64

Teagan locked the guest-room door and slid the key into her robe pocket. “The sedative should hold her steady in dreamland, but better talk fast, in any case.”

Victoria paced around the apartment, her thoughts scattering like dandelion puffs as she tried to make sense of them. “We’ll get through this a lot faster if you’d cut the mind games and admit that you killed Warren,” Victoria said.

Teagan rolled her eyes. “Fine. Yes, it was me. I killed Warren.”

Victoria’s stomach flipped. “And you’re X.”

“Am I?”

“Teagan,” Victoria asserted.

“No fun,” she said.

“What part of this is supposed to be fun, Teagan?”

“You shouldn’t scowl like that. Peptides can only do so much. Your skin loses elasticity the older you get, and—”

“Seriously?”

“—hydration and—”

“Unbelievable,” Victoria said, shaking her head. “We’re contemplating a third homicide and you’re pushing Botox.”

“Oh, we’re a we now?”

“I see no other way around it, so yes, we’re a team.”

“Ugh, fine,” Teagan groaned begrudgingly. “I’m X.”

Vindication settled in her chest like a fuzzy blanket. She cradled the tiny victory in her heart and asked the most obvious question. “Why?”

Teagan plopped onto the couch. “I suppose I owe you an explanation, but for the record, I think this is pointless. My reasoning doesn’t change the fact that he’s dead, and it doesn’t help us get rid of Meyers. You’ll have answers, but at what cost?”

“Let me worry about the price of truth,” she said. “At first, I couldn’t understand how Warren could be so dumb as to willingly proceed with a lopsided deal on a private medical practice that was riddled with red flags. He loses Livingston. Calls in favors from the Old Boys Network and burns those bridges in the process. That was you, wasn’t it?”

The heat kicked on, blasting hot air from the vents. The curtains fluttered against the windows, keeping a beat like a metronome.

“He promised that he was being careful, but I should’ve known better. There’s no such thing as careful when it comes to Victoria Tate. What tipped you off?”

“You did actually. Warren was hiding the documents at home. When you trashed the basement, I found them. I didn’t dig in right away because somebody had me in a choke hold running late-night sanitation tasks, but I saw enough to know they were important. So, when you lied about making popcorn, I started connecting dots.”

Teagan stared open-mouthed. “Huh.”

“You look surprised,” Victoria said.

“I am. That’s a big leap. I might’ve been lying for any number of reasons.”

“I’ll admit, I wasn’t entirely sure, but there were too many coincidences to disregard.”

Teagan scoffed. “Again, I underestimated you. Okay. Yes, Warren was helping me, but in my defense, I didn’t know he was tanking the company. I never wanted to hurt you.”

“Don’t do that,” Victoria said, pressing a hand to her temple and collapsing into a chair. “We’re not sugarcoating our excuses tonight.”

“All right,” Teagan said slowly.

Victoria gave a curt nod. “Warren was giving you money to venture out, and you weren’t going to tell me.”

“We would’ve told you eventually.”

“How kind.” She paused, absorbing this revelation through pinched lips. “Teagan, why did Warren agree to help you in the first place? It’s not like I didn’t know you were close. I went to you for help with X because you knew him as well as I did. The deal doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s not supposed to. If we’d wanted to include you in the deal, we would’ve.”

“Are you ever going to give me a straight answer?” Victoria asked. “Like pulling teeth.”

“Believe me,” Teagan said, “this is nothing like pulling teeth.”

Victoria shuddered. “Did he hate me that much? He would’ve rather destroyed Livingston and our legacy than give me control?”

“What do you want me to say, Tor? That he married the idea of love? He wanted to keep you under his thumb, yes. At least in the beginning. He could feel you getting antsy. Your deals were rock solid, the clients you were roping in were pushing you into the next stratosphere of recognition, and they wanted you. Not him. Jealousy was highly motivating, but it wasn’t the only factor that got him to help.”

Victoria dropped her head, opened and closed her mouth in vain attempts to respond, ultimately landing on an exasperated, tired laugh. She rubbed her face and ran both hands through her hair. “Okay,” she said, picking at the chair like she’d find the words in the seams. “Break it down for me. What other factor am I missing?”

Teagan pouted her lower lip, somewhere between sympathy and flat-out pity. “We were sleeping together.”