Page 508 of Lodestar

His gaze was expectant. “And?”

“There was a list on there?—”

“That’s how you got insight into some Sparrows’ bank accounts, right? I don’t remember what you were hunting for, just that that was the outcome,” he said drolly.

“I’m a bad person.”

He blinked. “I’m not a good one.”

“No, but you’d never do something like this. I knew it was a horrible thing to do. There’s no redeeming?—”

“Is this about our atonement deal? Because you’re doing a great job,” he encouraged, and it was so positive, his expression was so proud as he tried to egg me on to speak, that it made me sick to my stomach.

“Back when we’re talking, things were different. Not as hopeful. We were still looking for a way to bring the Sparrows down.

“That’s why I needed to do it. It was an act born of desperation, but I’d have followed through with it if Rachel hadn’t put a stop to it.”

“Hadn’t put a stop to what?” he inquired.

I didn’t answer that. “Rachel said if I went ahead with my plan, she’d work it so the ‘right’ people knew I had Kat which would get my ass busted for kidnapping a minor.”

“We need to talk to your grandfather about making that charge disappear.”

I swallowed. “Already have.”

“It’s gone?”

I nodded.

“Good. Now, that was a pretty solid threat. Why did she use that against you?”

“Damian Headley wasn’t just the mastermind behind a kidnapping ring. He wasn’t just a serial date rapist. He was also a blackmailer.” I stared down at my boots. “Some of the women hadveryhigh-powered fathers.”

A blanket of silence settled over us.

“One of the fathers was a bank president, right?”

His flat tone had me swallowing because I knew he was piecing together what had happened.

“Yeah. Headley had footage of his victims.”

“That’s what Rachel meant. She was talking about you blackmailing someone. The day after the siege at Troy’s.”

I bowed my head. “Yeah.”

“Iwas a rape victim.”

I kept my gaze on my boots. “And you think I’m not?”

That didn’t appease his anger. “Someone could have done that to me. Hell,tous. I, I mean,wecould have been… No one deserves that.” I could hear the ire in his voice shifting, morphing.

Then, there was more silence.

Dead. Stark. Roiling silence.

Until: “I can’t look at you right now.”

And the prophecy came true…

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