Page 62 of The Verdict

“No.”

Talon had sat on the apartment since we’d left it, and no one had come back. Somehow, Ramos must’ve been tipped off.

“What about the drive? Do you have it? Did you look at it? Do you know what Jupiter—Ramos looks like now?” she asked in rapid-fire. She was remembering all of the details—information that she’d been so close to finding before the attack. “How did you know to find me there?”

My jaw locked. I thought about that possibility so many times in the last four days—what if Ty hadn’t found that address? What if I hadn’t been the one to walk through that door?

“I didn’t,” I said. “I heard Morte call you Venus, and Daria pieced it together about the gang. Ty ran suspected associatesof Lorenz, and I recognized Morte’s picture. His name was listed on the lease.”

“And the drive?” she pressed. “Are there photos of what Jupiter looks like now?”

I hesitated, hating what the truth would do to her.Hating how much I cared.

“The drive was corrupted when you pulled it from the computer. We tried—called in reinforcements to try and fix it, but we only have fragments of the information on the files you opened.” Ty had spent the last four days doing everything he could to repair the flash drive, but it was no use; the data was gone.

“So, there’s… nothing?” The color drained from her face.

Dammit.“Nothing yet.” I wanted to reach out and cup her cheek, promise her it was going to be okay—that we’d figure it out.Except that wasn’t possible because she kept lying to me.

“So.” I cleared my throat. “You want me to believe you don’t care about your cut of eighteen million dollars?”

I didn’t care if it took all night, I was going to sift truth from lie with the finest fucking sieve.

Her eyes glittered as they met mine.“I care about staying alive. That’s what I care about.”

I wanted to believe my senses were sharpened—that the luster of lust had vanished, and I could see the truth of her… but what I was seeing wasn’t the whole truth.

“Well, it sure doesn’t seem that way when you were caughtandalmost killed trying to hunt them down.”

She notched her chin up. “When I saw Mercury at the house—when he killed Les—I realized Jupiter wasn’t going to just let me go. I thought they killed Les because of me. So, I went back to hide any record Les might have of me at the house. I had no idea what Les was really involved in. That they already knew him.”

“Until I told you.”

She flinched, and I hated how I could tell it was because of my tone—my implication—and not her stab wound. “I had to protect myself. I’m sorry?—”

“Don’t,” I snapped. I didn’t want an apology. I didn’t want anything to mitigate my anger because it was all I had left to shore up my defenses against the woman who’d so expertly slipped by them.

Her mouth shut firmly for a second before she reached for the water, opening it herself this time and taking a drink.

“So, you went looking for the drive to find Ramos and use it to blackmail him, not for your cut of the money, but for your safety?”

“Yes.”Real.

“And if he didn’t agree?”

“Then I’d find another way to guarantee my freedom.” Her expression didn’t waver. Herlethalimplication was clear.

“So, you’d risk trying to kill him—kill them—on your own rather than asking for help?”

“They’re my problem, Rhys.” Her throat bobbed.

“Have you killed anyone before?” I asked, my voice a little softer.

Her mouth opened and shut once before she admitted, “No.”

Air hissed through my lips. “You need help.”

Me. You need me.

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