Ball & Chain(112)

“Anyone have any rope?” English called out.

Kelly pulled out a pair of handcuffs and thrust them at Park.

“Why the hell do you have those?” Ty asked.

Kelly shrugged and grinned. “They’re Nick’s.”

“Oh God, no,” Ty blurted, covering his eyes.

Nick laughed. He rolled over and pushed himself to his hands and knees, but he remained there, either unable or unwilling to stand. He glanced up at Ty and Zane. “He likes the uniform, too.”

“No no no!” Ty cried.

“Well, that’s just unnecessary,” Earl said from the doorway. He had grabbed Mara and the two uninjured bridesmaids when the shooting had started and shoved them out of the room to safety. He also had the antique rifle from the dining room in his hands.

Hamish moaned and began to move. Zane shoved him to his back with the toe of his boot and pointed his gun in the old man’s face. “Start from the beginning.”

“I don’t know who paid us,” Hamish said groggily. His head was bleeding freely, but no one cared. “And you know the rest.”

“Humor me.”

“Jockie came to me with this plan. He said a man in a tavern had approached him. This island belonged to our families for centuries, and look at us! We’re servants on our own home!”

“Who else was involved?”

“No one! My wife had second thoughts and said she was going to tell Stanton, so we voted to get rid of her. That woman Nikki killed Aileen, then she and Maisie cut open Milton’s body to make you think Aileen was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Gross,” Ty grunted.

“It worked,” Kelly added.

“Who killed Milton and why?” Zane demanded.

“I think we have that answer over here,” English called. He had his gun in Frost’s mouth, and he took it out and pressed it to Frost’s cheek. “Talk.”

“Nikki figured out Milton was working for the government. She told me she needed backup for their meet,” Frost told them. He sounded both ashamed and sorrowful, like the entire thing had been something he’d been convinced to do rather than wanted to do. “I’m sorry, boss.”

“Shut up,” English snarled. “Lenny’s dead because of you. You’re dead to me too, for all you’re worth.”

Frost blinked up at him, his jaw tightening.

“Keep going,” Park ordered. They were the first words Zane had heard the man speak.

“Milton gave Nikki a flash drive. She gave him a suitcase of money. Then I hit him in the head and we left him there. We didn’t realize until later that the flash drive was corrupted. It put a virus on the computer we uploaded it to and erased everything.”

“Did you put that flash drive on my laptop?” Zane asked, remembering the inexplicable failure of his brand-new laptop.

Frost nodded.

“Did you kill Nikki?” Zane asked him.

“Yes. That was my job, to clear her after she’d done hers. I thought I was the last man standing, so when people kept dying I started freaking out too. And I didn’t even fucking know Kline was with us until she went crazy and put a gun to Stanton’s head. I swear to God I didn’t kill the guy upstairs!”

Park stood and walked away from him. He took his sunglasses off and rubbed his hand over his eyes, revealing one that was milky white and another that was dark as obsidian. Then he put the glasses back on.

English shoved the gun harder into Frost’s face. “What else?”

“That’s all I know!”

“Who hired you?” Zane shouted at him. “Was it Richard Burns?”

“No! That was the name we were instructed to give, to cause chaos because he was on the island. The locals all thought he was the guy, okay? He was being set up. We were supposed to take him out at the end, but I swear I didn’t do it! It had to have been Kline or that fucking gardener!”

“Give us a name!” English demanded, digging the gun under Frost’s cheekbone.

“He was South American! The guy who hired me. De la Vega, okay? I never saw his face!”

Zane’s entire body flooded with ice. He lowered his weapon, blinking as the edges of his vision began to darken. De la Vega. The head of the Vega cartel, the man who’d tried to kill them in New Orleans. He’d come after Zane through Ty, and when that hadn’t worked, he’d come through Deuce’s in-laws.

Zane turned to meet Ty’s eyes. Ty shook his head.

“Is that the guy from NOLA?” Kelly asked.

“Yes,” Ty whispered.

“The guy who got Kelly shot?” Nick asked through gritted teeth. He had finally climbed to his feet.