Page 52 of Fighting for Scarlett

But now …

Now she wasn’t sure she had the energy to take on more problems than the ones already on her plate.

Another lifetime and they could have been really happy together. In this lifetime … it was already too late.

Still, when his fingers curled around hers again, she couldn’t help the giddy little thrill she felt at holding hands. Was she really so desperate for love and attention that holding hands with a man who had made no secret out of not liking her and believing the worst without even giving her a chance was enough to make her heart race and her stomach cartwheel?

Pathetic.

“The park is right around the corner,” Tate said softly. “I'm thinking we hole up there until it’s light. Raul wants to stay under the radar, I don’t think he’d want his men trying anything in broad daylight. Once the sun comes up, we’ll get you someplace safe, and I’ll head into Prey.”

“Why can't I come with you to Prey?” If Raul Castillo was hunting her then there would be no safer place for her to be.

After a moment’s hesitation, Tate’s fingers tightened around her own. “Because I think there might be a mole at Prey.”

That shocked her enough that she jerked to a stop. “A mole? At Prey?”

That was crazy.

There was no mole at Prey.

Sure, there had been an incident years before she joined the company involving Fox and his now-wife, Evie. A mole at Prey had leaked her location when she was hiding from a crime boss with a hit out on her. Because of that, Evie had almost been killed.

But that was a long time ago, and Eagle was even stricter now when he hired people.

Especially after his own wife—well, now wife, at the time they’d just both been attracted to one another—had been hired under false pretenses. Since Olivia had really been working for Eagle’s brother Falcon, everything had worked out okay, and in the end, Eagle had managed to earn Olivia’s trust back and win her heart.

“How else do you explain the email and the fact that Raul knew about the Reactivator?” Tate asked.

There was no way she could deny there was some logic to the theory, but still … a mole at Prey?

Impossible.

“If you have another idea, I'm open to hearing it, Scarlett,” Tate continued. “Because as far as I see it, there are only three options. One, you're lying to everyone, and you really did intend to sell the drug to Raul Castillo.” When she snarled at him, he smiled and chuckled. “Didn't say I was going with that option. Two, Raul somehow made contact with you and managed to force your hand. If that happened, I hope you would have told someone so they could help you. But even if that’s what happened, it doesn’t explain how he knew about the drug to begin with. Prey keeps things close to the chest until they're ready. Or three, somebody set you up.”

That was the theory she and her team had figured out before they left the other night.

But, somehow, she hadn't really connected the idea to a mole at Prey.

That hurt almost worse than being accused of being a traitor. Because it meant that somebody she loved and trusted had set out to betray her. They had written those emails specifically to make her look guilty, and they had allowed her to be kidnapped and tortured, knowing it would eventually lead to her death.

“You're the one who’s been saying all along you were innocent,” Tate reminded her. “This is the only theory that supports that. Someone at Prey set you up.”

“Who?” she whispered. Who would do that to her?

“I don’t know. You're going to have to think about it and make a list. I'm guessing not a lot of people knew about the Reactivator so it’s going to be a short list.”

The problem was, everybody on that list was somebody she cared about.

Her team.

Fox and his team.

Eagle and probably some of his siblings and their partners, although most of them ran their own teams and left dealing with every single detail up to Eagle.

Prey’s lawyer.

A couple of the people who worked in the lab with them.

---