by Lexi Blake
“You can’t prove that.” The gun Trevor was holding bit into her side.
“What are you on, Trevor? Coke? Did you take a little to get you ready for this particular job?” Henry asked. “I hope that gun’s not loaded because then maybe the cops will go easy on you. And I’ll be able to prove it the same way I’m going to prove you’ve tried to kill Win several times. You didn’t bother even waiting for the DNA test to come back, did you? That wasn’t smart.”
“DNA test?” She had no idea what Henry was talking about.
“That’s right, bitch,” Trevor said in her ear. “Turns out my mom and your dad didn’t care about marriage vows. I’m not Bellamy Hughes’s son. I’m Matt Hughes’s son. That makes me his heir. Hughes Corp belongs to me, and I’m not sharing it with my sniveling, whiny baby sister.”
Sister? Trevor was her brother?
But that wasn’t the worst. No, all those secrets and lies were rolling through her head now. He’d tried to kill her. He’d been the one to send that man to Sweden, the one who’d looked into her eyes and shown her how cold a person could be.
“You thought you could have the whole company? The company is huge, Trevor. Even half of it would be worth more money than you could ever spend.” Her voice was shaking, her world upending again. She’d known Trevor hated her, but she hadn’t expected this.
“I knew you wouldn’t let me have it. My mother told me you would try to find a way. Brie told me you would never let me have it. She hated you. You wouldn’t believe how she talked about you. Why would she leave everything she had to you?”
Win hadn’t heard anything about Brie’s will. She hadn’t known she was Brie’s emergency contact. “I don’t know. But you can have it. You can have the company. You can have the name. You can have it all. I don’t care anymore. I never wanted any of it in the first place.”
In the distance, she could hear the wail of sirens.
“I’ll tell them that you were all in on it.” Trevor’s voice shook. “You all knew that I was about to take the company and you were ready to kill me. I was just defending myself. I can make that work. Cops hate you, Garrison.”
“Or you could run,” Henry offered. “Just let Win go and get out of here.”
She could feel Trevor shaking his head and heard a choking sob.
“No, it’s over. They won’t believe me. Fucking Win. You fuck up everything,” he said.
“Trevor, that’s the coke talking,” Henry said calmly. “You’re coming down. I’ve seen it happen. There’s a paranoia that sets in and everything seems dark. It’s okay. You need to rest and everything is going to look better in a few hours. Let Win go and we’ll talk. I can defend you. Do you have any idea how good I am? You won’t spend any time in jail.”
“You’re a liar,” Trevor screamed. The gun came away from her waist as he lifted it up toward Henry.
Oh god, he was going to shoot Henry. He was going to kill Henry and she would have nothing at all left. She loved him. In that moment, she realized that she’d been fooling herself. She didn’t want an affair. She didn’t want to pass some time and keep her mind off things with him. She wanted a life with him.
She kicked back, trying to ensure his shot went wide, but the world was suddenly filled with the roar of gunfire. Trevor stiffened behind her, his gun falling away.
When she turned, her cousin—her brother—was standing there, a neat hole in his forehead. He stared at her dumbly for a moment before his knees buckled and he started to fall toward her.
Henry rushed in, sweeping her away from the body. He picked her up and carried her out into the living room. “Are you all right? I’ve got EMTs on the way, too. Did he hurt you? Did the bullet graze you?”
“That was a perfect shot, Garrison,” Wade explained. “It didn’t even come close, but I had to take it because he was too shaky to trust. He had a good line on you. I couldn’t risk losing you or a ricochet hitting Win.”
Henry clutched her in his arms, even tighter than Trevor had. “You could have hit her.”
He was in shock. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m fine, Henry. I’m fine.”
Those sirens were coming closer. Henry just stood there with her in his arms.
