When we climb out of the SUV, Lincoln waits for his grandfather to be assisted into his power chair before he speaks.

“We need to exhume my father’s body and perform the DNA test. I don’t trust Renee Rango, and if there’s a shred of a chance that she might be lying about all of this, we need to know now so we can shut her down.”

Commodore settles into his chair and maneuvers it to face us. “I agree. We’ll do it tomorrow morning. It’s time to lay this to rest, once and for all.”

Nine

Lincoln

Renee Rango has shot straight to the top of my list of people I despise. I will never forget that she took ten years from Whitney and me, and I wasn’t even aware she did it. To me, that makes her a very real and dangerous adversary.

Ricky Rango’s mother is about to become well acquainted with an indisputable fact of my life—no one fucks with what matters to me and gets away with it, and Whitney matters more than anything.

Commodore withdraws to his old office when we enter the house, and Whitney and I follow my sister into the drawing room where she powers on her laptop. I don’t know where the hell my brother is, and right now, I don’t care.

“Find out if they’re filming Renee Rango out front,” I say to McKinley. “Check the gossip sites. Someone has to be live streaming.”

My sister glances back at me. “I was planning on working. Why don’t you use that fancy little box in your hand to do it.”

“You’re faster on a computer. Besides, damage control comes first. Work can wait.”

With a huff, she lets her fingers fly across the keyboard and pulls up three different gossip sites within seconds. Headlines about Ricky Rango are on the front page of all of them, but only one has a live stream.

I point at the rectangle on the screen. “Click there. I want to know what this woman is saying.”

McKinley moves the cursor with her finger and clicks. The window fills the screen, and Renee Rango’s voice comes from the speakers as she holds her informal press conference outside the gates of our goddamned house.

“Why did I keep silent for so long? I was afraid for my life and for my son’s life. There’s nothing a mother wouldn’t do to protect her child, and you have to take precautions when you’re dealing with a family like the Riscoffs who don’t think the rules apply to them.”

The reporters lap up her bullshit. At least, all but one of them.

“Did the Riscoffs give you money in exchange for your silence? Is that why you really stayed quiet? Because I find it hard to believe you were still afraid for your life and Ricky’s after he became a superstar,” one man asks pointedly.

The cameras trained on Renee’s face show her lips pinching and jaw flexing as he makes his statement.