Of All the Fake Heiresses I've Met, You're the Stupidest novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Ask the Boy

"No," Ronan said.

"He's the only person who can tell me about my mother."

"He is also the person who sent a man with a rifle to kill you."

"Yes," I said. "I know. I want to hear him say it."

Ronan stared at the phone in my hand for a long moment.

"I am not letting you walk onto that pier alone."

"You will not be on the pier," I said. "He will look for you, so you'll be somewhere he can't."

He thought it over.

"The water tower," he said. "Four hundred yards. I'll have a rifle and a radio."

"And if I say a color?"

"Say red. I will not ask why."

He gave me a little black earpiece to wear under my hair.

He did not touch my ear while he put it in.

He held it out, and I put it in myself.

The old pier is at the north end of the harbor, past the shut-down cannery.

I grew up on it.

Chester's pilot boat was tied up at the far end, the white paint peeling, the same blue canvas over the stern.

I had learned to read there.

I had learned to field-strip a rifle on the same bench where he now sat waiting, with his cap beside him and a thermos open.

"Hello, kid," he said.

"Hello, Chester."

"You came."

"You said you would tell me about my mother."

"I will." He patted the bench. "Sit."

I stayed on my feet.

The wind came off the water, and the pier boards creaked.

"I have three questions," I said. "Did you hire the man in the crane?"

"Yes."

He said it without any shame at all.

"The dot was a mercy, Erin. You would have been dead before you knew it. Quick. I could not stand to see you sit in that house and be torn apart by Kearneys. They would have used you, and then they would have dropped you."

← Chapter 5 · All chapters · Chapter 7 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend