Page 26 of Breaking Conviction
Wes glared at Nora. “She doesn’t even know why she’shere, Nora?”
Little Miss Matchmaker rolled her eyes. “Okay, so here’s the sitch. There’re these big baddies who throw a party every year for fancy-pants assholes to allegedly give scholarships to a select few—”
“The Ashland Elite Scholarship Fundraiser?” Naomi’s head tilted.
“One and the same, my dear. ‘Kay, so these big baddies... they did a big baddie thing last year. I’ll be real with you. They totally fucked upallof our lives in one way or another—”
“Nora—” Wes warned, unsure whether she should be spilling all their secrets to an employee of a company who participated in the party, but Naomi’s concerned expression quickly morphed into horror as Nora continued on.
“They raped and murdered Ellie’s best friend and kidnapped me, Ellie, and several other women. There’s also a BlackStone agent who’s still in a damn coma because of them.”
“What?” Naomi’s gasp sounded like she’d been punched in the stomach. “You’re joking… right?”
“Definitely not joking.” Concern touched Nora’s voice, more subdued after dropping the bomb.
Naomi’s mouth opened and shut several times before she shook her head. “H-how do y’all know all this?”
“We have tons of evidence from the government and our own recon. And… unfortunately, we have evidence that they’re wanting to do it again.”
“What? No… nononono. This is insane. The Ashland Elite party? My company helps plan this event. That means—” Her voice broke, and Wes’s heart cracked at the moisture already filling her eyes. “Oh my god… I’ve beenhelpingthese monsters? This can’t be true.”
Wes’s jaw unclenched as the small seed of doubt about her innocence completely vanished. From the way she’d so freely given him the list, the clue of all clues, he’d figured she was in the dark about who her company was in bed with, but her reaction confirmed he’d been right to trust her.
“It’s true,” he whispered, hating to confirm her horror. “And we have evidence that they’re wanting to do it again.”
“Oh my god! I swear I had no idea. Oh my god…” Naomi ducked her head and pulled at the hem of her sweater. He ventured out to tug her hand to keep her from ruining it, and his heart skipped a beat that she let him.
“We know. It’s okay, we know.”
She looked up to him gratefully before widening her eyes. “Wait, have y’all gone to the police? They need to know about this!”
“We have, but they haven’t been terribly helpful,” Nora supplied with a wince. “They’re not the most reliable source of justice lately.”
“They didn’tusedto be that way, you know.” Naomi scowled and Wes resisted wiping the tear that escaped the corner of her eye. She hastily caught it with a shaky index finger, as if she was afraid to show her emotions.
Nora shrugged. “Maybe not, I wouldn’t know. But we’re working with them on it to the extent we can and we have a prosecutor who’s got our back—”
“Within reason,” Wes reminded her and Nora dipped her chin in acknowledgment.
Naomi expelled a deep breath and massaged her temples. “Shit. This… this is a lot of info, y’all. I’m not sure I know what to do with it. Wait a minute…” She whipped her head back up and eyed them cautiously. “Why are you tellin’ me this?”
Nora glanced at Wes and widened her eyes, pointing to Naomi with her head, but Wes wouldn’t take the bait. Nora had cast this line, so she’d have to be the one to reel Naomi in.
Finally, she rolled her eyes at him with a huff and turned back to Naomi. “Because we think thatyoucan help us.”
“Me?” Naomi’s hand shot up to her chest and she looked at them both. “What can I do? I mean, I canassureyou that Gail has no idea. She’d never get caught up in shit like this.”
Wes carefully schooled his face. Hell, maybe the CEO of CTI was somehow blind to what happened behind the scenes, but he didn’t think that was very likely. These types of things always had someone at the very top and Gail Haynesworth was high up enough not to get shit on, but in the perfect position to let it all roll downhill. But he certainly wasn’t going to saythatto Haynesworth’s right-hand woman. Naomi seemed trustworthy, but she also seemed loyal to a fault, and she adored her boss.
“This list you gave me?” Wes indicated the screens and Naomi seemed to finally register the list on the screen. “We just need you to go over it with us. Help us connect names and faces. We need to know everything we can about the people who’ve attended in the past and who will attend this year. Anything at all that you can help us with could save lives.”
Naomi’s eyes widened with what seemed like fear. Understandable, since they were asking her to get involved with something that could be really fucking dangerous. It was why he didn’t want her there, but fuck, what if she knew something that turned out to be the missing puzzle piece they’d been trying to put together for the past year?
“I don’t want to scare you, but this is very important and we need you,” he explained.
“That’s it? All I gotta do is help identify people on the list?”
Wes and Nora nodded and Naomi bit her lip before continuing. “Is… is it safe? I-I don’t want anything to happen to my daughter.” Her brow furrowed and Wes gave in to his instincts and grabbed her hand and held it this time. Her tight grip back sent currents of electricity up his arm and into his chest.
