was at the Grand! He was standing right there when your nephew's arm broke! And the night the harbour died, he went out and walked all night. All night! He came home at dawn soaked to the skin. Ask anyone in the house!"For a heartbeat nobody in the hall made a sound.Then a man by the stairs snorted. Another laughed out loud. The laugh went round the walls like a cold wind, and because they were frightened and it was safer to laugh, the Tiffanys laughed too."The idiot?" an aunt gasped. "He can't find his own shoes!"Connor did not laugh. He looked at Alex for a long moment, and then his mouth twisted."Wait, him?" Connor squinted, real
Chapter 819
The aunt held her wrist against her chest and stared at Preston as if she had never seen him before."Preston, why did you hit me?" Her voice shook. "You told us yourself, at breakfast. You picked up the phone, and by morning the harbour was clean. Did I say something wrong?""Shut up!" Preston's voice cracked down the middle. "Will you just shut up!""A witness," said Curtis Bennett.He took his hand off the coffin for the first time since they had come in. He walked down the line slowly, and stopped so close to Preston that Preston had nowhere to look but at him."Your own family," Curtis said gently. "Under my brother's roof. I'd call that a witness. Wouldn't you?"Preston's knees went. He grabbed at the arm of the man beside him, and the man shook him off."No! Listen to me! Please, listen!" It all came out of him at once. "I never called anyone! I don't have friends in the capital! I don't have friends anywhere! I was at home that night, drunk in my own bed! I woke up and the har
Chapter 818
For one heartbeat nobody in the great hall moved.Then the doorway kept filling. Ten men. Twenty. Forty. Fifty of them in long dark coats, pouring in from the front doors and the kitchen passage and the terrace, until every wall of the hall was lined with them and there was no way out that did not have a man standing in it.Every one of them had a gun in his hand."Down! Everybody down!""Hands on the table! Where I can see them!""Phones! On the floor! Now!"A gun barrel cracked against a crystal glass and it burst across the cloth. A guest who reached for his pocket was slammed face first onto the table with a muzzle pressed into the back of his neck. The mayor had almost reached the side door. A man stepped out in front of him, put a pistol under his chin, and walked him backwards, step by step, to his chair."Sit, Mr. Mayor."The mayor sat. His wife was crying without a sound.A waiter dropped his tray. Two guns swung on him at once. "Down!" He knelt in the broken glass with his h
Chapter 817
The garage wing smelled of oil, wet dog and fresh bread.Felicia came in with the morning paper under her arm and her face pink from running. The dog lifted its head from Alex's slipper and thumped its tail once."Prince. Look."She spread the Coast Gazette across the workbench. Preston filled the whole front page, standing on the steps in his dark suit, his chin up. Above him, in letters as tall as a thumb: HARBOUR HERO."It's a very good picture," Alex said."That's not all." Felicia lowered her voice. "The Baroness is giving a dinner for him. Tonight, in the great hall. The mayor's coming. Half the coast. And you're to carry the trays.""Will there be bread?""Prince." She looked at him, and her eyes were wet. "Somebody killed every man on the docks the night you went walking. And this morning you're asking about bread."Alex broke a roll in half and gave the bigger piece to the dog."I walked a long way," he said. "I'm very hungry."Felicia opened her mouth. Then she folded the pa
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