Chapter 19 THE ALIBI
Leo and Mina froze, looking away from the video game they had been playing to give me surprised and confused looks.
"Uhn..." Leo started, sounding cautious as if he was talking to a feral cat. "First, congratulations on your win. Second, what??"
“The Cruz hit? Si, that’s high-level cartel business." Mina added. " We don’t touch that.”
“Just do it,” I snapped.
Jax stepped into the garage, his face like a thundercloud. “You rudely rejected the Viper's offer just to come here and start asking about them??"
Mina choked on the drink she had just taken a sip from.
"Viper," Kael echoed, sounding distressed even with his still drowsy voice. " Rudely rejected? What the hell happened at the den when we left?"
Jax flashed him a glare. "I would get back to why you guys left the den the way you did later." Then he turned to me, his eyes stern. "Stay away from that Maddox business, Si. I’m warning you. We’ve been fine for years doing things our way. We survive because we stay under the radar. That’s a one-way trip to a shallow grave.”
"I need intel, Jax!" I yelled, spinning around to face him. "If we are going to take our operations to another level, we need to know who the real monsters are. We can't stay small-time forever."
"What other level?" Jax argued, his voice rising to match mine. "We have been okay this way for years! We have survived because we stayed out of the big leagues. That is a different and more dangerous ball game, Sienna. We aren't built for that."
"I don't even want to be in the big leagues!" I screamed. The words flew out before I could stop them. "I never even wanted to be in this life of crime! I wanted to go to school! I wanted a normal life where people don't get stabbed for twenty thousand dollars!"
The room went dead silent.
Mina, Leo, and Kael were all staring at me with expressions of pure, unadulterated shock. Jax looked like I had just confessed to being an alien.
My blood turned to ice once I realized my slip-up immediately.
"I... I didn't mean it like that," I stammered, trying to backpedal. "I just... I look at that fight I just had. I risked my life just for a title and some cheers. I just wish our parents had done better by us. I wish they hadn't left us with nothing, so we had to go this way to survive."
The crew looked even more confused now. Their faces went from shock to a strange, sad pity.
"Parents?" Kael asked in a slow, careful tone. "Si... what are you talking about?"
"Our parents..." I repeated, feeling the world start to tilt. "The people who raised us."
"We were all orphans, Si," Leo said softly, closing his laptop and looking at me. "We don't have parents. You and Jax literally met at that shitty orphanage on 4th Street. Don't you remember?"
I stared at him, my mouth hanging open.
"You're the one who got us out," Jax added, his voice low with worry. "I was a late bloomer, and you made us leave because I was being bullied so badly."
I looked at him with disbelief. There was no way this mountain of a man was ever so small that he was bullied easily.
"And it was my orphanage that trafficked me..." Mina added. "You are the only thing close to an actual guardian I've ever had."
The weight of her words hit me like a physical blow. I had just insulted the only thing they had. I had shown them a hole in my memory so large that it threatened to swallow the whole lie.
"I... I'm sorry," I whispered, backing away toward the stairs. “I’m just tired. Leo, please just get the files. I need to lie down."
I fled to my loft and locked the door. I didn't sleep. I sat at the small desk and waited.
About two hours later, a notification pinged on my phone. Leo had sent the files. Even with his suspicion, he was still loyal.
The file was labeled: CRUZ RESIDENCE - BOTCHED ROBBERY.
“Botched robbery?” I hissed. “It was a fucking massacre.”
I opened the file and read through it.
The police called it a "botched robbery," claiming a rival gang had broken in for the stash, and things had turned violent.
I saw a photo of the compound.
Then a newspaper with. The headline: Business man loses wife to robbery gone wrong.
Below it was a grainy, high-contrast shot of a black body bag being wheeled out of the front door with Elena Maddox written on the zipper tag.
I stared at it until the letters blurred, gripping the edge of the desk to keep from vomiting.
I scrolled further. I found a detective Miller's report. He had written a single, bold note in the margins of the case file.
Suspect: Mr. Maddox Kanan.
Motive: Consolidation of power/Inheritance.
NOTE: Theory discarded per Chief’s orders.
Alibi Confirmed: Kanan Maddox was out of the country on a business trip in London at the time of the attack. Flight manifests and hotel records verify his presence in the UK.
The phone slipped from my hand and clattered onto the floor as my body chilled.
"Out of the country?" I whispered, my voice shaking. "How is that possible?"
I remembered the smell of his cologne. I remembered his terrifying grin and the sound of the gun as he pulled the trigger.
Kanan Maddox was in that room. He was the one who killed me.
So how was he in London?