Page 39 of Vengeful Lies

No sooner had they finished locking in chains than voices sounded just outside the door at the top of the stairs, and a moment after that he saw the other three of his captors appear along with a man dressed in an expensive black suit.

It only took one look at the man in the suit for him to recognize him.

“John Jones,” he said. While his face was a little thinner and his eyes brown not blue, his hair starting to go salt and pepper, this was the man who had worked with Becca in Cambodia. The man he’d been supposed to meet with when he got the text to say that Essie and Gabriella were about to be targeted. Of course, he’d known that the man was almost definitely involved in the abduction, they’d believed that even before the meeting that never happened, but he hadn't expected the man to be the boss who was orchestrating everything.

Only a little older than his own thirty-four years, maybe late thirties, no more than early forties, there was no way the man could have been involved in his mother’s rape. Back then, John Jones would have only been a teenager. He’d claimed that he was the son of one of the men, Cassandra’s half-brother, given his age, that was definitely a possibility.

They hadn't been able to learn a lot about the man which told them one thing.

John Jones didn't exist.

Not really.

Not in any real and meaningful sense of the word.

His cover had been passable, enough to get him the job working for Becca’s charity, which provided medical aid and education to people in remote villages across Asia. But even though his background had been sufficient to get him the job, it hadn't been enough to convince Becca or her team that he was truly an aid worker. She’d known something was off about him, she just hadn't known anything about the threat to Connor’s family.

Knowing this man, who may or may not be Cassandra’s half-brother had been hitting on Connor’s ex-girlfriend, who was now his current girlfriend again since they’d reconciled a couple of weeks ago, made him feel sick.

“I'm sorry for standing you up the other morning,” John—or at least the man going by the name of John—said, when he came down to stand before him.

“Sure you are,” Cade said, giving the man a scrutinizing once over. There was something familiar about him, but at the moment, he couldn’t place what it was. It was like he’d seen the man before but not him exactly. His father maybe? Had he met the man who raped his mother at some point in his life? Or had he seen the man because he was some public figure? The possibilities were endless, all they knew was that the rapists had all been in Egypt twenty-five years ago when Cassandra had been conceived via rape.

“As you can imagine, I was a little preoccupied,” John said, snickering at his own joke.

At least he was amusing someone.

Personally, Cade saw nothing at all amusing about his four-year-old daughter being abducted.

But since he knew that John was only trying to get a rise out of him, he didn't bother reacting to the comment. Merely continued to stare at the man trying to figure out who he really was.

“I must admit I was not surprised to find that you were willing to offer a trade. Yourself for the child. Although not just the child,” John said, tilting his head to the side and examining him like he was an interesting experiment he was longing to figure out. “I believe you were almost equally as invested in protecting the woman. My investigations into your family showed only that she was hired to be the nanny to your daughter. I was unaware that there was a more personal connection. Had I known this, I might have made some different decisions.”

Again, all John was trying to do was work him up and make him angry enough that he would spill information he otherwise wouldn't.

Lucky for him he didn't have any intel to spill.

Unlucky for John Jones.

“Was any of it true?” he asked, his voice perfectly calm and controlled. “Do you really believe you are Cassandra’s brother?”

Something crossed over John’s face. “I’m not sure. I do believe it is a possibility.”

Interesting. He’d thought it was all just a lie. But if this man was the one running things, who’d sent people after Susanna, then Becca, why had he bothered to go to Cambodia himself and pretend to be an aid worker?

What was he missing here?

“You have what you want now, so there’s no reason to keep going after my family,” he told the other man.

“Unfortunately, it’s not that easy and you know it. You understand that I cannot let you live now that you’ve seen me and know I'm involved.”

“Yet you let my daughter and her nanny go,” he reminded John. He didn't like pretending that Gabriella was nothing but the nanny, but for her safety it was the wisest choice.

“I don’t like hurting women and children,” John said a little too vehemently, giving away a little about who he was and what motivated him. Even though he knew Gabriella had indeed been hurt at his men’s hands, there was an element of truth in his statement.

“And yet, if you're the one behind the attacks against my family, you’ve targeted the women almost exclusively,” he reminded John.

Anger burned in the other man’s dark eyes. He didn't like being called out no matter how true what Cade had just said was.

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