“I need some air.”
“Don’t—” But it was too late. She was already out onto the pavement. “Fuck.” I threw open the car door, furious that she continued to fight me. As I headed toward her, I reached inside both pockets, able to feel the piece of broken glass she’d given me in one, my weapon in the other.
She stood staring at a group of trees, her arms folded and her breathing shallower than before. The way she stiffened when I approached meant much of the trust we’d built had just been shattered.
We both remained silent with nothing but the sound of traffic from the nearby interstate in the distance.
Her heavy sigh was almost resolute. “Franklin was one of my father’s best friends.”
“Was?”
“Well, since he was the lead effort in forcing my father to take a buyout from his own company, I’d say Daddy had a damn good reason to end their friendship.”
The disdain in her voice was another indication she had some sort of a personal relationship with Franklin.
I released a subtle sigh of relief. “Do you know any details?”
“Daddy is a very private man with aspects of his company. He always was. While he was rarely home, he was insistent on keeping his family time separate. I did overhear one conversation he had with my mother. The reason was a loss of two contracts because my father took time off to spend with Briana when she was recovering. Can you believe that?” She turned just enough I could see the side of her face.
She was tense with anger.
“I’m so sorry.” I dared take a step closer. “You didn’t like Franklin long before he forced your father to retire. Yes?”
With another heavy sigh, she finally nodded. “Franklin and my father were especially close during a project they were working on together. He was at the house at least once a week. He was almost like an uncle to Bri and me. I was a stupid teenager and he was so debonair. He had no trouble paying attention to me.”
“You fell in love with him.”
Lifting her head, she groaned as she stared at the star-filled sky. “Can you believe that? I honestly believed a man of Franklin’s stature and wealth would want anything to do with an almost eighteen-year-old kid. He was recently divorced and acted lonely. What a crock of shit. He has two kids close to my age. God, I was so stupid. But he called me beautiful, something Ihadn’t heard from a boy since I was an intellectual nerd always with my nose stuck in a book. Boys weren’t very kind. He said the same thing to Briana. He’s responsible for her being in this godforsaken city.” Her laugh continued to be bitter.
“You are beautiful.”
At least that garnered me a smile. “Yeah, well, he certainly knew how to use the line on me. I started wearing sexier clothes, allowing the man to take photographs of me and I’d never felt so beautiful in my life.”
Now I was the one bristling, seeing her fisted hand, the way her body trembled. “What the fuck did he do?”
“Oh, don’t worry. He was smart enough to wait until my eighteenth birthday. Even then I thought I was in love. It took me all of a week to realize he’d used me. He’d taken my virginity and had pictures to prove it. I even threatened him with telling my father.”
Blackmail pictures. The asshole had no scruples whatsoever.
“Motherfucker.” When she let out a single sob, I pulled her into my arms, pressing her face against my chest. “I’m going to crush that bastard.” No, I was going to kill him with my bare hands.
Reese allowed me to hold her, even wrapping her fingers around my shirt. When she lifted her head, seeing tears in her eyes burned a hole in my heart. “He’s too powerful. That fucking bastard threatened my sister. I don’t care about the goddamn pictures. He can post them anywhere he wants. I can handle the humiliation of being a stupid kid, but I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to allow that horrible, horrible man to use my sister as a pawn. What if she’s not even alive?”
“Don’t do that.” You bet I was going to break the man’s face for terrorizing her. “Don’t. He wouldn’t have dangled that carrot had Briana not still been alive.”
“You don’t know that.”
“You’re going to need to trust me. He wasn’t thrilled that he’d been called to the meeting tonight. He has every reason to keep her alive.”
“I do trust you. Very much.” The shift of her tone, the softness draining into despair was almost all I could take.
Gently, I gripped the back of her head. “Don’t underestimate me, Reese. I will do what it takes to ruin that son of bitch.” He might be the reason for Maverick’s next big payday, but no man dared accost a woman and get away with it.
What I couldn’t completely understand was why he’d become an informant providing even a single scrap of information to Maverick for a book.
Unless he wanted a larger piece of the pie. What I now believed was that he had used the photographs of Reese to blackmail her father into accepting the buyout. What better way of keeping an organization hidden from view than by using the very software designed to expose the same bastards.
The competition had been removed. What do you want to bet Franklin realized just how much money was in the practice of sex slavery? Just like many of the crime syndicates had shifted away from illegal drugs to trafficking women. While it was just a working theory, it was one to be explored.
