Andcrack.
Hailey’s disturbing composure shatters in an instant. It’s not as spectacular as I expected. She’s not yelling, cursing, or panicking. She’s simplydone. So fucking disappointed I can feelthe hurt radiating off her. Her cheeks turn white, tears spring from her eyes, and the most heartbreaking sob fills the loft.
I reach to grab her, curl her into me and hold her while she cries, but that initial reaction doesn’t last. My fingers grasp thin air.
She bolts upright. “Matthews is dead because of you! Hisdaughteris dead because of you! I spent every waking minute in that mansion scared I’d end up just like them. Blaze’s men threated to rape me, lashed me down with whips and belts, they almost fucking broke me!” She hurls her glass at Vaughn.
It shatters against the right side of his face, leaving a gaping wound that immediately leaks blood.
“Hailey, I—”
“Shut up!” she booms. “Don’t you dare make excuses! You were so scared of failure you couldn’t see you were failingme.” She turns, grabs my glass, and sends it flying after the first. “You lost your wife when Mom died. I lostbothparents!”
“Oh shit,” Broadway snaps. He snatches his gun at lightning speed, plastering himself beside the window he’s been looking out of for the past ten minutes. “Sorry to interrupt, butfuck, Carter. Your father’s here.”
I’m beside Broadway in a flash, looking to check how many goons Rhett’s brought with him. Confusion twists my gut when I see it’s just him and Apollo. They’re armed and Rhett’s got murder on his mind if the way he strolls toward the building is any indication.
Instead of a Glock or a Revolver like he usually carries, he’s holding a fucking tommy gun.
“Ryder,” I clip. “Time to disappear. Keep the evidence safe.”
He starts unplugging his hardware, shoving it all into a large duffel bag, and Broadway rushes over to help.
“How the fuck did he find out we’re here?” Koby asks, the barrel of his gun aimed at the door. “You think he knows we have the evidence?”
“Yeah. Looks like he’s been keeping tabs on him.” I nudge my chin at Vaughn, who’s still staring at his heaving daughter.
She’s no longer yelling, still as a statue, her eyes following my every move while I check my clip’s loaded.
“He probably has a tracker on your car,” I tell Vaughn.
“Or a bug on your phone,” he whispers.
“I didn’t tell anyone we’ve got the evidence.”
“You toldme. You didn’t call me from a burner this morning, Carter.”
The color leaves my face, in stark contrast with the blood still oozing from the hole in Vaughn’s cheek.
He’s right. I was shocked, fucking seething at the sight of the cleanest cop in the history of America accepting bribes that I pulled outmyphone, not the burner.
That explains how Rhett got here less than half an hour after Vaughn. He heard our conversation... I can only imagine what’s been going through his head.
Fuck! “You didn’t bother checking Apollo’s phone bug since we came back, did you?” I snap at Ryder.
We would’ve known they were coming if a shred of anyone’s attention had been on something other than the evidence.
He shakes his head, guilt marring his expression. “No... I—”
I wave him off before he gets going. It’s way too late for apologies andI should haves. “Get moving.”
Koby gets into the elevator, sliding the metal cage shut, determination etched into his face. “I’ll wait for your call.”
“Don’t get caught.”
“Don’t fucking die,” he counters, nothing south of his head visible. Two seconds later, it’s not even that.
Hailey sways on her feet. The onslaught of revelations and the fear cinching her chest at the prospect of facing my father makes her knees weak. She’s paler than curdled milk, her lips parted, wide eyes trained on the door.
