Cruel Legacy (Cruel 3)

“You weren’t wrong,” I gasped. I could see him slipping. See the edges fraying. And his judgment falling into question. It terrified me. “That did happen all on its own.”

“Is there anything else I should know? Trust me. I know this world. My eyes are open now. There’s always something else,” he said, mirroring the words he’d said to me about Lewis over Christmas.

I opened my mouth. A lie formed on my tongue. But then I killed it. I couldn’t lie to him. Not with it all out there in the open. Not when he was barely controlling his anger. If he found out later, it would be the end of us. The end of everything. I could see it clearly.

I shuddered. “Lewis.”

Penn narrowed his eyes. “What about Lewis?”

“After your attorney couldn’t get the restraining order, I, uh…used one of Jane’s contacts to tip them off about his business dealings.”

His eyes rounded. “How did you even know about that?”

“I just…remembered some stuff from when we were dating and put the pieces together.”

“And you thought the New York Times should know?” he asked, his voice rising.

I glanced around to see who was looking at us, but that only seemed to set him off more.

“This is unbelievable, Natalie. I told you to let me handle Lewis. Not to go do something you’d absolutely regret later.”

“You weren’t handling Lewis,” I reminded him. “The restraining order was never going through. He had the judge in his pocket. There was nothing keeping him away from me unless I stopped him and showed him there were actual consequences to his actions.” I sighed and bit my lip. “I never anticipated the stuff with Nina. I never wanted to hurt her.”

“That’s the thing about this world. We never look at the real consequences of our actions,” he said sharply. “I thought you of all people would have realized that one.”

“Penn,” I whispered.

But he just turned his face away from me. As if he couldn’t bear to look at me.

My heart constricted. I stepped forward as if I could find the words to explain. All the words that I’d been telling myself for months. That they needed to pay. That they’d earned their punishment. That they’d destroyed my life and had no consequences. That, if no one else would put them in their place, then I sure would.

But all the arguments died on my lips. Penn was siding with them. With the crew. As he always had.

Finally, his eyes slid back to mine. I was sure I didn’t want to hear what he would say next.

That minute, the lights switched off.

And everyone screamed.

Chapter 36

Natalie

“What the hell?” I muttered in the chaos.

Penn reached out and gripped my arm. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, but what’s going on?”

“I don’t know. But we should find out.”

People were pulling out cell phones all over the room and shining the flashlight feature around the darkened interior. A second later, the floodlights flickered on overhead. The panic diminished a fraction, but we were all still looking around, wondering what the fuck had happened.

Penn pulled me toward the staged area where we’d been planning to hand the charity an enormous check for the evening. It seemed as good as any place to try to get some crowd control. And hopefully find out what was going on.

But when we got in there, my mouth dropped open. Jane Devney stood with her hands behind her back. A police officer was slapping a pair of handcuffs on her wrists. I started forward, but Penn stopped me. And that was when I saw that it wasn’t just Jane, it was Court, too.

“You’re making a huge mistake,” Court snapped at the officer.

“You have the right to remain silent,” the officer began.

“That’s not his forte,” Penn said, but his tone was one of dismay.

Jane, however, didn’t say anything. She was just blankly staring forward. She was cooperating, but she lost something in that moment. The spark that had always made her Jane.

The cops were pushing people back from the area and trying to keep the perimeter clear. “Please, scoot back. The party is over. Trinity is closed.”

I stepped forward, and Penn couldn’t even stop me then. “What do you mean, it’s closed?”

“Please step back. We have to shut down and secure this location. Everyone, please head to the door. The party is over,” he repeated, using his team to push people away from Jane and Court.

“That’s my brother,” Penn said, stepping in. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing I can say at the time. You’ll have to come down to the station,” the cop grumbled. “Please, stay out of the way.

“Yes, sir,” Penn said.

I couldn’t even believe this was happening. Jane and Court arrested? Trinity shut down? What the hell had caused this?

That was when something clicked into place. Jane had been frantic this morning when I saw her. Talking about money and Court helping her. She’d seemed crazed about it even. She’d never talked like that before. Jane had a ton of money. That didn’t make sense. And yet, somehow, it did.