“No. I came over to inform you that I had not watched the surveillance tape the second picture was taken from. The screengrab that showed exactly who was in the bed that night. The screengrab that painted a very false picture of that night.”
It’s a wonder Liam and Dane are still alive and alert with how ash-grey their faces have grown. I guess it’s news to them that I found out what they did.
“What are you doing?” I ask, my voice breaking. “Have you come here to torture me?”
“No,” says Tragen softly. “I’ve come to make things right.”
He finally puts his gun down, but right now, the fear strangling my throat has nothing to do with the end of his barrel. It has everything to do with the emotional pain I’m convinced he still somehow plans on inflicting me.
“If you didn’t watch that tape… then how did you take those screengrabs?” I ask at last, breaking the heavy silence that has been oppressing the room.
“You’re asking the wrong question, soldier.”
I wait, my heart beating madly in my chest, feeling as close to passing out as Liam and Dane look. Though not for the same reason. Definitely not for the same fucking reason.
“You should be asking mewhogave me those screengrabs.”
I don’t know what would have made me feel sicker. That Tragen watched a video of my girl’s rape, or that some unknown other person did. Either thought is absolutely unbearable.
“I only watched the tapeafterI gave you the screengrabs,” continues Tragen, and my mind freezes as I realize this is the worst fucking scenario. They both watched that tape. I wish I could summon up the bile rising up in my throat and vomit. It feels like the only way to get release from the intolerable pain crushing me.
Vaguely, though, I’m aware Tragen isn’t saying all this to torture me. Vaguely, I realize I should be putting two and two together and understand what he’s getting at. But how the hell can I do that when each of his words is like a knife stabbing into my heart, reminding me of everything Piper has suffered?
“The person who gave me the screengrabs,” says Tragen, a touch impatiently at having to spell it all out, “did so believing that the result would be you killing Piper Day.”
I frown, my eyes automatically scanning the soldiers. But that’s stupid. Why would any of them want me to know about that tape? Anyway, apart from Dane and Liam, I doubt any of them even knew Piper was mine.
Even if for whatever reason one of them thought it was a good idea to show me the screengrab, how the hell would they have managed to get their hands on the tape?
The person responsible is a higher-up. Someone in power. Someone like…
“Logan Colt,” I take a shot in the dark.
Tragen’s expression tells me I’ve got it all wrong. Again.
“I’ll give you the identity of that man,” he promises. “But first…” He gestures to the nineteen soldiers still standing, as much at attention as their nerves are allowing them to. “I thought I’d give you the chance to get revenge.”
Chapter 18
Piper
Inever in a million years dreamed that I’d one day be sitting at a table, sharing a delicious breakfast with Logan Colt, while looking at baby pictures of myself with him.
And yet, that’s exactly what I’m doing.
For the past half-hour, I’ve been munching on eggs cooked sunny-side up, crispy bacon, and even avocado toast, which reminds me that my stepfather is very much a millennial.
“She’s beautiful,” I breathe as I turn the pages of the photo album, watching various pictures of me with a woman in her early twenties, her red curls like a halo around her face, her slim face pale and freckled, her features delicate and her expression tender.
“Just like you,” declares Logan.
I snort out a laugh. “I’m nothing like her. Look at my glasses, for one.”
I point to the thick glasses Logan has purchased for me. He didn’t even try to get me a nicer pair. He somehow hunted down the exact same ridiculous round frames I’ve been wearing all my life, because they were the cheapest model I’d found.
The least he could have done was get me a nicer pair, but maybe he figured I was attached to the bug-eye ones.
“I like them,” he smiles. “Lia wore contacts most of the time, but she was just as beautiful when she wore glasses. You are the living, breathing image of her.”
