Page 97 of Second Chance Savior

“I was seeing her.”

“While you were still with Charlotte?”

“No. I mean, okay, yes.”

“This is your way of convincing me you deserve to live?” I held up the knife again, and more words poured out of him.

“Wait! After I moved to Hartley, Lori was stuck back in Denver, and she wasn’t happy. We both wanted a way out. She told me about a list with the name of every mole that Stillwater has inside the government. She didn’t have a copy yet, but she was sure shecouldget it. We’d buy our freedom, both of us, in exchange for not making the list public.”

“Plus a few million dollars, I’m assuming? I’m sure you told Lori you would whisk her away to a fabulous new life on some exotic island. The two of you could be together forever. Am I getting warm?”

Jud glared at me. “Money is the only thing that buys security. I was short on options.”

“But when you issued your ultimatum to Stillwater, they weren’t as cooperative as you’d hoped.”

He looked chagrined. “It took a long time for Lori to get her hands on the list. She had to make sure it wouldn’t be traced back to her. But she finally managed it and sent the hard drive with the info to me in Hartley. I contacted Stillwater and made the demand about two weeks ago.”

“Did you look at the list?”

“Why did I care what it said? I had them over a barrel. If that list got out, it would be catastrophic to their business. But right after I sent my demand, I lost contact with Lori.”

I set the knife on the shelf as I listened. I didn’t need it anymore. Jud was on a roll.

“I had no idea what was going on. Still, I tried to stay calm and be patient. Stillwater wouldn’t dare strike out at us or risk that the list would get out. But then just a few days ago, I got an email. It had a picture of Lori.Dead. They’d killed her. You don’t want to know how.”

A shudder ran through him. Jud had gone sickly pale.

“A minute after I got the email, the lobbyist called me. They kneweverything. He told me I had to return every copy I had of that list immediately, or they would go after Charlotte next.”

“Why Charlotte? She broke up with you a while ago.”

“But I still cared about her. Like I told her. That’s how Stillwater works. They dig up your secrets, your weaknesses, and use them against you. Lori never had a chance. But they said they’d do even worse things to Charlotte. Because Charlotte had dared to make moves against them with her initiative against human trafficking. They’d make an example of her. Second highest official in the state, but they could reach her in the most public setting possible.”

“The fundraiser.”

“Exactly.”

“That’s how you knew they would strike that night at the botanic gardens?”

“I connected the dots. On the phone, the lobbyist said someone was coming for me, and if I didn’t turn over the list as soon as their man arrived, Charlotte was dead meat and so was I. I had minutes. So I ran. Packed what I could, jumped on my ATV and disappeared into the forest.”

He ran, despite knowing what Stillwater would do to Charlotte. Unbelievable.

“How did you manage to call her?”

“Once I was sure they hadn’t followed me, I found cell reception. Tried to warn her. Texted. But she didn’t answer. I had to turn off my phone after that so they wouldn’t track me. I’ve stayed off my phone and offline ever since.”

So he’d made sure he was safe before he called Charlotte. But she’d already been on her way to the fundraiser, already on her way into danger. Jud could make all the excuses he wanted, but he’d chosen himself over Charlotte yet again.

This was why Stillwater wanted to kidnap Charlotte. To use her as leverage against Jud. They would hold her hostageuntil Jud emerged from hiding or they captured him, and then they’d make him watch her suffer until he broke.

Of course, there was no way Stillwater would let Jud live. And they’d probably torture and kill Charlotte anyway too, just as they’d threatened when they first made Jud a member. His betrayal meant death for those he cared for.

The fact that she was lieutenant governor and was starting to annoy them? Merely a bonus.

“Yet when she asked you for the truth,” I said, “you left out the part about having a list of every Stillwater operative in the government. Because you wanted to hold on to it. Your only bargaining chip, right? Who cares that the info could take Stillwater down and save innocent lives. You only care about your own.”

He didn’t answer.

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