Page 11 of Crossover

The parking garage was attempt number one. Number two was when he sent Grayson to end me—I’d come back to that bucket of questions in a minute—and when that didn’t work, he’d sent that team to snatch me from Hunter’s place for time number three. All of it forwhatgoddamned motive?

“Is this revenge?” I asked.

Daniel looked at me with ambivalence. “Tell me you’re not that naive, Ivy.”

How dare he stand there and act like I was a child for not understanding his repeated attempts on my life.

My hand inched another fraction of a millimeter through the cuff, the skin peeling off with a burn.

“When Mom found out you were married,” I continued. “Is that why you did this? To get back at her?” I couldn’t remember—had Mom broken up with him or the other way around? Either way, that didn’t add up. I’d been catfished long before that. The catfishing and the trap for my death were set in motion a while ago.

“You should have just stopped asking questions,” he chided, squatting in front of me again. “Didn’t you ever hear the expression,curiosity killed the cat?”

What questions? “I never asked anything about your relationship with my mom, because I didn’t give a crap about your relationship with her.”

“That’s not true; you had a big problem with it.”

Was he seriously taking satisfaction in that fact?

“So, thisisabout revenge,” I snarled.

“This has nothing to do with revenge against your mom.”

“The handcuffs chaining me to this pole disagree.”

He pursed his lips.

Poor little killer, growing impatient.

But at leastthe handcuff was approaching the widest part of my hand now. If I could just get it past this bone, I could make a run for it.

“This could’ve all been prevented,” he chided. “But youhadto keep poking around about your father’s death.”

The muscles around my lungs constricted, threatening to cut off all my air.

My father committed suicide. It was tragic, but it had been investigated thoroughly by detectives and ruled a suicide. Not only did all the evidence support it—with the gun at his side, no other fingerprints on it, the one bullet to the temple—but alsomy father had been making comments leading up to his death, where he seemed to be saying goodbye to his family members.

Deep down, I’d always questioned it, but I was written off as a heartbroken daughter, unable to accept he’dchosento leave me.

But looking at Daniel now, that doubt exploded into an all-out realization.

Dad hadn’t killed himself after all…

“Youkilled him.” The bile in my throat threatened to spew everywhere, and when Daniel didn’t deny it, my disorganized thoughts crashed into each other, trying to replay everything I thought I knew to see if it fit into this new sinister revelation.

First and foremost, Dad had been murdered.

I only had a second to hold on to that before my heart realized the real reason he was no longer with me. A motive as heartbreaking as it was old-fashioned and simple.

“This was nothing more than a love triangle,” I realized. “That’s why my dad is dead!”

Daniel’s chest vibrated with laughter, and he had the cruelty to smile. “You still don’t get it, do you?”

I clenched my jaw, trying to swallow back my tears. How could he be so flippant about my father’s death? So many questions started to crash together, but at the moment, I desperately needed to understand why. If it wasn’t because Steve/Daniel loved Mom and worried Dad would fight for her or win her back, then why?

“Enlighten me.”

“Your father wasn’t the man you thought he was.”

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