Page 41 of Marked for Danger

“I think we’ll all be more comfortable if we move this into the conference room,” Riedell announced. Motioning for the hallway on the man’s left, the group began filtering into the hall.

Once inside the modest meeting space, the team began choosing seats around the rectangular table centered in the room. Grady chose a seat near the front, positioning himself next to Izzy who took the chair to her brother’s left.

“I’ve asked Dr. Garcia and her brother to come here so we can make sure we’re all on the same page with everything,” Riedell started. “Hunt and Umbridge were supposed to join us, but they were called away for something unrelated to this case. I told them I’d fill them in once we’re finished here. Dr. Garcia, the floor is yours.”

“I think at this point, you all can start calling me Izzy.” She flashed a small smile to his boss and the rest of the room.

With a nod, Riedell acknowledge her request and moved on. “Okay, Izzy. If you’d like to begin…”

Grady turned to her, wondering why their boss was giving her the room. It didn’t take long for him to figure it out.

“Your boss asked me and my brother here so Olly could tell you himself what he knows about Dante Valdez. But before he does, there are a few things I’d like to lay on the table, just to get it out of the way so there won’t be any confusion or misguided suspicions.”

“Misguided suspicions?” Grady’s brow furrowed as he searched her gaze for more.

“Pretty sure she’s talking about me.” Olly commented casually.

“As a matter of fact…” Izzy turned to Riedell with a question in her gorgeous eyes. “Is it ready?”

“The remote’s right there.” His boss pointed to a small remote positioned near the corner of the table.

Picking it up, Izzy pressed a button to power up the large flat screen mounted high on the wall for all to see. As she filled them all in on Olly’s background, the images on the screen changed to correlate with what was being discussed.

“When I was nine and Olly was twelve, our parents were killed by a drunk driver. They were both only children, and our grandparents on both sides were either already dead, in nursing home, or unable to be found. We were thrown into the system, bounced around from foster home to foster home for the next several years. Olly aged out when he was seventeen, but since I was younger, I was forced to stay while the family we’d been living with kicked Olly out on the streets.”

“Damn.” Grady turned to Olly who simply shrugged with ait is what it isexpression.

“Long story short,” Izzy continued, “the husband in that home was a sick prick who liked playing with teenage girls.”

Ah, fuck.

Grady’s spine stiffened, his stomach churning with an instant and fierce nausea. Suddenly he found himself not wanting to hear any more of what the woman he loved had to say. But she went on, not giving him the option for escape.

“Before anyone gets too upset, I wasn’t raped.”

“Thank fuck for that,” Grady bit out, not caring that everyone in the room could hear.

“But I almost was.” Izzy swallowed, the pain in her eyes breaking his heart. “When I was fifteen, the man who was in charge of caring for us snuck into my room one night. He’d been putting off weird vibes for a few weeks before that, and just that night he’d made some off-handed comment about how I was finally starting to ‘fill out’ my sweaters more. After dinner I was talking to Olly on the phone and I mentioned it. Then, later that night, my foster father snuck into my room and climbed into bed with me.”

“The son of a bitch was on top of her, holding her down when I came in through the window and beat the shit out of him.”

“That’s why you were arrested,” Cole surmised.

There was a look of admiration in the detective’s blue eyes that Grady shared with the other man.

“My brother saved me from being raped that night, but in doing so he got himself arrested for breaking and entering and assault.”

“The fucker’s wife got the family attorney involved and they tried going for attempted murder, but those charges didn’t stick,” Olly added.

“Your sister’s damn lucky you showed up when you did.” Kim stared across the table at Olly. “Just sucks that you had to jail time while her attacker got off Scott free.”

“Yeah, well…that family had money. Lots of it. The only solace I have is knowing they divorced a year later, and he had a massive stroke six months after that. Dickhead’s been sipping his meals through a straw and drooling all over his bib ever since.”

“Guess Karma really is a bitch,” Declan groused.

“Asshole got off easy, if you ask me.”

All eyes moved to Olly who was staring back at his sister with a look of fierce anger and regret.

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