He’s back to wiping his face, back to being terrified by the look in my eyes. Idiot. He has no idea how close he just came to dying. The shock and anger distorting my features and freaking him out are the same ones that are saving him.
He’s still useful.
“What the fuck?” I repeat, and he takes the hint and starts explaining.
“We figured out the reason her parents were killed was… because of her name on a piece of paper. A name her dad found when he was cleaning. It was on… Bob Nelson’s desk.”
“As in, myfather?” I hiss.
He nods, his eyes carefully averted from mine.
“And what did it say?” I prompt.
“Uhm… that’s all we know. Her name is on the paper, in block letters. That’s probably not all it said. But that’s the only thing her dad told her before… before he died.”
“And what the hell does that have to do with Logan Colt?” I growl.
“Nothing, uhm, nothing,” he stammers. “Just that in the same conversation, the last one they had before her dad died, he also asked if she knew who Logan Colt was.”
I frown in confusion. “Of course she would know. Everyoneknows who Logan Colt is. Why the fuck would he have asked that?”
“Well, the way Piper was repeating it, it didn’t sound like he was asking if sheactuallyknew who he was. It sounded more like he was saying, ‘hey, you know that guy? Well, get this’, kind of thing. Her dad was just starting to talk to her about how the paper he found on Bob Nels—I mean, your dad’s—desk was going to get him a promotion. And mentioning, in the same breath, Logan Colt’s name. Next thing you know, bam. Dead. I mean, uh, her dad sadly passed away.”
He’s still blathering on as I stare at the wall behind him in shock, unable to move from my sitting position on my bed.
I never really gave Piper’s parents’ murder much thought. I’d heard enough to realize it was a contract kill, and as a soldier, you just don’t question contracts.
If I thought about it at all, I figured her dad had pissed someone off at Devil Tower during his work. I never in a million years would have thought it was connected to Piper.
In my mind, Piper was in danger because she was a snoop, not because she was actually at the center of the case.
But her father discovered something he shouldn’t have on my dad’s desk, and that something is connected to Piper Day.
And whatever it is involves Logan Colt.
The answer to her parents’ murder, this whole time, has been with… my dad. I’m going to go find him and stick a knife through his ribs repeatedly until he tells me that answer.
No. I need to findherfirst.
I repress a shudder as I train my eyes toward Josh once more. “And you’re saying she’s with Logan Colt? What proof do you have?”
“Well, I saw it happen.”
“What?” I didn’t think it was possible to feel colder, but it’s like the temperature in the room just dropped twenty points.
“We were in the tower,” he admits bashfully. “The second we put those pieces together, we walked up Devil Tower, all the way to the executive floor.”
I rub my eyes, feeling more confused than ever. “What the fuck? How did you even manage that? There are about twenty different access badges needed to–”
“Uh.” He clears his throat, sounding just as confused as me. “We only had one visitor’s badge. Not even in either of our names. And it brought us all the way up. We just pressed on the button and it brought us up.”
Motherfucker. They were set up. Someone laid a neat little trap and my insect flew straight into the web.
“So we got to the executive floor,” rambles on Josh, “and that’s when we heard two of the Devils—Vincent Murilla and Everest Grant—talking about how they were hunting for Piper. To kill her.”
I’m gnashing my teeth together without even realizing it, so hard they hurt. “And then?”
“Then, just when we started to actually realize the trouble we were in… Logan Colt swooped in from behind her. He knocked me out with his gun, but just before, I saw him inject something in Piper’s neck.”
