Page 52 of Corrupted Deception

“They stopped taking orders and started deciding on their own what to do with their skills.”

Highly skilled vigilantes. Interesting.

Ray stopped in front of us, but instead of nudging Charlotte for an obligatory pet, he shoved his cold nose beneath my hand.

Charlotte went very still, barely breathing, as I stroked the dog’s head and scratched behind his ear before he sauntered off again.

“It seems Ray likes you,” she mused, her voice quiet.

I shrugged. “I’m a likable guy.”

She didn’t laugh. Just kept staring at my hand.

“Declan,” she said after a moment. “My dad’s name is Declan Ryan.”

I could feel the weight of her admission, like she was offering up something valuable to her. I’d felt that weight before. It wended its way inside my chest now, just like it had then.

“Grazie,” I said quietly, but she brushed it off with a wave of her hand and hopped down off the table.

This was Charlotte shutting down and closing up.

“What makes you so sure your dad’s still alive?” I asked, knowing it would either send the walls soaring up or bring them crashing down. There were few in-betweens with Charlotte.

She stood still for a moment, then leaned back against the table.

“We were in a village in the Central African Republic a few years ago,” she said, her gaze on the road beyond the lot, but I had a feeling she was seeing much further.

“The fear in that place was a tangible thing in the air all the time, but no government wanted to step in.” She shrugged. “There was no money in it, no natural resources to exploit, you know?”

I nodded but kept silent, waiting for her to continue.

“The rebels came in the middle of the night. The things they do to human beings… it’s not—they’renot—human.” She shook her head, and I could almost feel the atrocities she’d witnessed like they lived on her skin, had been imprinted into her soul.

“I was in the medical tent, helping a woman give birth—her name was Sylvie.” She smiled wistfully, but it fell away quickly. “There were so many of them, Cielo. We held ground, but it cost us—nine died.”

She closed her eyes as Ray came over and leaned his big head against her thigh like he was comforting her.

“I found out later my dad hesitated,” she said as she stroked Ray’s head idly, “and he did that because it was an eleven-year-old boy who came at him with an AK-47. The kid shot him—no hesitation there—and they took him, for ransom, maybe, or just because they could.

“I thought that was it. I was sure my dad was dead, but Aiden made me promise to stay and protect the village, and then he went after him. He came back eleven days later with my dad in tow.” Her lips curved in another ghost of a smile as she laughed wistfully, a quiet sound that was little more than a breath. “He looked like shit, but he was alive.”

She pushed off the picnic table and turned to face me. “And I’ve got a dozen more stories like it. He comes back, Cielo. Healwayscomes back.”

It was a flicker of hope in a dark sea of futility, but I got the feeling she needed to hold onto it. Maybe it was the only thing keeping her going.

“All right, count me in,” I said. I could rationalize it if I wanted to—there were still men out there, possibly tied to her father’s disappearance, who’d tried to get their hands on Luciano product and killed one of our men in the process—but who the hell was I kidding?

She looked at me, eyebrows raised. “This isn’t your problem, Cielo. I still don’t know why—”

“I told you why.”

“Because you knew a girl once?” she asked, brow furrowed.

I looked at her, realizing just how well and truly fucked I was.

“I still do.”

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