Page 85 of Victorious Vice

“Yes, and he chose to confess to a crime he didn’t commit.” He slowly pours another splash of bourbon into his glass. “Someone had to pay. And yes, I could have prevented it, but it was to my advantage at the time not to.”

I shake my head. “Sleight of hand. You got the focus on your son to cover something up you were involved in. You’re a damned monster.”

“A monster?” Bellamy chuckles, but without humor. “Vinnie, that’s where you’re wrong. I’m a businessman. I deal in power and influence, and sometimes the stakes are high.”

“Don’t you dare try to justify this!” I snap.

He takes another sip from his glass. “Justify? I don’t need to justifyanythingto you, Vinnie. Not after everything you’ve done. You killed two men. You ran away from your family responsibilities for seventeen years. You played right into your grandfather’s hands.”

And there’s nothing more I can say.

Because Austin Bellamy is exactly right.

So I go for it. I ask the question I’m dying to know the answer to.

“Tell me, Austin. Who the hell is buried under that old barn along the border?”

He looks away from me. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

It’s a lie, of course. If it weren’t, he wouldn’t be so cavalier about it.

But I know instinctively that I won’t get any more information out of him.

At least not tonight.

29

RAVEN

An hour later, a car pulls up. My father’s driver gets out and opens the door as I watch from the front window. My father emerges, along with another dark figure.

It’s Vinnie, just as Jared said.

I swing open the front door, but Jared waylays me. “Stay away from the door, Raven.”

“But it’s my father. And Vinnie. Neither of them will harm me.”

“I have my orders.”

I clench my hands into fists. I’m so tired of Jared and his orders. For a while, we were friends. Or I thought we were. Those three weeks we were holed up in the safe house together, we played a lot of chess, had a lot of good conversations.

He cooked some amazing dinners and so did I. He even served as a springboard for some of my ideas for the gala and the foundation as a whole, several of which I implemented this very evening.

I guess that’s over now.

I stand back, wishing I had taken the time to primp a little.

Then again, I’m still in my emerald evening gown.

Though it’s wrinkled, there’s not much that looks better than this.

The door opens, and Vinnie walks through, followed by my father.

How I ache to run into his arms. Pull his lips to mine and kiss him urgently.

But he doesn’t even look at me.

“Vinnie, do you know Jared, Raven’s bodyguard?”

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