“Duty never sleeps,” Oliver comments in a strange voice. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“It shouldn’t have come to this.”
Oliver stops in the doorway, every muscle poised and tense. “I’m sure you’ll find a way to make things right.”
“I meant you and Olivia being here,” I continue in the same measured voice. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry.”
A heartbeat later, he looks away and leaves the room.
Once he does, I press two fingers to my temples and exhale. Carlisle wordlessly steps into the room and folds his arms over his chest.“He knows something.”
Carlisle clears his throat. “It’s a little more than that, unfortunately.”
I drop my hand and stare at Carlisle for a moment longer. Wordlessly, I take the envelope out and rip it open. My heart sputters and speeds up as I leaf through the pictures and realize two things at once.
The first is that how easy it was to find the paper trail leading directly to the traitor.
And the second is that Oliver is the one who hung me out to dry.
Confusion, anger and fear roll up into one and rise within me.
Out of all the scenarios I imagined, my little brother being the one to twist the knife in my back isn’t one of them.
He wasn’t even on my list.
How could I have been so blind?
Is he really so eager to get back to his life that he’s willing to do whatever it takes, including sell me out?
Whatever blood is on his hands, you might as well have put it there yourself. You know you’re the reason he got dragged back.
Suddenly, I wonder if Oliver came to see me to finish what my enemies started.
Would he have taken London out too?
I go cold all over as I force myself to glance up from the pictures. “How sure are you about this?”
Carlisle straightens his back. “As sure as I can be. I used all my usual channels.”
I frown. “That’s not good enough. I want you to look into this yourself.”
“Boss—”
“No one else can know that Oliver is the traitor,” I hiss, turning wild eyes on my right-hand man. “Do you fucking understand? Whateverthisis, he’s still a Payne.”
I desperately need Oliver to be innocent.
I need another explanation, but I can’t let myself be blindsided again.
The last thing I need is more my problems on my plate.
Carlisle will dig as deep as he can, and when he finds proof, I’ll make sure to deal with it personally.
I’m sorry, mom.
I lower my voice further. “No one else can look into this. You need to handle this as discreetly as possible. Only go to Katia for help.”
Carlisle nods.
