Mr. Mysterious: A Mister Standalone (The Mister Series Book 4) (24 page)

“Of course not,” I say, backing down. “No. I didn’t mean…” Shit. “I didn’t know that part.”

Tori remains silent for a second.

“But you,” I say. “You don’t know the whole story either.”

“So tell me,” she says, gritting her teeth. “If you know what’s happening, then tell me.
Please
. Because West refuses to talk about it anymore. He says it’s behind us.”

“Clearly it’s not behind us,” I say.

“Clearly.”

And this is why I’m here. To fill her in. I’m the only one, aside from Mariel, who knows what’s really going on here. I’ve been mulling everything over all day. Willing it not to be true. Wishing I could just write off Mariel Hawthorne as some delusional rich snob who’s seen too many detective movies or read too many crazy books.

But everything she told me makes sense. Everything makes so much sense right down to the part that involves my family.

“And if you’d like a more accurate rundown on what happened,” Victoria snaps, “I’ll say this. I was running for my life. I thought West was dead at one point. I thought Paxton Vance was going to kill me. And that’s
before
all the shit went down. Imagine people you love being tortured in front of you. Imagine the one person you fear most being responsible for it. Imagine,” Tori says, the anger practically pouring out of her, “the worst possible outcome after all that happened.”

I swallow hard and take a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t care about apologies, Cindy. I have a plan.” She looks me dead on. “And West won’t even listen to me because he wants to think this is behind us. Well, I’ve got a child to think about. My son isn’t going to grow up with this shit hanging over his head. And so the reason we’re all here together right now had better include the words
end
and
game
. Because that’s where I’m at right now, Cinderella Shrike. End. Game.”

It takes me a few seconds to let all that sink in. Why
are
we here? Mariel gave me strict orders not to open my mouth to any of the Misters until she has a chance to talk to Pax about it, but she did want me to discuss it with Tori, since she is the only one of us girls who was there when that whole rape charge actually went down.

Plus, after hearing everything Mariel had to say about Tori, I’ve come to the conclusion that she’s badass. Victoria Arias is a
Nikita. She reminds me of Five’s oldest sister, Sasha, for some reason. Capable, smart, and… dangerous.

“What kind of plan?” I ask.

Tori looks away. Stares out the window like she’s trying to figure out if she can trust me. But I’m Cindy Shrike. I’m in this group whether she likes it or not, whether Paxton and I are a thing or not. My brother is involved, and by extension, my sister Ariel. Because they are in business—have been in business—since this whole thing started. And even though no one ever told me, no one needed to tell me. I know it’s the business that got Oliver involved in all this. Whatever happened to him at Brown is the reason he is the way he is today. He was never so standoffish before that rape charge. He was sweet, and funny, and charming just like my dad. And now Oliver is dark, withdrawn, and secretive.

I need to fix that. And I
can
fix that. I know enough now, thanks to Mariel, to get to the bottom of this and set things right.

Tori looks back at me. “I know how to kill them both.”

My gut clenches. I don’t want to hear this. I really don’t want to hear any of this. But I have to. Running away won’t fix this problem. I can’t fall back on my old habits. Sure, it’s great to walk out when things start to feel overwhelming. Sell your car, donate your clothes to a thrift store, and hit the road with a backpack and a bank account knowing you can replace everything you just walked away from with very little effort.

But if I want to fix Oliver I need to stay here and participate in the solution. And I can’t replace Paxton Vance. No matter how hard I try to talk myself into that plan, it’s not happening. Somewhere along the way these past two months, things changed. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment. It might’ve been that night we were jumping rooftops in Malibu. It might’ve been the first legit case we solved together. It might’ve been the day at the races. I’m not sure, but it doesn’t matter when. The only thing that matters is that it did.

So I suck it up and ask, “Both who?”

“Liam, the guy bothering you and Pax. And Lucio Gori Senior. The guy after me.”

“That’s who’s responsible for all this bullshit?” I make a face. That’s not what Mariel told me.

Tori nods. “They need to be taken out.”

“You’re going to… have them
killed
?”

She smiles. “That’s the best part, Cindy. I won’t have to do anything illegal myself. None of us will need to do anything illegal. Don’t you see? We can fix it. All of it. But I need help to pull this off.”

“Whose help? The Misters? I don’t want Pax doing this kind of thing anymore. I want him out of this crazy fixer business. I’ve got big plans for us and none of it includes putting his life on the line just to wipe away other people’s mistakes.”

“Oh, Paxton Vance has no role in this job,”

“Then who?” I’m getting frustrated now. I need answers and she’s being cryptic.

Victoria Arias smiles and wow, she really is the most striking woman I’ve ever seen. I’m no wallflower. I was born to a mother who puts the bomb in bombshell and I look just like her when she was my age. But Tori has another kind of beauty. Something timeless and elegant. She is Grace Kelly to my Brigitte Bardot. “Us.”

“Us? I’m not sure I like where this is going. You need to know more. I don’t—”

“Look,” Tori says, cutting me off. “I know how to fix this but I’m the only one who can do it. Trust me on that.”

“But you just said us. As in
me
—”

“Listen, Cindy.” But there are voices downstairs and she stops talking to look warily at the door for a second before turning her attention back to me. “Whatever is going on with you and Mariel, that needs to wait. This is an immediate threat and I’m just lucky that Liam Henry and Lucio Gori haven’t struck yet. They will kill me. Do you understand? They will kill West and my newly adopted son Ethan and then they will come looking for all the loose ends like you, and Pax, and Ivy, for fuck’s sake. Do you want that sweet girl to be collateral damage? These people are dangerous. They do not give one shit about who they hurt as long as they get what they want.”

“Well, what the fuck
do
they want?”

“Something we can’t give them, Cindy. That’s the only thing that matters. What they want, they can’t have. And it’s not because we’re partial to it and won’t give it up. We don’t have it and we can’t get it. But people like this don’t care, do you understand?” She stops to take a breath because she was getting a little intense there for a second. “They don’t care. They will hurt us anyway, just because they can. Just to prove a point. Just to make sure everyone knows there’s no way out once you’re in.”

I exhale. “Well, what do you need
me
for?”

“Backup,” she says immediately. “I need you for backup, Cindy. You’re a Shrike and I know what the Shrike family is capable of.”

All the hairs on the back of my neck prickle and take offense. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That you’re one tough bitch, Cinderella. That’s what it means. And I need you. Ellie is not like us. She’s not street-smart the way we are. And Ivy is pregnant, so even if she had it in her, she can’t help. I need you.”

A knock at the door makes us both look at it.

“Hey,” Pax calls. “You guys in there?”

“Come in,” we say together.

I nod to Tori and she mouths,
Talk later
, as Pax opens the door.

Chapter Twenty-Six - Paxton

I need you
? What could Victoria possibly need with Cindy? I knock on the door to Nolan’s office. “Hey. You guys in there?”

“Come in,” they both chime at the same time. Like they’re nervous. Hiding something.

I look at Tori and squint my eyes. “Victoria,” I say, greeting her with cold suspicion.

She squints her eyes right back. “Paxton,” she says. “Who are you supposed to be? Dick Tracy?” She huffs some air. “Well, you and Sparkle Plenty here have a good time. I have to get back to my family.”

Victoria pushes past me and leaves before I can say anything else.

I look at Cindy and sigh. “I’m sorry.”

She looks me up and down and tries to suppress a smile. “Are you Dick Tracy?”

I look down at my trench coat and then take off my fedora. “I didn’t mean to be gone so long. We just… ran into a few problems.” Cindy says nothing and I get a bad feeling about what she and Victoria might’ve been talking about. “Did… did Victoria fill you in?”

“No,” Cindy says sweetly. “No. I was up here looking out the window waiting for your car to arrive and she came up with your mother to introduce herself.”

“Hmm,” I mumble. “She’s wild and dramatic. So it’s best to take anything she says with a grain of salt. Why didn’t you answer my calls?”

Cindy twists one of her long blonde braids. “I got rid of my phone. I was mad.”

“Are you still?”

“How can I be mad when you show up here just in the nick of time, Detective?”

“Cute but Psycho, Miss Cookie?” I ask through the smile as I nod at her outfit. Goddamn. Her tits look spectacular in that tight t-shirt. “On anyone else I’d chalk that declaration up to a quirky sense of style, but on you it makes me nervous.”

Cindy takes a step towards me, her boots thudding on the hardwood floor. Which makes me notice the rest of her. The long, tanned legs peeking out from that short flirty skirt. The jingle of her bracelets that remind me of all the times she showed up at my house in that zipper-clad leather jacket.

It makes so much sense now, how didn’t I see it before?

“Cinderella Shrike,” I say. And then a chuckle comes out. “It’s every bit as sexy as Miss Sugar Cookie.”

“I’m sorry,” she says, like it’s her turn to explain. “I shouldn’t have lied about who I was. But I knew you’d never look twice if you found out.”

“Everyone looks twice, Cindy.
Everyone
.”

We stare at each other for several long seconds and I can’t help but wonder if things have changed now that I know.

They haven’t for me, that’s for sure.

“I love you,” I say, taking off my ridiculous fedora and holding it to my chest. “But it makes me nervous.”

“What does?” Cindy says, crossing the distance between us and placing her hand on my arm. She is heat. Even though my trench coat costume, I can feel her touch like we are skin on skin. “Me? Because I’m Oliver’s sister? Or because you’re involved in something bigger than you thought?”

I scowl. “What did Victoria tell you?”

“Is that what you want this conversation to turn into? The jobs? The work, Pax? What you do? What I do?”

“I just want to know how much I need to say right now.”

“About where you were? What you were doing? Or how it turned out?”

“Cindy—”

“No,” she says softly. “Don’t. You don’t need to protect me, OK? I’m Cinderella Shrike. I grew up with this shit, Pax. Do you really think I don’t know what my family was into before I was born? I do.”

“What are you talking about?”

Cindy shuts up as her eyes widen.

“Cindy?” I say. “What does that mean?”

“You’re my brother’s best friend, right? He never… talked about us? My mom and dad?”

“I’ve met them, of course. Nice people. Your dad is cool as fuck and your mom is… well. It’s probably not appropriate to say anything else about your mom.”

She stares at me and for a second I think she’s going to get mad at how I might perceive her mother. But then she laughs loudly and looks down at those adorable boots on her feet. “They call me the Baby Bomb. I mean, you’ve seen my sisters, obviously, so we are all little baby bombs. But I am so much like her in so many ways. Rory was such a princess—”