“Sort of hard for me to do that when I was hired to kill a guy I’m now falling for and might have lied that the job was done when it wasn’t done, and so now I’m on the chopping block too.”

“Sounds like your own mess.”

“Little bit.”

“My advice? Run. Carson’s got a whole legion at his disposal. They do what he wants, when he wants it, no questions asked. You get messed up in this and you won’t see next week.”

“You’re overestimating my self-preservation skills.”

Yanni sighs. “Well, best of luck to you. Don’t come round here again. The more we meet, the nastier I become.”

“Noted.”

He’s about to step back inside when another question for him slips out.

“Before I got here … did Lars or St. Clare call you? And say … anything?”

“No.”

“Not even⁠—”

“Nothing. Even if they called me, I wouldn’t answer.”

This time when he heads inside, I let him go. So they didn’t try to trade me. That should make me feel better, shouldn’t it? The sense of betrayal should be leaving me. Any minute. At any point.

I scuff my sneakers against the dirty ground and lean back against the brick building.

I’ve finally gotten a lead.

Not a great lead, but it’s something.

If this guy is as bad as Yanni says he is, I need to get to St. Clare ASAP. We need to find Colin and take out the murder man and get everything back to normal.

Which would be a whole lot easier if I could trust St. Clare. What if he knows more than he’s told me? What if he knew exactly what his brother was up to the whole time? He was adamant that Colin didn’t do anything wrong, and I get wanting to protect your sibling, but … what am I talking about? I know St. Clare. Sort of. I know that he’s sweet and kind and loves his club and Lars and is lost without his brother. I know he has a big heart and is scared, and those aren’t easy things to fake.

But I don’t know a thing about Colin.

If I was able to learn so much about St. Clare in so short of a time, Colin would have known it too. He’d know his brother is a good guy who trusts him. Why would he have disappeared willingly if he knew someone as dangerous as Carson was after him? If I were in Colin’s position, I would have grabbed Margot and gotten as far from town as it’s possible to get. Disappearing and leaving her to it … never.

So what it comes down to is that either St. Clare is a liar and knows exactly what Colin is up to.

Or Colin made all these plans and ditched, leaving St. Clare to take the heat.