“I figured it out,” he said, his voice hollow. “I figured out that he thought he was your brother. I figured out that he’d been the one to try to kill you, but I didn’t think he would come here today. When Bellamy called me—”
“Mr. Garrison, I’m going to need you to put Win down and you’re going to have to show your hands to the officers,” Wade said. “They’re coming into a situation with no knowledge of who’s who. They need to see that you’re not a threat.”
“I don’t want to let you go,” he whispered.
But he had to. She kissed him and pulled away. “It’s going to be okay.”
He let her down and joined Wade, raising his hands as the elevator door opened and the police swarmed in. She tried not to look at the body on the ground. She stayed focused on Henry.
Win saw the lost look in Henry’s eyes and prayed she was right.
* * *
“He’s here, Henry.” Noah opened the conference room door and let Bellamy Hughes in.
Win got up and ran to her uncle, who welcomed her with open arms. Bellamy looked like a man who’d had his whole life turned upside down. Henry had never seen him without a perfectly pressed suit, but this one was wrinkled, and the older man’s eyes were red-rimmed.
Henry paced the floor, knowing this particular interview wasn’t going to be pleasant. Telling someone the truth about a loved one never was, but he had even more to say than anyone else knew. The whole thing turned his stomach because he knew what it meant. It was almost over.
Twenty-four hours had passed in a wave of police interviews and long sessions with the DA. He and Win had mostly been kept apart except for that moment when they’d been allowed to leave the police station and had been inundated with reporters.
They were everywhere. He couldn’t leave his building without someone shoving a camera in his face.
He’d tried to take Win to a hotel because the crime scene unit was still working in his place. They’d been followed by paparazzi.
They’d ended up at Noah’s penthouse, where Win had fallen asleep in her clothes and he’d had to put her in bed.
He’d sat up most of the night wishing he could find the bar. A place as nice as Noah’s would have a bar. A nice one. He wouldn’t have to settle. He’d been absolutely sure Noah would have a middle-aged Scotch sitting there, waiting for him. Not even Win’s sweet presence had calmed him. He’d stayed awake, her head resting against his chest while she slept.
Because he’d almost lost her.
Because he didn’t think he deserved her.
“So I’m not Trevor’s father?” Bellamy Hughes paced the floor of the conference room.
Not a question Henry could answer yet. “I have no idea. I suspect that’s what Trevor believed. Have you been able to talk to his mother?”
Bellamy sank into one of the chairs. “No. She told me to go to hell and hung up on me. Not before she’d explained that I was a bastard and Trevor was dead because of me. He was my son. I raised him.”
Win put a hand on her uncle’s shoulder. “Of course you did. We don’t know anything at all yet.”
“We know that Trevor had some sort of reason to suspect that he was Matt Hughes’s son,” David explained.
The gang was here. Noah and David had joined him every step of the way. Margarita was flying up from Austin, but she’d missed all the good stuff. She would miss the end of the case because that sucker had already been written. He had it all in his hands and he almost wished he didn’t.
He had everything he wanted. The phones were ringing again. He’d brought in a couple of wealthy clients since it had come out that Garr
ison, Cormack, and Lawless was representing Taylor Winston-Hughes. After this evening’s press conference, there would be many, many more. This was why he’d taken on the case to begin with. He would again take his place as the Monster of Manhattan—the go-to lawyer when all looked bleak. But only if you had the cash. Justice was expensive.
Yes, he was getting everything he’d hoped for when he’d started over. So why did he feel so fucking hollow?
“I think Aunt Pamela told Trevor that Uncle Bellamy wasn’t his dad.” Win looked pretty, sitting there in tailored slacks and a silk blouse, her hair and makeup done in a way he’d never seen before. This was the Win the rest of the world saw, the Win she’d been raised to be. Manicured to perfection for the cameras.
It should make her less lovely. He preferred her with no makeup, her skin glowing in the early morning sunlight. But even with the makeup and perfectly done hair, she still had that glow he’d come to realize was simply a part of who she was.
But so were those reporters. She would always be in the public eye.
