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The contrast to his earlier certainty had her nearly laughing at the absurdity of this situation. “You recruited my brother to help figure out how much criminal activity our mother is involved in and you haven’t told Callum any of this?”
That last part she was guessing, but from the twist of Pierce’s mouth, she knew she’d hit the mark.
“Perfect, wow, just perfect,” Shay said.
“You can’t tell him,” Beau cut in. “This is an ongoing investigation. You can’t jeopardize it.”
“Oh, you’re law enforcement now?” Shay asked. She didn’t know if she was doing a good job conveying how ridiculous she found that—given the two bodies in his wake—but she gave it the old government try. “You?”
“I want Hillary to stop hurting people,” he said quietly. “She’s lived her life like a wrecking ball. Every decision leaving casualties in its wake.Everything she did to all of us? That was small potatoes. I’m tired of her not facing any consequences for her actions.”
She had never realized before how much Beau was driven by this sense of fairness. You did bad things, you had to pay for them. And if no one else would take care of that, he was going to do it himself. Maybe he couldn’t make himself kill Hillary—or maybe he thought he wouldn’t be able to get away with it a third time—but she could see in his expression that was the kind of justice he wanted. For himself, for his family. For whoever was currently carrying the bruises from Hillary’s actions.
“Okay,” she said, with a sigh. “I won’t tell anyone.”
Pierce looked between them, nodded once, and then headed for the door. “You two can find your way out.”
“Hey,” she called out to stop him. “Is this why you warned me to stay away from Callum?”
For a second, she thought he might lie. But he studied her face and then met her eyes.
“No,” he said. “I wanted you to stay away because I don’t think you’re good for him.”
Shay absorbed the judgment and nodded. “That makes two of us.”
“Asshole,” Beau spit out, and took a threatening step toward him, but Shay grabbed his arm.
Pierce barely spared them another look before ducking out the door.
“Well,” Shay said, staring at Pierce’s desk. He must not keep anything of importance in here if he had just left them alone. Still, she couldn’t completely snuff out her urge to snoop.
“Shay,” Beau chided when she rounded the desk, but the reprimand was perfunctory. He was as nosy as she was.
But her initial assessment had been correct. There was nothing to see on Pierce’s desk, and opening drawers seemed a step too far.
“All right, let’s go,” Shay said, eager to get out of this place. She wasn’t going to be able to tell Callum about this, and she was already itchy at the thought of lying to him like that.
They made their way to the parking lot.
“Hey,” Beau said, nudging her shoulder, “I appreciate that you were going to confront me instead of siccing Callum on me. When you thought I was the Alphabet Man.”
“It wasn’t exactly a smart decision,” Shay admitted.
Beau laughed. “I didn’t call it smart.”
And then he took off to his car without a backward glance. Shay watched him go and felt both stupid and fond about him.
She was just pulling out her own keys when she heard a familiar voice.
“Shay?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Raisa
Now
Raisa and Kilkenny stepped into the hallway, leaving Conrad behind.