Sharks, Matt Rogers [shoe dog free ebook TXT] 📗

snatched one up. Probably to use on us. She never would have guessed what it picked up.’

‘How didn’t you spot it?’

‘I was in the lead,’ Slater said. ‘You were following.’

‘Can we be sure it was her?’ King said. ‘As in, one hundred percent absolutely certain?’

Slater shrugged. ‘That’s for you to decide. Anyone else touch you in the last twenty-four hours?’

King shook his head.

Slater looked around. ‘If it wasn’t her, then this is even worse. She might not have left of her own free will.’

King reflexively went to kick the wall, then held back. Reined his anger in.

He said, ‘You honestly think she went to Walcott?’

‘There’s two Walcotts now,’ Slater reminded him.

‘Dylan, then.’

‘How would you feel if you found out the person you loved the most hid an entire life from you? What would your first instinct be?’

‘Revenge. But that’s you. That’s me. That’s not a civilian. That’s not Lyla.’

Slater thought about it, and said, ‘Fear.’

‘She doesn’t know her own husband anymore,’ King said, nodding in agreement. ‘I think she’s terrified for Caleb. I don’t think she knows what would happen if Teddy came back here. She knows one person who can protect her from her husband. She’s met him before.’

‘Shit.’

‘All she knows for a fact is that Dylan despises his brother and has the resources to defend himself.’

‘That’s not who Teddy is,’ Slater said. ‘He’s weak and confused and timid.’

‘She doesn’t know that. She doesn’t know him now. And she has a grandson to protect. What were her words?’

‘That she’d do anything to make sure that boy had a stable childhood.’

King said, ‘Anything.’

‘It’s not about her,’ Slater said. ‘It’s about Caleb.’

‘If you were her, would you go to Teddy’s brother if he was the only lifeline on the island? And perhaps the most powerful man on the island.’

Slater didn’t have to respond.

It was a rhetorical question.

He said, ‘What’s he going to do to her?’

‘We’re about to find out.’

‘If he doesn’t hurt her…’

King knew where Slater was going. ‘I don’t have an answer.’

‘Neither do I.’

If he leaves Lyla and Caleb unharmed and goes after Teddy when he realises the extent of his brother’s deception…

...then whose side are we on?

They didn’t have any time to think.

They heard footsteps.

In the hallway.

Quiet.

Those of trained men.

70

Dylan Walcott’s waterfront villa was jaw-dropping.

Well, one of Walcott’s villas.

He’d brought Lyla and Caleb here when they’d showed up on the doorstep of his offices in the city centre. He’d known exactly who she was, and relayed the message to his entire security team to bring them up to his quarters without questioning. The old woman started unloading a treasure trove of information the moment she saw him, but he’d only needed a whiff of the topic to understand it wasn’t a conversation to have at work. He’d loaded the woman and the boy into one of his private cars, whisked them off to one of his resorts, and spent a deeply focused hour delegating tasks to his underlings so he could have an afternoon to himself without interruption.

Then he’d met them at the house.

They couldn’t leave if they wanted to. He’d established an airtight security cordon around the villa and the surrounding resort it resided in. Trained killers he used for his dirty work, posing as unassuming tourists, but armed to the teeth.

Now he stepped out to a patio overlooking the Bell Channel Bay. Lyla was alone. She’d put Caleb to bed in one of the spare rooms with whispered reassurances, and now she sat at the outdoor table with her head in her hands.

Dylan didn’t think it was possible for someone to be so frail.

He sat down across from her. She looked up and then around. ‘Where are your men?’

‘Outside,’ he said. ‘And they’ll stay there until we get to the bottom of this.’

‘Are you going to hurt me?’

‘Of course not.’

‘You should,’ she said. ‘If you think I was in cahoots with my husband to ruin you.’

‘I don’t think that,’ Dylan said. ‘If you’re faking being blindsided by the news then you deserve an Oscar.’

‘Please believe me,’ Lyla sobbed. ‘I didn’t know…’

‘Of course you didn’t.’

‘But you knew.’

‘Yes.’

‘When I came to see you about the loans all those months ago…’

‘Theodore’s a complicated man,’ Dylan said. ‘I didn’t know what the dynamic was between the two of you. You certainly seemed unaware. I figured it was best to keep you believing whatever he’d made you believe. Temporarily, at least.’

Lyla put her head in her hands again.

Dylan said, ‘Besides, I felt sorry for my brother, if you can believe it.’

She looked up. ‘Why?’

‘He was stupid enough to keep borrowing from me. I saw the hole he was digging for himself. That’s why I cut him off after four loans.’

Her jaw slackened.

His eyes went dark. ‘What?’

‘You really don’t know?’

‘Know what?’

She visibly shuddered. ‘I don’t know. I shouldn’t say. I want out of this nightmare. I’ll do anything to make it stop. I don’t know why I came to you. I’m sorry—’

She pushed the chair back, getting to her feet.

He said, ‘Sit down.’

His tone had changed.

It was subtle, but Lyla was in a heightened emotional state, and she picked up on it like it had smacked her in the face. Under the surface Dylan’s tenderness was gone, replaced by a ravenous need for information.

He could see a thousand regrets flooding through her.

I shouldn’t have come here, I shouldn’t have done this, oh God, what have I done?

He said, ‘Lyla. Sit.’

She had no choice.

She sat.

Revelations were striking him, suspicions harbouring in the deepest recesses of his mind.

He said, ‘What has my brother been doing? What don’t I know?’

Lyla said, ‘You’ll kill him.’

‘I was already going to kill him. He sided with those two scumbags who’ve been running around sticking their noses everywhere it doesn’t belong. You don’t want to know the half of what they’ve done to me. How many of my men they’ve hurt. How psychotic they truly are. Look at me and ask yourself what I’m supposed to do when all I want to do is take care of my business,