Page 33 of Devil's Riches

“No. I asked, but he refused to answer.” I leaned forward. “I think we also need to ask him if your theory about your father is right. Did he know anything, and if so, did Greg or the Golden Circle kill him because of that? Or was the car accident real?”

“We need to ask about my mother too,” Nate added, fingers flying over the keyboard. “I’m assuming she’s neck-deep in the whole thing, because she’s hidden Greg all these years and kept him alive, but I want to know why she’d help him like that.”

I lifted a brow. “Because he’s her brother.”

“Yeah, but Greg treated her like total shit. If I were her, I wouldn’t want to help him at all.”

“Why? What did he do?”

“Colette told me he was always jealous of her, and he’d get angry whenever anything good happened to her. The opposite was true too. He gloated and laughed at her when she confided in him about some miscarriages she had before I was born.”

A chill shot through me. “Wow. What an asshole.”

“Yeah. Apparently he always treated her like that.”

“Maybe she hasn’t actually been helping him, then,” I said, tilting my head to one side. “Maybe she found out he was a murderer, and she decided to lock him away forever because she couldn’t stand the thought of turning him in and seeing him get the death penalty. They still had capital punishment in Washington back then, remember? And even though Greg killed all those people, your mom might’ve felt some sort of loyalty toward him, purely because he’s her brother.”

Nate rubbed his jaw. “No, I’m pretty sure she was in on whatever the hell was going on back then, including all the murders.”

“Why?”

He held up two fingers. “Two reasons. One, she knew he was killing people, because she was aware of his home videos. The day before his fake funeral, she put them all in his grave to hide them.”

“That doesn’t mean she knew about it all along, though,” I said. “Maybe she accidentally found the tapes one day, and that’s how she found out he was a killer.”

“Maybe. But there’s also the car accident. Mom is the one who told the police and everyone else that Greg was with my father in the car that day, and that clearly wasn’t true. She lied about everything,” he said. “Why would she do that unless she was involved in setting it all up?”

“So that everyone would believe Greg was dead, I assume. That way she could keep him in the bunker without anyone else ever suspecting a thing.”

“I don’t know about that.” Nate slowly shook his head. “I still think she’s involved in some way. Like you said, your dad thought that entire families were involved in the Golden Circle business. Not just individuals.”

“But if that’s actually true, why don’t you know about any of it? You’re a Lockwood.”

“Good point,” he muttered.

I tilted my chin. “Where is your mom right now, anyway? I forgot to ask earlier.”

“China. She’ll be back tomorrow afternoon,” he replied. “So we have until then to try to get information out of Greg before she finds out that we know he’s down there.”

“Okay.” I turned my attention back to the laptop screen. “We should ask him if the Golden Circle is still around. I’m guessing they are, but I’d like to know for sure.”

Nate nodded and wrote that down. “We should also ask if he’s still in contact with them, and if so, what they’re up to these days.”

“Yes, that’s good.” I covered a yawn and leaned back in my chair. “God, I might actually be able to sleep soon. Getting all this stuff out has really helped.”

“We can go back to bed if you want,” Nate replied, lifting his brows. “Unless you have any other questions to add to the list.”

“I don’t think so.” I yawned again. “I’m happy with what we have so far. Do you have anything else?”

“No.” He closed the laptop and picked it up. “Let’s go.”

We headed back to his bedroom. I took my clothes off and slid into a silky black nightie I found in the stash of clothes Nate brought me earlier, and then I climbed into bed and waited for him.

He didn’t join me right away. He opened a drawer on his bedside table, pulled out a silver key, and walked over to the door. My heart sank as I watched him turn the key in the lock before slipping it into his pocket.

He still didn’t trust me. Not enough to believe that I wouldn’t sneak out in the middle of the night and call the police on him.

I rolled onto my side and faced away from him, heart thudding as confusion and irritation poured through me. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected. It wasn’t like Nate and I were a couple. That was just a fantasy I’d employed to get me through the last day and a half. In reality, we were just two people who despised each other and also happened to need each other. He needed me for what I knew, and I needed him for protection.

Beyond that, we were nothing.

You need to remember that,I warned myself. But then Nate moved closer to me in the bed and wrapped one arm around me, pulling me against his hard chest. A mixture of longing and security instantly radiated through me, like a heat lamp had switched on the minute his skin touched mine.

I tried to push the warm, safe feeling away, but it stubbornly remained, and as I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep, a tiny frozen piece deep inside me broke off and melted into oblivion.

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