“Whathard drive?”
It all seems so foolish. I did this for Angelica, because I wanted to avenge her more than anything. But now that I haveto explain everything to Finn, I realize that I’ve single-handedly created a nuclear weapon that could destroy my entire family.
Hot, salty tears roll down my cheeks.
“Trini.” Urgency underscores Finn’s voice. “What hard drive?”
“I’ve been tracking the family’s dealings for the past several years.” The admission rushes from my lips. “All that I could get my hands on. Financial records. Associates. Allies. Enemies. Wars.”
The quiet that follows speeds my pulse.
“I saved everything I found on a hard drive?—”
“Where’s the hard drive now?”
I’ve never heard so much fury in one man’s voice. And even though I know Finn would never hurt me, I flinch, my stomach clenching.
“On its way to my new apartment in Austin.” I gulp. “You told me to take extra precautions since things with the family in LA were getting bad. I thought it would be better if the hard drive wasn’t in my possession while I was in town?—”
“Let me get this straight. You’ve been doxing the family for the past several years, and somehow the Russians know, and they want every piece of dirt you have on us for themselves?”
His damning summary causes my throat to spasm. I can’t even speak.
“You have exactly five seconds to tell me why you’ve been doing this.”
“For Angelica!” I sob on her name, clutching the phone cord in my free hand. “Nobody cares that she’s gone. That she was murdered. Everybody expected me to give up and go on with my life, but I can’t, okay? I can’t. I don’t deserve to be alive, and she doesn’t deserve to be dead! The least I can do is find out who did this to her and make sure they?—”
“You sure you didn’t resent us?” Finn’s question slices through me like a knife. “Didn’t want to take us down a peg?”
The accusation cleaves my heart in two, leaving me gasping.
Is that what I wanted?
Was I just angry at my family this entire time? Did I compile a hard drive in which to channel all my resentment and bitterness?
Am I really that broken and sad of a person?
The answer stings far more than I want to admit. “I didn’t even think you cared about me.” A fresh round of tears rain down my face. “After she died, I became a problem to you and to Dad, and that’s why you sent me away. First chance you got. It’s like I never…never got to know my own family. And I think…making the drive helped me feel closer to you all.”
I don’t realize how true the words until they’re hanging in the air between us.
Pain sears my body. I can’t breathe, can’t think. My hands tremble on the receiver.
Through that hard drive, I managed to stay connected to my family, and now it might very well get me and a lot of other people killed.
How did I make such a mess of everything?
Finn’s continued silence kills me. We’ve never spoken so honestly to each other before, but surely facing my brother’s scrutiny can’t be any worse than leaving a man on the side of the road to die…
That fist around my ribs tightens, crushing them and flattening my lungs.
“We’ll talk about this when you get home.” Finn clears a sudden rasp from his throat. “But I don’t ever want to hear you say that we don’t care about you again.”
“What—”
“Ever, Trini. Do you understand me?”
I close my eyes and exhale, the burden of years of misunderstanding finally falling off my shoulders. “Yes.”
