Page 107 of Rio

“You don’t get to have a say in it, Knight.”

I hang up, and switch my cell phone off.

Chapter 35

RIO

I call Raquel back when she hangs up again, because goddamnit, she doesn’t believe me.But her cell phone goes straight to voice mail.

She doesn’t want to talk to me and now I feel a piece of me start to fray, tearing at the seams.Raquel wants nothing to do with me.Only because she thinks I did this to her.That I set her up.

I sit at my desk staring at my phone like maybe if I hold it long enough, this will all go away.Like if I call her now, she’ll pick up and say it was a joke.That she wanted to prank me.That the court didn’t throw out the injunction, her name isn’t ruined, and I didn’t give her the very thing that destroyed her.

But it’s not a joke, it’s the truth.

The data I gave her, thinking it would help, the data I used as excuse just to see her again, is what broke us apart.

I didn’t lie when I told her it came from a reliable source.I thought it did.I thought it had been thoroughly vetted, but I now see what I should have been smart enough to see then.It was too convenient.Too perfectly timed.

Just like Dex said.

Me being in Belize, the same time that Raquel was.Working on the same case.The old man knew.He always knows.He’s like some cruel God who plays with people’s lives.An all-seeing bastard who thrives on ruin.

I shove back from my desk, my mind spinning now that I suddenly see what I should have seen all along.

This wasn’t fate.This was calculated.This was all him.He’s capable of much more than I’ve ever led myself to believe.

I storm out of my office and down the hall, jaw clenched so tight I feel a molar crack.I don’t even wait for his assistant.I shove the door open to find him sitting behind his desk, looking amused before he even sees my face.

He’s been waiting for me, knowing about the injunction being thrown out.Funny how he still hasn’t said a word to me.

“You gave me that data,” I hiss, barely recognizing my own voice.“You said it was from a third-party.That it was verified and clean.”

“I did, and it was,” he says coolly.

I stare at him.“You knew it was falsified.”

He says nothing, but his cold-as-ice eyes look back at me, his lips turn up at the corners.The fucker is smirking.“Something wrong?”

“You know perfectly well what’s wrong.”I stand across from him, fists buried deep in my pockets, shaking with restraint.Every cell in my body screaming to punch him as I struggle to contain my fury.

“You knew Raquel was on the case, didn’t you?That’s why you sent me to Belize.”

“Knew?”He sits back in his chair.“The court needed a reason to throw it out.I gave them one.”

“You used me.”

“No,” he says, almost gleeful now.“I handed you the match.You’re the one who lit it.”

My breath stutters.I want to hit something.Throw something.But I don’t.Instead, I hear my own voice crack.“You wanted to destroy Raquel?”

“She was never the target.Not directly.She was just collateral.”

“Then?Iwas the target?”I ask, in disbelief.Me,his son?“Why?”

“You needed to be taught a lesson.Helping Dex, ganging up on me with your brothers, fighting me, going against me.Me?”His voice lifts a little at the end, the only clue I have that he’s barely keeping it together.

This is about AO Eletronica.It all clicks into place.He was pissed when we helped wrest control of that company back to its rightful owner.