Sinner sits down beside Mom, hauling me onto his lap. Lifting her head, Mom pierces me with a look loaded with regret and guilt.
“Shut your face, whore.” The man holding Alisha’s skinny frame grabs her by the hair, pushing her toward the table. She screams, arms and legs flailing as the man throws her forward, slamming her head down on the table with force.
Galen shouts and curses, screaming at the asshole to leave his mom alone. His body contorts when he tries to move his chair, pain spreading across his face. One of Sinner’s men punches him in the face, and it’s killing me to stand idly by while this happens. Rage flows through my veins, and I’m seconds away from saying fuck the mission.
Alisha is dumped unceremoniously in the chair on the other side of Sinner, and she’s not looking so hot. Her eyes are rolling back in her head as she curls into a ball, bending her knees against her chest. Blood trickles from her nostrils, dripping down over her chin, and a nasty lump is already swelling on her forehead.
I purposely ignore looking at the guys, focusing on doing what needs to be done.
“Now that everyone’s here,” Sinner says. “We can move things along.” When he shifts underneath me, his disgusting erection digs into my ass, and I almost lose it. Acid licks a path up my throat, but I keep it together, forcing a full-body shudder to retreat.
“As I was saying, I know you and your mother are working with the FBI in an attempt to take me down.” Sinner clucks his tongue. “Such stupid, stupid girls.” Reaching out, he grabs the armrest of Mom’s chair, pulling her in close. “You were my everything, princess,” he says to Mom, gripping her chin.
His gun is still pressed to my head, but the arm around my waist is gone now, and I could make a move, but my gut tells me to hold firm.
“Why’d you have to ruin everything by leaving me for that prick Trey? Everything would be different if you’d just stayed.”
Dry tear tracks streak Mom’s cheeks, and her eyes are clear and targeted. Her chin juts up as she eyeballs her ex-fiancé. “You’re a thug, Neo. A criminal. A serial murderer. A rapist.”
He slaps her cheek, and her head whips back.
My fingers inch up my stomach.
Mom smiles at him, her cheek bearing the imprint of his hand. “Falling in love with Trey Westbrook was as easy as breathing, proving what we shared was nothing.” She points between her and Sinner. “You mean nothing to me.”
Sinner slaps her again, yanking her head back, and I warn Mom to tone it down with my eyes. If she continues pushing him, he’ll kill her.
I’ve already lost one parent. I am not losing another on my watch.
“Your love was a death sentence!” Sinner roars. “He’d still be alive if you hadn’t left me. That’s on your conscience.”
“No,” I speak up, needing to deflect him from Mom. “It’s on yours. You murdered my father so you could clear a path to my mom, because you knew there was no way she’d ever look at you as long as Trey Westbrook was alive.”
“You think you know everything, little girl, but you know nothing.” He jabs the gun into my crotch. “I didn’t kill your father.”
“Liar,” I hiss. “You’ve already admitted it.”
He flashes me that stupid-ass grin. “Because I wanted you to believe it.”
“Now you’re saying you didn’t kill Trey? You expect us to believe it?” Mom asks, lifting a brow.
“I was getting ready to kill him, and my plan was way more fun than a staged car accident, but Homeland beat me to it.”
Genuine shock splays across my face. “Why the fuck would Homeland want to kill my dad?” I ask although my brain has already started connecting the dots. Sinner grips my chin tighter, grinning as he waits for me to work it out. “They were looking for the files.”
“Ding, ding, ding.” Sinner swipes a beer, knocking it back, while Mom and I trade concerned looks.
“What was on those files?” Theo asks, speaking louder so his voice carries from his table.
“You mean your little FBI contact didn’t tell you?” Sinner gloats. I’m glad he doesn’t seem to know about Diesel, or the fact the commissioner isn’t dead, but he could be bluffing to draw me into telling him the truth. Mom’s face is immobile as she goes along with it too.
I shake my head. “No. Care to enlighten me?”
“You know, Harlow, this would’ve turned out differently if you’d just trusted me.” He caresses my face, keeping his gun pressed against my pussy, ensuring I can’t make any move.
I snort. “You’re fucking joking, right? You’re the least trustworthy person I know.”
“Then you’ve been hanging around the wrong people.” He rubs his thumb along my lower lip.
Mom flinches, but I warn her with my eyes. Now that we’ve got him talking, we don’t want him to stop.
“I’m one of the most loyal people you could meet—as long as you don’t betray me.” His eyes are like poisonous laser beams as he stabs his gaze in Saint and Galen’s direction. His hostility toward Theo and Caz isn’t as severe, because they’re not blood, but there’s no doubt whatever punishment he has in mind is for all of us.
“Maybe if you’d told me about the files, I would’ve admitted I had them,” I bluster.
“Then I would’ve had to tell you everything, and you’d done nothing to earn my trust.”
“I killed the commissioner for you.”
“You did, but I know there was some ulterior motive. And we’ll get to the bottom of that before the night is done.”
Alisha moans on our other side, blinking as she falls in and out of consciousness.
Sinner grabs one of her bare breasts, squeezing hard. “Worthless junkie whore.”
I want to snatch his hand back, but he’s got a gun pressed to the most precious part of my body, and I’m taking no chances. “Tell me what was on those Homeland files, and I’ll tell you about the commissioner,” I lie.
“We were hired by Homeland Security to retrieve those files. A disgruntled employee had stolen them. Apparently, he was planning on releasing them to the public and he had to be stopped.” Sinner has the undivided attention of every person in the room, and it’s obvious that even the board members weren’t fully aware of the situation.
Of course, Sinner is lapping up the attention, grinning as he continues explaining. “The files contained details of a terrorist plot against the US. The terrorists were stopped when they were on US soil, and Homeland ensured nothing was leaked to the public because they didn’t want anyone to discover that a US-owned private company was the one to supply them with weapons and artillery.”
“Why the fuck would Homeland hire you to stop one of their own?” Saint spits out.
“They wanted this done off the record, with no trace back to them, because the head of Homeland and the head of VERO are both on the board of the private company who sold the weapons to terrorists.”
“Oh my God.” The words slip from my mouth. “This is so fucked up.”
Sinner barks out a laugh. “For once, we agree on something.”
“How did my father end up with those files?” I wonder if he knew what was on them. If that’s why he hid them. Why he didn’t tell anyone. And fuck. Does Diesel know about his boss? Is this what’s happening here? Is he trying to protect him? My mind churns with endless possibilities.