The Fall of East: Book 3 in the Hear No Evil Trilogy by Malone, Nana (best reads .txt) 📕

tuck her face into my chest so that she didn't have to see, but Nyla, my beautiful, strong love, she had to see. She had to watch. She had to be sure.

But I wasn't going to let her get in the way, because if there was a chance of saving her father, I was going to give the paramedics room to make that happen. There wasn't much she would let me do for her. But this, I could do this. Against my shoulder, she wept. Just sobbing and crying. It had been my job to protect her. My job to keep her safe from all of this. And I had failed in my job, and now she was in the kind of pain I never wanted her to know.

As she wept, I held her. I had no other choice, because... I loved her. So, I held her tight and let her weep. "Hush now. Let's get you out of here, okay? They need to process the scene. And I know you don't want anyone else to see you like this."

She sobbed against my shoulder. "East."

I leaned down and gently cupped her cheeks, my gaze meeting hers. "Yeah, love?"

"He said… He said he wasn't my father."

I blinked. "What?"

"And the informant in that picture. She was my mother. But he said someone else was my father."

I blinked down at her. "Ny, are you sure that's what you heard? Because sometimes in the heat of the moment—"

Her brows snapped down. "He said it. He said it. Even when he was dying, he said it."

"Love, I'm not sure what this means, but we’ll figure it all out. "

"East... East, who am I?"

"You're the woman I love. That's all I know, and that's all that matters right now. Now, let them do their jobs. I'm taking you out of here."

If I hadn't been poised for it, watching for it, waiting for it, I wouldn't have noticed her imperceptible nod. But when she finally did, I breathed a sigh of relief because I could do this one small thing to bring her some peace. It was the least I could do after bringing her into my hell.

Chapter Seventeen Nyla

The Monaco version of Interpol was fancier. Sleeker. Newer.

We did have state of the art technology in London, but there was just something about Monaco that screamed everyone had money. Even the civil servants.

Krista Wilson had been put in the holding cell for interrogation, and Amelia was already working on her when I arrived. Everything was so chaotic with my father being shot and then taken to the hospital. We tried there first, but as he was in surgery, they wouldn't let me in, and I just couldn't sit there at the hospital waiting.

The Interpol offices were essentially right next door to the hospital, so East walked me over and now we both stared at the woman who had pretended to be my friend. Sat there and pretended that she cared about me and wanted to get to know me better. All the while buying herself time to, what? What was the purpose of all of that?

I watched Amelia methodically take her through the questioning, but oddly enough, Amelia didn't have to threaten or play hard ball with her at all.

Krista was ready to spill on everyone with no sense of loyalty. Amelia assumed her questioning stance her palms braced on the table. "Okay, you know what? I'm going to call you Hazel because that's what I know you as. After all, that's the name you gave all of us, isn't it?"

Not Hazel lifted her head and smiled. "You're not bitter, are you? Just know it was not personal. You weren’t even my mark. I just needed to know if and how close you were to me, which, unfortunately, was far too close. I never expected Ryder to give me up, but you know what they say about honor amongst thieves."

Amelia scowled at her. "You killed him."

"Yes well, that's the thing about partners. They outlive their usefulness."

Amelia just shook her head. "Wow. This is all about greed."

Not Hazel shrugged. "What else is there? You can pretend righteous indignation, pretend you're better than me, but you're not. No one is. We all do what we have to do for our survival."

Amelia slapped down the photos of the people who'd been killed, hurt, and stolen from. Not Hazel smiled as she looked down at them. "Are these supposed to mean something to me? You're barking up the wrong tree. I don't feel anything for these people. They all deserved what they got."

"And Section Chief Kincade? Did he deserve what he got?"

Not Hazel's mouth thinned then. "He got in the way."

"Because you were going to shoot a pregnant woman."

"That pregnant woman isn't innocent. Look at the life she lives. In the residence of the curator of the Royal Museum of Monaco. She's hardly a saint. The things you have to do to have that kind of money… No one is innocent."

Amelia shook her head. "Okay, so tell us about these other not-innocent people. Who are you working with?"

She leaned back on her seat, making her cuffs jingle. "I have plenty to say. I'm not going to do jail time for those arseholes, because I promise you, they're not going to look out for me. So I am certainly not looking out for them. I'll tell you everything."

"Oh, fantastic. Why don't you start with who you're working with presently, because obviously, your brother and your former boyfriend are in prison."

"Yeah, it's a shame about Riley. He was an excellent forger. But luckily, our backup, the one we all treated like the runt, like the dirt bag that he was, was actually pretty decent as forgers go."

"The name, princess."

Hazel laughed. "See, when I give you the name, you're going to get all up in your feelings about it. You're going to wonder, how did we miss this? How did we not know? You're going to try and rationalize