Page 64 of Beautiful Prey

And because of that, of course, someone let slip what happened and it got back to journalists, some who had been on my case for years.

Several articles went live, people at school caught wind, and next thing I knew, I was in the limelight. Which meant isolating myself in my apartment for the foreseeable future. Jamie was the best friend I needed so desperately. He brought me groceries and stayed with me when he could.

“I’d say I warned you, but you knew the risk,” he said the day I returned and he helped me unpack. “Cat’s out of the bag now. At least you got out unscathed.”

I mentioned to him about the charges they put against me, and he assured me he’ll be there for me.

Unfortunately, Uncle Wes found out before I could tell him.

“How much did you tell the police?” he had asked.

“Only that I was seeing Em—the patient—for school purposes. That I didn’t tell them who I was but was doing my thesis on him. Then I got found out and they made me leave.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

“Alright. No more talking to police without your lawyer, you got that?” he said.

“I understand, Uncle.”

“This was careless of you, Eve, extremely dangerous…and with your past.” He blew out a breath as if exasperated. “I can’tbelieve you would do this. Years of therapy and you go and talk to that—” He paused. “What did you say to him? What did he tell you?”

I thought the questioning odd. That was the first time I suspected my uncle knew what might have happened in the warehouse. Because of that, I was almost inclined to ask him what he knew.

“He told me he had been badly abused,” I answered truthfully. “That he and his sister went through something horrendous. And not at the hands of his foster parents…”

Uncle Wes went quiet.

“I didn’t tell him about me until I was forced to at the end,” I continued. “He didn’t take it well.”

“Well, it’s a good thing he’s locked up. I can imagine what he would want to do to you.”

“Maybe he had a good reason,” I said, clenching my phone. Forget going about this carefully. If Uncle Wes had anything to do with what happened to Emery and the others, I had a right to know now. “He was a victim, after all. And Dad had some very dark secrets, didn’t he?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” he hesitated.

“The warehouse, Uncle.”

He sighed. “I knew I shouldn’t have mentioned it. If I had known you were going to go back there…”

“So, you knew?”

“Not everything. Your father was tight-lipped about it. But I had some idea. He promised me not to investigate it for the company’s sake. That if I wanted to keep what we had at any cost, then I would let whatever he and Uncle Pete were doing stay hidden. It was their own personal project, but it was funded by someone—”

“Who?” I asked.

“I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me much.”

“Did you suspect his death might have had something to do with what he was doing?”

“Yes, I had a feeling. But what happened, happened, and couldn’t be undone. Your father took that risk. For the sake of his promise and for the future of the company, I didn’t dig. They found the killer and he was locked up so justice, in a way, had been served.”

My hand shook. “Justice served?” I laughed bitterly. “Emery is locked up in an institution, mad out of his fucking mind because of my father. I guess he got his justice too when he got his revenge, didn’t he?” I was practically shouting. “This never would have happened if my father—”

“I know, I know,” he cut in, trying to calm me. “I’m sorry, Eve, I really am. If I had known more, maybe…but it doesn’t matter now.”

I wiped away an angry tear. “Yeah, it doesn’t, huh?”

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