“You tell me, Selene. I’m not the one on Catherine’s payroll.” I snapped the words at her, and she visibly paled. Her frown slipped and her eyes widened with... fear?
“Neither am I,” she spluttered, her cheeks blooming with warmth and her gaze ducking away from me.
“No, but Dante was,” I whispered, feeling sick just saying it out loud. “Did you know?” My voice cracked but I powered through. “Did you know that Catherine killed my parents?”
Selene’s gaze shot back to me in horror, and she pressed a hand to her lips. “Oh my god, Riles,” she breathed. “I’m so sorry. No, God no. I had no idea...”
Tears were rolling down my face again, and I swiped at them with the back of my hand. The relief that she hadn’t known was almost staggering. “That’s not why I came here. Dante said he gave you some evidence? I need to see it.”
She shook her head in confusion. “Wait, what about Dante? All Rob could find out is that he got arrested at some rich kid house party where a girl was raped and stabbed to death. Riley, youknowhe didn’t do that. He wouldn’t.”
I hesitated a moment before I replied. “Yesterday I would have agreed with you. Now I don’t know what he’s capable of.”
Selene gasped, and Rob paused halfway back into the room with a tray of mugs.
“You don’t honestly think he’s guilty, do you?” Rob’s smile turned into a scowl. “I know he’s not exactly on the right side of the law in everything he does, but you and I both know Dante has a good heart. He just had a shitty upbringing and a crappy role-model.”
Rob plonked the tray down on the table, sloshing coffee out of the mugs before taking a seat himself.
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” I admitted, looking down at my hands as I picked my midnight purple nail polish. “I just need whatever evidence he left with you, Selene. This shit... it’s bigger than just a murder charge.”
“What could possibly be bigger than my little brother getting framed for murder?” Selene demanded, her hands shaking as she clutched at her robe. “He’s in this mess because of me! None of this would have happened, he wouldn’t have ever got mixed up with you, if it wasn’t for me.” Her voice was shrill and pained, and I could see tears welling up in her bloodshot eyes.
Rob must have seen she was about to lose it, and he wrapped her in a side hug from where he sat, smoothing her hair with his hand and shushing as she sobbed into his shirt.
“It’s not your fault,” I whispered, anxiety twisting my stomach in knots. “It’s Catherine’s fault. It’s all Catherine’s fault, and we’re going to make sure she doesn’t get away with it.”
Selene was still crying, but she nodded and mumbled something about getting the documents before shuffling out of the room in her slippers.
“How do you plan to do that?” Rob challenged me when Selene was gone. “Catherine sits on the board for one of the world’s most powerful companies. There isn’t a single industry, legal or not, that Delta doesn’t have its fingers in. Do you have any idea how many agents from every area of law enforcement have tried and failed to take Delta down? The whole world knows they’re dirty, but they practically own the world, so they keep getting away with it.” He paused, his lips tight in anger and his nostrils flared. “Framing Dante for murder is just a game to people like Catherine Deboise.”
I nodded. I understood what he was saying but…
“That’s all true, but have any of those agents had insiders? Me, Beck, the guys... we have access that law enforcement doesn’t have. What if we had the evidence which would put Catherine and the other board members in jail?” I was grasping, hoping that something in Dante’s documents would help. But even if it didn’t, I’d keep trying.
Catherine was going to pay for what she’d done to my parents, one way or another. Even if I had to kill her myself.
Rob seemed to be thinking about what I’d just said as he sipped his drink, staring down at the floral sofa cover. “You’ll need someone in law enforcement that you can trust,” he finally said, and hope flared inside me.
“I trust you,” I said, nervously tapping my fingernail on the side of my own mug.
Rob shook his head. “No, I’m just a beat cop. I mean, someone with the power to make something happenifyou get any usable evidence.”
Selene came back into the room then, clutching a thick brown envelope to her chest. “I’ve never opened this,” she said softly. “He made me promise. He said that I was only to give it to you in the case of his death, because he couldn’t protect you any longer…”
My heart was hurting so badly, my chest ached like I’d been punched right in it. “He lied to me for years.Years!I don’t know how to move past this.”
Selene looked like she wanted to argue with me again, that fierce look in her eyes as she opened her mouth, but then she just shook her head. “Sometimes people fuck up, Riles. But he did it for the right reasons, I promise you. Deep down, his intentions toward you have always been pure. He loves you.”
I didn’t reply because I really couldn’t talk about it any longer. Turning to Rob, I changed the subject. “Talk to me about finding someone in law enforcement.”
His expression was calculating, and it was obvious why he’d been such a tough beat cop for years. “It doesn’t have to be in law enforcement. Just find someone with a working knowledge of the justice system, even better if it’s a judge or lawyer, to help you build the case. But keep in mind, no one will take you on unless you have irrefutable evidence of their corruption.”
That didn’t surprise me at all. And since we had one shot at taking them down before they buried me, I would not screw it up.Lawyer or judge…
A memory hit me. A memory I hadn’t wanted to dwell on because it required me to think about the day I almost got raped, but that girl in my class … she’d said her father was a high-powered lawyer in New York City. Maybe she was my answer, but how could I tell if he could be trusted?
“Is there an easy way to see if someone is on the payroll of Delta?” I asked Rob, not expecting he would have the answer.
