Page 207 of The Silent Note

Finn turns slowly.

The older man hands over a binder. “It’s all here. As agreed.”

Nostrils flaring, Finn takes the folder.

“This completes our deal. Training starts at sundown,” Kurosaki says.

Finn hesitates and then he dips his chin.

As we walk off, I look up at him. “What is that? What deal did you make?”

Security parts to let us through. Finn stalks past them and, to my surprise, all the men bow their heads toward him.

Finn acts like he doesn’t notice so I do the same.

At the car, I grab Finn’s arm. “Finn.”

He hands over the file, his eyes hooded. “Here.”

I gasp when I open the folder. “Is this…”

“A list of everyone who used theservicesof The Grateful Project.”

My head springs up like it’s attached by a coil. “Your dad would never give this up, even to his son. What did you trade for this?”

Finn takes out his cell phone and checks it, speaking casually. “I’m taking over the family business.”

The family business?

As in…

My brow lifts in surprise and my pulse picks up the pace. “Finn, you can’t.”

“It was inevitable. He would have threatened me if I didn’t do it his way.” Finn pushes the cell phone in his back pocket. “At least I got something out of it.”

“This list wasn’t worth it. You’re sacrificing too much. I can’t let you.”

“You didn’t. I did it for Zane.” His harsh words are off-set by a resigned shrug. “If you’re going to thank anybody, thank him.”

“What does Zane have to do with this?”

“It was his plan to negotiate for that list.”

The words percolate in the air.

“Zane knew about all this?”

“I told him and Dutch about everything the night my dad…” He falters. “The night Jarod Cross called us over. Zane got spooked. He knew it would be dangerous if you continued to investigate this. He wanted you far from the case while we worked out a deal.”

“Is that why he broke the flash drive? To drive me away?”

“Not at first. We were going to use the flash drive to take down the names on the list, but Zane spotted a yakuza arrow that was shot inside the suite while you were working.”

“An arrow?”

My mind trips back to that moment when I heard a softpfftsound and noticed the windows were open.

“There was even a note saying that you would die if you didn’t destroy the evidence. This wasn’t their first attempt at getting to you. Someone came to the house and Zane got hurt fighting them off.”

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