Page 49 of Undeniably Corrupt (Boston’s Irresistible Billionaires #7)

I do. I think. Possibly not, hence the hyperventilation. But I force myself to step out of my car, my keys in my hand, including the key to Vander’s house that I have sticking through two fingers in case I need to use it as a weapon.

The black SUV is a few spots over. The burnished orange light streaming down from the lamppost creates a circle between us. Without a word, I traverse it, heading straight to the man who threatened me and my child this morning. The man who claims he’s working for my father.

“What’s your name?” I ask as I approach him.

He’s standing tall with his dark hair pulled tightly back and his hitman suit on. “Larry.”

I snort a laugh. “Really? You couldn’t come up with a better fake name than that?”

“Who lies and says their name is Larry?”

Touché.

“Is that what my father calls you?”

“Yes.”

“What does the FBI call you? Since I know Vincent Vega isn’t it.”

His expression doesn’t alter as he searches my face, but if he’s surprised that I know he’s undercover FBI, he doesn’t show it. Then again, Vander could have this all wrong, and this man is everything to be feared and not sought out.

“I don’t think hitmen actually wear those types of clothes. They’re a bit conspicuous, don’t you think?”

My hands fall to my sides, but he notes the key between my fingers and smirks. Yeah, it’s not much. I brought a key to a… I don’t even know what you’d call this party, but I’m not stupid enough to believe he doesn’t have a gun on him somewhere.

“Why are you following me?” I ask, trying to feel him out a bit more before I put my cards on the table.

“Why are you texting your mother things you shouldn’t? Are you trying to get everyone killed?”

I grin, but there’s no warmth in it. “Did you know he beats the shit out of her? That he’s cracked ribs and made organs bleed but never takes her to the hospital because he can’t allow a record of any kind to be made.

Did you know when Cassian and I were young, she had a miscarriage after he kicked her down the stairs? ”

He doesn’t so much as flinch, but there’s a small shift in his gaze that tells me he didn’t know that.

My father hides it well, never hitting her anywhere visible.

Cass and I never talked about it. Not even with each other.

It was just one of those things that stayed silent and corroded us from the inside out. Still, I don’t think this dude cares.

“He must pay you well to do his bidding. You didn’t kill Cass. I know that. I saw the men who did. That’s how all of this started for me. I overheard them discussing their evils, and for reasons I still don’t understand, my father let me live.”

He doesn’t reply, and frustration rolls through me.

“Why are you here? Why are you following me?”

“I’m here to deliver a message.”

I scoff and roll my eyes. “For both our sakes, I hope that’s not true. What threat did my father ask you to give me?”

“Hazel.”

“That motherfucker,” slips past my lips with a bitter laugh.

“She’s two and a half. Is he really threatening me with that?

” I’m ready to kill this asshole where he stands.

My father really knows no bounds. Then again, he did have his own child murdered.

I always wondered what Cass knew that tipped my father over the edge.

“You’re going to do that? You’re going to murder my child? ”

“If I must. If you’re telling people things you shouldn’t, you’re essentially doing the same.”

“Wow. You’re a real hero. And here I was hoping you were actually FBI.” My heart rate starts to spike. “I was hoping I could talk to you and you’d help me after I told you everything. I was hoping you’d take my father into custody, and that would finally fucking be that.”

“That’s not how it works, Liora.”

“Then tell me how it works!” I yell, my hands flying about as frustration bleeds into anger and sarcasm.

“Tell me how it’s done. Tell me how short of driving up to Maine and burying my father alive so he dies slowly while knowing he’s dying and has no way out, that I can get rid of him and make my child, my boyfriend, and my mother safe. ”

His eyebrows bounce. “Burying him alive?”

I shift my weight and stare down at the cracked asphalt, sweaty and a bit wild. “I’ve had years of fantasies, and being buried alive sounds awful, so yeah.”

He makes a noise that almost sounds amused. “You opened your mouth. You told people things you shouldn’t have. You set these wheels in motion.”

This is where the key comes in if I need it. I lift my chin and meet his eyes. “Meaning what?”

My phone rings in my pocket. Crap. “Check it.”

“No.”

“Check it.”

I sigh, and when I see it’s Vander, I send it to voicemail. He’s going to be supersonically mad, but right now, I don’t have a choice.

He smirks and cocks an eyebrow at my pocket, where I just returned my phone. “Meaning Vander knows too much, and the wheels for that are already in motion, so stabbing me with your key is futile.”

That’s what I thought he was going to say. That’s why I’m here. This is what I have to do.

“He doesn’t, though. I haven’t told him anything.

Not one thing. The texts to my mother weren’t about that.

And stabbing you with anything could never be futile.

” I shake my head. “I digress. This is because my father’s paranoid I’ll be stupid and open my mouth, which I never would.

I was hoping you were FBI. I was hoping that my father was reading my mother’s texts and that he’d send you to me with a threat, but you’d actually be FBI and would help.

Clearly, I was wrong.” I swallow, my insides being ripped from me as I ask, “If I walk away and never see or speak to Vander again, will he be allowed to live?”