Page 58 of Silent Vendetta (Vendetta Duet)

“I’ll call you later,” I promised Sean in an upbeat tone, as if that could downplay Grayson’s ominous one.

Sean hesitated for a few more seconds, his gaze pinballing between me and Grayson before he took a step back and glared at me like I had just betrayed him.

I watched with barbed wires ensnaring my heart as Sean stalked away from me, got into his Uber, and drove off.

“Luna?” Dad’s voice came over the phone. “Is everything okay?”

CHAPTER27

Hunter

“Care to tell me what the hell is going on?” Uncle Alexander stormed into my bedroom, where I’d just finished tying my tie.

I turned away from the mirror and eyed his fingers flexing with a fleeting panic that he might’ve uncovered my secret double life.

“Regarding?” I asked.

My uncle pulled up his phone and turned the screen to my face.

“Some whistleblower talking about embezzlement.”

What the hell? I had no idea what he was talking about, but this was the last priority right now. “Embezzlement?”

“An inflammatory word for an accounting discrepancy.”

I took his phone and skimmed the article, shocked by many parts. One of which clarified an open question for me…

“So the missing money meant something?”

Alexander’s eyes tightened. “What missing money?”

I handed his phone back, my mind racing with this information.

“I’ve been looking into Dad’s murder,” I reminded him.

There was that look of pity Alexander always gave me whenever I brought this up. I knew what he thought—that I was letting this Moby Dick of a goose chase hold me back in life.

“And what does that have to do with this whistleblower?” Alexander pressed.

A dread tugged at my gut. “Whistleblower, no idea. But missing money…” This was important, so important, I needed time to process what it meant.

“Look, I can explain later, but right now, I need to go.”

“You have something more pressing than reporters slaughtering your father’s reputation?”

Dad’s honorable image had been important to Alexander. Guilt snared my bones at what Alexander might think when he found outmyreal identity.

“I have court.”

Actually, that was inaccurate.Lunahad court.

Over the last two and a half days, Luna had buried herself in preparing for this hearing. She prepared her father, secured him a suit to be arranged at the courthouse, and had been reviewing all of his files in addition to having conversations with Barry about his ongoing investigation—which, by the way, had officially breached the forty-eight-hour window, but he assured me he was close.

Meanwhile, there were so many times in the last couple of days I almost pulled Luna aside again, begging her to tell me how she felt. Sometimes, I’d catch her looking at me with love, but sometimes, it was with something darker—as if something weighed on her mind, something she wasn’t sharing with me. But I’d resisted the temptation to confront her.

Until today. After court, I hoped to find out where she stood with her feelings.

But today’s court hearing posed another complication.

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