“No, we fucking couldn’t,” Rogue snapped.
I couldn’t even look at him. I breathed in again, this time hating how I smelled like sex and Rogue Kelly’s cologne.
“Scar, he’s telling the truth,” Godfrey said, surprisingly sober.
“Then tell me why.”
“You don’t want to know,” Rogue gritted out.
“Screw you, Rogue Kelly. You don’t get to tell me what I do and don’t want to know. It was us against the world. Always. I want to know why you threw that away. I want to know what you didn’t trust me with.”
“If we tell you, you’ll hate us,” Rogue said, sounding pained and out of character, but I was too mad to let it soften me.
“I hate you now,” I retorted.
Luis shook his head. “No you don’t, Scar. But you will.” He looked at the others before settling on Rogue. “Tell her.”
“No,” Rogue growled. “It’s not safe.”
“Then I’m done,” I reminded him. “You let me walk out that door, and I will never speak to you again. Ever. I’ll convince my mama to send me away, and I’ll forget any of you ever existed.”
Rogue was on me in a second. His hands grasped my arms, hard enough to bruise. “You’re not leaving me.” He sounded desperate and addicting. Watching him cling to me like that had me ready to fight even more.
Prove it Rogue, prove how far you’re willing to go to keep me.
I glared up at him. “Try me.”
We stared at one another for a moment, and I watched his eyes for signs that he’d made a decision. I saw each emotion flicker across his features. The anger, the frustration, the… hopelessness. I knew the moment he’d decided, and the vise around my heart loosed a tiny bit.
“Sit down. It’s a long story.”
For a moment, I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly. Was he actually going to tell me? I quickly scrambled away as he released my arm, then went to sit on the bed that we’d just fucked on. His eyes heated when I crossed my legs so that I didn’t flash anybody since he still had my panties. Twisted asshole.
“Stop giving her bedroom eyes and spit it out,” Luis said with a chuckle before pulling up Rogue’s desk chair and straddling it, resting his arms on the back.
“You know Mr. Taylor’s clients, right? I mean, your father works with him, so I’m sure you’re aware that they aren’t the best people,” Rogue said, and my eyes sliced to Godfrey. He was staring at the ground, but he had his hands balled into fists at his sides. I ran over my memory, thinking about everything I’d ever learned about the Taylor’s law firm. I remembered that client list Daddy was looking for the other day with Johnny Jack’s name on it.
“Yeah, I know Godfrey’s father’s clients. Everyone knows his clients. He makes it so that guilty criminals walk.” It was an oversimplification, but efficiently got the point across.
“And how do you think he does that?” Rogue asked. I looked up at the ceiling while crossing my arms over my chest, trying to think of all that I’d learned from eavesdropping on Daddy. “He pays off judges. Finds loopholes. The usual shady lawyer shit?”
“Sure, sometimes. But you ever wonder how evidence always just… disappears? Or loses its validity?” Rogue countered.
“Well, yeah, but it’s not like I’m privy to that sort of insider information. Daddy still thinks I play with dolls. He’s not going to be sharing that information any time soon.” I rolled my eyes to emphasize how annoyingly sexist I found him to be.
“Well,” Rogue began, looking at the others. “We...make the evidence disappear.”
I blinked in disbelief. “You…wait. What?”
This time, it was Godfrey that stepped up and answered. “We started doing it a few years ago. My father said it was helping the family business,” he said bitterly. “It was easy enough at first. He would just give us a storage unit and we’d go shred shit. Most of the time, it was bank statements and contracts. Money laundering shit. Nothing major. The jobs he had us do were easy money, and by doing them, I got him off my back.”
I squinted at his choice of words. I’d always had my suspicions about Mr. Taylor and Godfrey’s relationship, but now I wondered even more. That was incredibly illegal. And to have his own son involved? That seemed downright dangerous. “So, what does that have to do with me?”
“We had one clean up job that we just couldn’t do,” Bonham said. I turned to look at him and my stomach dropped when I saw his dark green eyes. He was practically shaking with anger as he spoke. “Seven months ago, when we got to the storage unit, it was full of photos, of...of girls. Tied up. Gagged. Some of them...dead.”
The blood drained from my face. “What?”
“We couldn’t do it,” Luis explained with the shake of his head. “We couldn’t destroy that shit. Not something like that. But we couldn’t bring the evidence to the police, either. Not only would they arrest us for tampering with evidence, but it would ruin Godfrey’s family. Mr. Taylor would go to prison. We could go to prison. And then the gang doing all of this fucked up shit would still find a way to get away with it. That’s what happens in this world.”
“So what happened with the photos?” I asked, trying to wrap my head around everything.
“We’re not telling you. The less you know, the safer you are,” Rogue interrupted before anyone else could answer my question. Visions of being tortured into spilling information filtered through my mind.
“That guy at the train tracks said his name was Dean O’Banion. What did he want with me?”
“They must have finally figured out that we took it,” Godfrey answered grimly. “Honestly, I’m surprised it’s taken them this long.” He appeared unaffected as he spoke, but I saw the way his chest was heaving with barely constrained anger and hints of fear.
“And what did your father say about you stealing the evidence?” I asked.
Godfrey looked away. “He didn’t know.”
I rubbed my forehead, trying to sort through everything.
“We pushed you away right after we stole the evidence, because we knew that if they found out, you’d be in danger. We knew that they’d probably kill us and anyone close to us, and it was only a matter of time. My father’s clean up jobs have gotten worse and worse lately. So we took a vote,” Godfrey said, exchanging glances with the others. “We decided to push you away before shit hit the fan, and make sure everyone knew that you were nothing to us. Johnny Jack likes to punish his enemies by kidnapping girls close to them. We had to separate you from us publicly as much as possible.” Godfrey explained.
“How did he find out?” I asked.
Rogue and Godfrey shared a look. “I’ve been going through the evidence,” Rogue admitted. “A couple of weeks ago, I tried accessing the USB drive, thinking it would have more clues or photos with the members of Johnny Jack’s crew to incriminate them, but it must have pinged them, because O’Banion started sniffing around us more than ever, making shady comments and threats. He was there when I caught you smoking weed under the bleachers,” Rogue said, and my stomach tightened. “That’s why I had to get you out of there as quickly as possible.”