Page 140 of Renegade Ruin

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out Vaughn had someone tailing Bishop, probably to catch him doing something that could be grounds for trading him.

We handed Vaughn his golden opportunity.

Dragging my eyes from the evidence of our affair, I meet Vaughn’s Cheshire grin. “You had him followed?”

He shrugs callously. “Unlike you, I take care of my team and protect it from situations that have the capability to ruin us.”

Ruin us. I refuse to believe that’s what Bishop and I are doing. If anything, we’ve made each other stronger. But that’s not how the world will see it. Not if Vaughn has anything to say about it.

“What’s it going to take for you to forget these exist?” I ask, stretching my hand out to give him back the photos.

“Those are yours to keep. I have copies of my own.” He pushes off the wall and crosses his arms over his chest, offering me an unapologetic smile. “As for what I want, it’s simple. I can either use these photos as grounds to trade Lawson, or you can step aside and make me the acting owner like your father and I always planned in the event something happened to him. It will look as if you decided, after the allegations against him, you realized you were in over your head. You can go back to your little philanthropy project and everyone wins.”

The slimy prick. His greed knows no bounds. Especially when he holds all the cards.

That’s when everything clicks into place and I gasp, “You were the leak, weren’t you?”

Vaughn’s brow pops, and he lets out a sardonic laugh that makes his belly shake. “Of your plans? Absolutely. The board wouldn’t do what was needed to take you down a peg, so I did.”

My jaw tightens, anger coursing like lava in my veins. I want to yell and demand he tell me why the hell he would do that, but I already know. Vaughn only gives a shit about himself. He wants what he believes is rightfully his.

Shit.

It all makes sense.

Relaxing my shoulders, I lift my chin and ask the question I pray I’m right about. “And the deal my father made?”

Vaughn barks a laugh. “Ha. Undoubtedly. Your father wasn’t smart enough to put that plan in action. We needed to win. We were hemorrhaging money trying to get butts in seats. If we hadknown the crash was going to happen, we would have left well enough alone. Now everyone wants to be a part of the team who came back from tragedy. I’m not about to let you or anyone else jeopardize that with ideas of grandeur.”

His words exonerate my father, but do nothing to stop the tightening of my chest. I fist the photos in my hand, crumpling them.

We.

He didn’t do this alone.

I can’t help but wonder how deep this betrayal runs. Is this the skeleton in the closet Patrick Kincade referred to? Not the scandal itself, but the orchestration. How many more secrets are there I don’t know about? I don’t want to live constantly having to look over my shoulder waiting for one of them to pop up.

“You’re in over your head, little girl,” Vaughn sneers.

I lift my head, hoping he can’t see the way my lip threatens to tremble or the tears that prick the corners of my eyes. “You’re disgusting.”

He shrugs. “Maybe, but I play to win. You have until tomorrow to decide what you’d like me to do with those.”

“How do I know you won’t use the photos against Bishop even if I decide to step down?”

“I guess you’ll just have to trust me,” he says with a wink and pushes off the wall, stalking past me in the direction of his office.

When he’s gone, I let out a loud and long, “Fuuuuuuuuck.”

“Ooooh, she cusses!”

My eyes dart up to see a giddy Carson, rounding the corner at the end of the hallway opposite the direction Vaughn headed.

Luca steps out beside him, his brow furrowed and hands fisted. It’s all I need to see to know they heard every word.

God, could this morning get any worse?

CHAPTER FORTY

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