Page 45 of Free to Judge

“No, I don’t send them Christmas cards every year,” he snaps.

“Wow. So not what I was going to ask, but good to know.”

“Sorry. You were asking?”

“If youwerethe one undercover, would Tanya—your partner—have executed the same protocols if you’d had the same meeting with her?” The question is brutal but necessary.

It takes a while, but his barely audible, “Yes,” sounds like a shout in the quiet of my living room.

I feel the sting of the guilt Declan still carries twist my gut, but I don’t let it dissuade me from getting my answers. “How did my family get involved?”

“Your family has their own vendetta against the Byrnes.”

“Why?”

“Your father has been working to shut them down from a multitude of angles. Quietly. Legally. The problem is that these people are smart. They have connections that go back decades—business, politics, people you wouldn’t expect.”

“They can’t catch them?”

“They can in other ways but that could take years. They have too many favors owed to them. But since they placed me in a position to have access to their records, we’re getting close.” His eye twitches in the corner. There’s something he’s not telling me.

“What are you hiding?” My voice is crackling with uncertainty.

He doesn’t answer my question directly. “My position at Hudson initially started because your father wanted me to give him every last detail about the individual. He wants this person annihilated—no, I think even that’s too soft of a word.”

The shudder that ripples up my spine at his words is the kind you get when someone dances on your grave. I already know theanswer based on what I overheard, but I need for him to confirm it. “Who?”

He lets out a deep breath. “Your paternal grandfather—Jack Marshall. He’s their right-hand man.”

His words steal the breath from my lungs as the fear my father must be experiencing comes full circle. My dad’s biological father hasn’t been heard from in years, but no one worries about it because he hasn’t brought it up. I’m certain most of the family assumes he is dead.

Instead, my father’s been hunting him. “What does he want with him?”

Declan stares at me. “The same thing I want with Tanya’s murder—justice.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The next morning,I receive a new text from Declan that sets my heart fluttering. I try to disregard my physical reaction but it’s no use. Instead, I’m left with wondering what’s going to happen later in the night to come.

Declan:

Did you sleep after I left?

Kalie:

Let’s just say I’m grateful it’s the weekend.

Declan:

Again tonight?

Kalie:

Sure.

“How are you holding up after discussing what happened to Tanya last night?”

“Honesty?”