“Here’s what we know,” Henry began. He’d put a bunch of clues together once he had access to some of Trevor’s information. Once the cops figured out Trevor was the bad guy, they’d been more than happy to hear Henry’s theories and look at the information his investigators had gathered. “Roughly a year ago, Trevor began an affair with Brie Westerhaven. He regularly showed up where she was filming and was a guest at her home on many occasions.”
“So right after I left the show they started sleeping together?” Win asked, her voice tight.
There had been betrayal all around her and it wasn’t over yet. He felt for her. “Yes, I think given Ms. Westerhaven’s personality, we can deduce that getting close to someone who hated you was a form of revenge on you for leaving her behind.”
Noah shook his head. “I don’t understand. Win was sick. She wasn’t trying to hurt Brie. She didn’t leave Brie behind. She went to get help.”
David sighed. “I believe the technical term for what Brie was is ‘narcissist.’ Brie was incapable of understanding or empathizing with anyone but herself. She would view Win’s defection as a shot across her bow, so to speak. It’s also how she could hate and love Win at the same time.”
Noah’s eyes went grim. “All right. I might have known someone like that.”
He might have been raised by someone like that. As far as Henry could tell, Iris Lawless had been a monster who made Brie look happy and shiny. “At some point in time, Trevor got it in his head that Bellamy might not be his father.”
Bellamy ran a weary hand over his forehead. “Win’s right. I’m sure it was Pamela. My ex-wife is always looking for ways to make my life hell. She would use Trevor to do it.”
“Is it possible it could be true?” He had to ask the question.
“I suppose,” Bellamy admitted. “Matt, Pam, and I grew up together. I guess deep down I always knew my brother was the one she wanted and I was the one she settled for. Did Trevor do a DNA test?”
“We think he did several, or rather, he had Brie do them for him,” Henry explained.
“Brie decided she was some kind of expert after filming the episode that looked into her ancestry.” Win sat up, her body stiff in the chair. “They did it for all of us, but they didn’t have time to spend filming the rest of us. Brie and Hoover were the only ones featured.”
Bellamy turned to her. “They did what? They took your DNA?”
Win waved him off. “It was one of those spit-in-a-jar things that tells you what your DNA makeup is. Mine was a whole lot of European. It was deemed boring. Apparently our ancestors didn’t go anywhere or do anyone interesting.”
Bellamy put a hand on hers. “Well, perhaps not. Apparently my ex-wife might have done my brother. Can’t say I’m happy about that. Would that DNA test they did for the show prove something like who’s related to whom?”
If only it were that easy. “No,” Henry said. “We’ll need new tests. The one Win did for the show was very specific and they weren’t comparing her DNA to anyone. Trevor wasn’t on the show, so Brie did the testing herself. From what we can tell, she bought several kits. You can buy them at a drugstore these days. These are tests meant to prove paternity. I’m sure at some point she stole some hair from Win’s brush or something and sent that in alongside some of Trevor’s DNA. That’s how they would be able to tell you weren’t his father, though a familial relationship would still show up in the DNA. I believe they likely did DNA tests on all of you in an attempt to prove Trevor was Matt’s son and Win’s half sibling.”
“My toothbrush went missing several weeks ago,” Bellamy admitted. “I had to go buy a new one. Unbelievable. Brie was trying to prove that Trevor was my brother’s heir and he should have half of Hughes Corp. That would have been a disaster. But why try to kill Win? She’s never done anything to him. Half of Hughes Corp would have been more than enough to keep him in cocaine for the rest of his life. That was all he really cared about.”
“I managed to read some of the text messages from Brie to Trevor.” Once he’d produced the video that absolved Win of the crime, the police were more than eager to take a look at Trevor. “Brie truly poisoned him against her.”
“Not that we were close before.” Win had gone a little pale. “What did she say? Trevor could be easy to manipulate if you knew how to do it. He had thin skin, but anyone who stroked his ego could do no wrong.”
