Page 8 of Heart of Stone (Dark Billionaires)

Warren nodded. That’s what Paul had said too. “Is it password protected?”

“Yes,” she confirmed shakily. “The password is Aaron01121989 in brackets. With a capital A.”

Good. Paul hadn’t been able to tell him that. Brax’s team had gotten into it anyway, but it was nice to think she was starting off by being truthful. “And where is the laptop?”

“In the leather pouffe in the living room.”

Another truth. Warren pulled out his phone as it buzzed. He flicked through a message from Rhys concerning an upcoming board meeting.Thatwas something he could deal with later. Afterwards, he pulled the box file towards him, ready to lay out what he’d compiled. He took the first photograph out. A grainy image taken from the security cameras inside Charlton’s Gentlemen’s Club. The cheap, shitty cameras courtesy of Paul Charlton. “Tell me about this man.”

Kate slid the photograph towards her, peering closely. “I don’t know him.”

He tried another—to the same result. A different man, albeit one guilty of the same crime as the first.

“I don’t know him. I’m sorry, Warren.”

The third photograph was of a woman wearing nothing except a terrified expression. Black boxes had been strategically placed to conceal her modesty.

“She looks petrified,” his kitten observed, her brows drawing together in sympathy. “Is that a bruise on her cheek?”

“You tell me,” Warren replied softly. She was the one who’d handled the transaction. Or did she prefer not to see the evidence of herbookkeeping? He pulled out the next three photos. All nude women. All dishevelled.

Kate’s eyes were as round as saucers. “These were all taken at my father’s club?”

He didn’t answer her. They both knew the truth. Instead, he pulled out photocopies of four pages in the club’s ledger and placed each above the photographs of the corresponding women. “What was it you said? You handle the company’s ledgers, and yet you’ve no idea who these women are.”

“Why would the two things be connected?”

Feeling his eyebrow quirk, he began setting out the worst photographs. One after another, he laid them out, ignoring Kate’s fake gasps of horror. They overlapped by the time he’d finished. “Look,” he commanded her, standing to grab her by the back of the neck and force her face forwards. “Don’t youdarelook away.”

She turned her anguished eyes on the photographs, her lips twisting in revulsion. “Why are you showing me these?”

“Because I want you to look at what you facilitated. Do they look like consenting women to you?”

Kate shook her head. A choke came out of her as she recognised a familiar face. “Is that myfather?”

“Yes, kitten. That’s your father.” He’d hidden the identities of the women, but he hadn’t bothered with the men.

She shoved the photograph away as if it burned her. “I didn’t know he…” she trailed off.

“What? Partook of the goods?” Warren suggested.

“Thegoods?”

“Was that not what you recorded them as on the ledgers?” he bit out, feeling a palpable sense of satisfaction as he watched her throat moving uncomfortably, her skin a distinct shade of grey. “Perhaps you’d like me to chec—”

Kate lurched to her feet unsteadily, spraying vomit across the cold, soulless room. It splattered wetly onto the congealed blood left behind by her father. Each heave wracked her body, until she finally sank to her knees and wept.

Warren was hit with an uncomfortable thought. During his interrogation, Paul had painted Kate as a co-conspirator. A partner in crime. She’d been there at every turn, he’d said. As his bookkeeper, Kate knew more about the business than he did. Every woman trafficked. Every crime committed.

What if he’s trying to pin the human trafficking on Kate like he tried to pin Aaron’s death on me?

No one had listened to Warren when he’d protested his innocence. And Kate…

What if I’m making the same mistake they did?

Fuck.

Warren shrugged his jacket off his shoulders and tucked it over hers. “Come on,” he said softly, scooping her into his arms.

---