“Since when?”
“Montana.”
That made sense. “Was Fournier really going to claim me for a night if you hadn’t…”Been prepared to lose a finger.I can’t bring myself to say it.
“Yes.” Alex bites off the word, eyes flashing at the memory. “You wouldn’t have been the first. Not by a long shot.”
I shudder. “That’s sick. The Company thing… it’s twisted.”
His mouth curls in distaste. “You don’t know the half of it.”
“Go on,” I say with trepidation.
“They had cameras in our house.”
His delivery is so flat it takes me a moment to process his words. “What?”
“In my apartment, too.”
“What?Which rooms?”
His jaw tightens. “All of them.”
Oh, shit. No, no, no.
“Not only that, they had photos of you frombeforewe met. At the arbitration.”
“What?” I can’t take any more shocks.
“Vicky…” he continues, with the inevitability of a car crash in slow-motion, “…they had cameras inCarol’sapartment.”
“I…” I shake my head. “I can’t believe it.” But I could. How else did Haynes know where I was?
“I saw the footage myself. On DeLuca’s computer.”
I trigger that alert, and Haynes turns up… what… thirty-six hours later?
Carol’s dead because of me.
I knew it already, but the confirmation grinds it in.
My stomach clenches on all the water I’ve drunk, and the aircraft cabin shifts. It’s too much, on top of everything else today. I swallow down a wave of nausea, my skin clammy, my headache returning with a vengeance.
Alex reaches across and takes my hand, and I grip his back, his touch the only thing grounding me.
Memories assail me of what we did in his apartment, all of it on DeLuca’s computer. On Fournier’s, on Van Wyk’s—they’ll all have seen it, I just know. Idancedwith that son-of-a-bitch, he had hishandson me.
Fournier would’ve had a lot more than that on me.
But that’s not the worst of it.
“It’s all my fault,” I say. “It wasmethey were after, not you. I’ve cost you your job… Carol’s life… our home, our safety, all because I investigated Northbridge. And then Van Wyk.”
“No, Vicky. That’s not true.”
Hollow words. “It is. I’m responsible—”
“DeLuca sent me to that arbitration,” Alex says. “He put me there to meet you.” He waves a hand dismissively. “Oh, I’m sure they didn’t expect us toform a relationship, but he wanted you in my orbit. He must’ve guessed there’d besomethingbetween us.”