He was never going to let her read those texts. They’d shown a terribly nasty side to the woman Win had called her friend. Still, he could give her some consolation. “She was pushing him to take half the company, not to kill you. From what I can tell, Brie didn’t realize he’d hired people to hurt you. In fact, that was the whole reason Trevor showed up yesterday. You’re Brie Westerhaven’s heir. She had a will, and everything is supposed to go to you. Now, you wouldn’t have been able to remain her heir if you had been convicted, but everything was frozen. Including her mail. That document he got you to sign gave him the right to pick up her mail.”
“He wanted the DNA results,” Noah surmised. “I’ll get right on that, by the way. Unless NYPD wants it.”
This was the rough part. “NYPD has a new theory on Brie’s murder.”
“They believe my son did it,” Bellamy said, his tone grave. “I rather worried about that myself.”
“Apparently DNA was found under Brie’s nails and she’d had intercourse earlier that evening.” Henry didn’t want to go over all the nasty details, but he needed Win to understand that her part of this case was over. She was safe and she could move on with her life. “They believe it’s likely Trevor’s, and that Brie pushed him too far. Trevor apparently had quite a cocaine habit, and he could be violent when he was using. The police are theorizing that he got angry with her and stabbed her with the letter opener. They believe he was still in the room when Win walked in and he knocked her out using the fireplace tool. They’re going to search his property for it, but even if they don’t find it, they likely have enough to close the case.”
Bellamy’s eyes shut, but he held on to Win’s hand. “So this new tape you found exonerates my niece completely? They can’t keep her any longer?”
“The DA and I are holding a press conference in a couple of hours to explain that given the new evidence, Taylor Winston-Hughes has been exonerated and is free to go on with her life as she sees fit. All charges have been dropped.”
Bellamy stood up, his face still grim but his hand out. “Garrison, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the work. I only wish someone had been able to save my son from himself. Nephew. I don’t know what to call him now.”
Win stood beside her uncle. “We don’t know anything yet. And it doesn’t really matter, does it? You raised him, Uncle Bellamy. That’s all that matters. You raised him and you loved him.”
“I think some people would say I did a poor job o
f it,” he said sadly. “I think I’ll skip the press conference. I want to go out to the island for a few weeks. Mary’s coming home. I’ll keep her company for a while. Winnie, I’d love for you to come home while we make arrangements.”
David held up a hand. “I still have some questions. I know the police think they’ve got this wrapped up, but I’m not so sure.”
“I agree.” Noah leaned in. “Why did Mary give Brie five grand?”
Bellamy frowned. “She did it to try to spare me. I didn’t know about this until I spoke with her this morning. Brie intended to blackmail me. She was going to use me against my son to see how much money she could get out of me before turning the evidence over to Trevor. She promised Mary if the money kept coming, maybe that DNA test never managed to make it back from the lab.”
He wasn’t sure how Brie had thought she could keep that up for long, but it likely didn’t matter. It was obvious Brie had been desperate for money and had tried to get it any way she could. Now she was gone and the police would pin the murder on Trevor. He wasn’t sure Trevor had been the one to kill Brie, but Trevor was convenient and he checked off all the boxes.
Trevor had been the one who tried to kill Win. Of that he was certain. Win was safe. That was what mattered. Everything else was noise.
“And would you like to tell me why you’ve kept Mary hidden from me?” That was another question he wanted cleared up.
Bellamy’s eyes met his. “I certainly did not hide her. There was a storm and the facility she was in flooded. You know how the storms can get this time of year. She had to be moved and it was chaotic for a while. She’s home now and it’s time to take care of her. If you would like to speak with her, you’re certainly welcome. You have our address out on the island. Feel free to stop by. I’m sure my niece would love to see you.”
“Oh, Uncle Bell, I was planning on staying here for a few days,” Win said, looking to Henry.
Yes, here was the bad part. “I think you should go with your uncle.”