Chapter 19 · Paid in His Name

The paper shook in my hand.

Not because the room was cold. It wasn't. Vera's office had that sealed-up rich-people heat, all leather and old wood and expensive candles trying to cover the smell of blood.

It shook because Ronan Kade's name sat at the bottom of my mother's debt ledger in black ink.

PAID IN FULL.

Eight years ago.

A year before Mom died.

I looked at him.

He was braced against Vera's desk, one hand pressed hard over his side. Blood had soaked through his shirt again. Dark red. Too much of it. His face had gone pale under the bronze skin, but his eyes stayed on mine.

Not the file.

Me.

"Quinn," he said.

"Don't." My voice came out thin and ugly. "Don't say my name like that."

The thing in the wall scratched again.

Slow. Deep.

Four long nails dragging through plaster behind the shelves.

Ronan's head turned toward it for half a second. His shoulders locked. Then he looked back at me.

"I didn't know that payment was there."

I laughed once.

It sounded wrong in the room.

"Sure." I held up the ledger.