Page 75 of Wicked Little Game
My brows furrow in confusion before I realize she must have heardthatpart of the conversation. I open my mouth to say something, but before I can get a single word out, she turns around, ready to storm off.
I can’t let her go like this.
My reasons behind that are selfish, but in all honesty, self-hatred is a feeling that I’ve grown accustomed to over the last decade.
What I plan on doing is dumb. More than dumb. It’s reckless. It goes against my principles of not mixing personal and professional matters, but that train left the station the second I set foot in this house.
Ruby deserves the truth. Not to mention I also don’t want to live with this lie any longer. Whatever affair, friendship, or God knows what it is between us, I’m in too deep to come out unscathed.
And now that she knows, well, I don’t know how muchshe really knows, but even a little is too much, there’s no reason to keep secrets from her any longer. Or maybe there are still reasons, but I’m tired of pretending.
“Just listen to me for five minutes, please,” I say the words like I’m not holding her arm, forcing her to listen to what I have to say. But I wouldn’t put it past her to yell over me.
“Two minutes.”
Ruby could be in a life-or-death situation and she would still need to have the last word. As if it physically hurts her to keep her mouth shut.
“I wasn’t completely honest with you.” I speak up, only for her to interrupt me.
“Yeah, I figured that out already, idiot.”
“Jesus, Ruby, can you please shut the fuck up for a second?” I say while she rolls her eyes at me. It doesn’t hide the tears in her eyes though, and I wish I knew why that bothers me so much. “Your father is doing business with some shady people.”
She looks at me as if I just tried to explain that water is wet.
“It took you almost a month to figure that out?”
“Do I have to gag you to keep you from interrupting me? And what do you mean—” I gulp as a sickening feeling spreads in my stomach.
She knows way more than I thought, and this isn’t making the situation any better.
Maybe she already told her father about me snooping around a long time ago, and it’s just a matter of time until my stay here ends in a bloodbath.
Well, at least the marble floors should be easy to clean.
“International drug trade, smuggling weapons, human trafficking…,” she says as if she’s listing a drive-through order. “Did I forget anything? Or did he branch out again?”
For a second, I’m so dumbfounded that she almost yanks her arm out of my grip. And here I thought I couldn’t be anymore pissed at Charlie and his memo that is good for nothing but wiping my fucking ass with it.
“Kind of,” I say. “My higher-ups draw the intervention line at radioactive material.”
“Makes sense,” she replies. “That’s concerning, even for him.”
“I’m here to gather intel about him, about his plans and his contacts. Other units have been monitoring him for a while, but it escalated, so they sent me. To arrest him as soon as I have enough evidence, or to—well.”
“To kill him?” She asks. Her tone of voice is way too calm given what I just told her, and it makes me wonder if she is the brain behind his organization.
I question my sanity and my morals for the one neuron in my brain that would find this kind of hot.
“You’re not shocked or anything? I mean, he’s your father.”
“And? It was only a question of time until he took it too far,” she replies, still trying to wriggle free.
“But then why are you so angry? Is it because of Carla? Because—”
“No, it’s not about fucking Carla. Okay, maybe a bit, but fuck it. I’m angry because you lied to me, Samuel. You spent the last few weeks with me, were by my side nearly 24/7. You dared to snoop around here, planning to, I don’t know, execute my father right here in the living room?”
She gestures wildly with her free hand and I contemplate grabbing this one too, just in case she stops gesturing and starts slapping. Not that I wouldn’t deserve it.
