Page 90 of Peyton's Price

“I think he wanted a second opinion from a hacker.”

“You’re not a hacker,” Liam objected.

“Not in the traditional sense, but I’ve spent enough time in backchannels of the dark web to recognize what he wanted me to find.”

“I can’t believe this.” Matthias scrubbed his face hard with both hands.

She stood. “I know you blame yourself for what happened in Belarus. But it wasn’t you or your staff.”

“Peyton—”

Shaking her head, she put up her hands. “Matthias, I have read the case file and Priya’s records over and over again. You shut it all down because, deep down, you believed someone on your staff leaked the information and sold the operation out to those traffickers, but you were wrong.”

That was something Liam had suspected, but given Matthias’ refusal to discuss the subject, Liam had never articulated it.

Peyton moved to stand in front of Matthias. “It wasn’t your fault.”

The cords in Matthias’ neck were far too prominent. “That is very easy to say, but—”

“No, I mean it. Neither you nor your staff was responsible for those deaths. But there was a leak. Matthias, you need to hear this—those girls were already dead when the agents got there.”

Matthias shuffled back a step, blinking. Liam could feel his shock. He fucking shared it.

“How do you know that?” he asked when Matthias seemed at a loss for words.

“Because the girls you were trying to save diedbeforeyou received the message giving you the auction’s location. So your message to Interpol disclosing that couldn’t have been intercepted by a mole in your staff. The liver temperatures established a more precise timeline, but they were doctored after the fact. Someone had tipped them off hours before you or anyone who works for you knew where they were.”

“How do you know that?” Matthias asked.

“Mason. He found the circumstances suspicious. To him, the layout of the bodies had a staged quality. And after talking to him, I understood why.” She broke off, rubbing her arm as if she was cold. “They were exceedingly difficult to look at, but once I forced myself to, I could see it. The bodies did appear posed. But the time of death was determined by those temperature readings. Mason discovered they had been changed by comparing the ones in the file and the handwritten notes by the forensic personnel who took them. The communiques he had me look at prove someone warned the slavers about the raid. Someone inhisoffice.”

“The mole is in Interpol?” Matthias staggered to the couch, collapsing next to Liam. “All this time, I thought I missed something—that is was one of my people who leaked the information.”

Liam finally caught on, feeling like an idiot. He rubbed Matthias’ back. “And to be safe, you shut down your whole operation.”

“For a brief time, Priya shared your opinion,” Peyton continued. “But her personal investigation didn’t turn anything up. And she questionedeverythingyour group did a thousand times. Probably more.”

Matthias stared at his hands. “I realized she was double and triple checking everything, but, for some reason, I couldn’t absolve myself of the responsibility.”

“At least you had a therapist come in for the staff,” Liam pointed out. “You did support them.”

“Only to deal with the trauma right after the fact, but just because I wanted to bury everything doesn’t mean Priya or the others did.” He inhaled audibly. “I didn’t do right by them.”

Liam put his arm around him. “That’s debatable. I think you did the best you could under crap circumstances.”

Matthias was quiet for a long time. Peyton knelt in front him, taking his hands. “I don’t want you involved in the Interpol mole hunt,” he told her. “It’s too dangerous.”

Liam leaned forward until he could touch her, too. “I agree. Whoever was responsible had no problem with the deaths of almost a dozen young girls and two bodyguards. They’re a monster.”

“My involvement is over,” she promised. “I told Mason I would write up a report on my findings, but while they prove the existence of a mole, there’s no way to identify him or her, not with the data he gave me. I would need more. Even then, there’s no guarantee I could track the mole down.”

“Don’t let this Mason guy push you into that,” Matthias said in a tone that brooked no argument.

Peyton let her head bang on his knee with a despondent thump. “I won’t. I’ve done enough to damage this relationship.”

“You haven’t done that.” Liam nudged Matthias in the ribs. “She didn’t, did she?”

Liam held his breath as the other man maintained a stoic silence.

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