Page 90 of Forged in Secrets

“You really don’t know?” Jade asked.

Katie’s mouth opened in surprise, but she quickly snapped it shut again, looking defeated. “I came to you about what I overheard at your house that day because I didn’t want both of our dads to go to jail. Don’t you get that? I was just trying to help. I didn’t think you’d try to hurt me to keep me quiet.”

Jade chuckled to herself. “Yeah, right. I’m sure Saint Katie was just trying to make sure everybody did the right thing. You should have minded your business.”

Grace’s teeth grated as she listened to Jade’s mocking imitation of Katie’s voice. She tried to catch Ben’s eye, but he didn’t look up from the patch of wood on the floor he was staring at, no doubt trying to put together the information into a story that made sense.

“Believe whatever you want about me,” Katie said bitterly. “But remember that not everyone would treat their father the way you treat yours. I wanted to give mine a chance to make things right.”

“Theyweremaking things right,” Jade snapped. “Until you got in the way.”

“Messing with Senera Pharmaceuticals and breaking the law isn’t making things right, Jade,” Katie said gently. “She’s gone. Believe me, I understand how much you’re hurting, but none of this is going to bring her back.”

“It’s not about bringing her back. It’s not about my hurt,” Jade scoffed. “She had a long life ahead of her, and those monsters destroyed her. We can’t get true revenge, but at least we can take care of ourselves by balancing the scales.”

Once again, Grace could see the hint of humanity in Jade’s eyes, and she felt for her and for Katie.

Her own mother was alive and well, but the Forge family matriarch, Mary, had died almost a decade ago. It had been devastating to their entire family, and even as a family friend, losing her had hit Grace hard, too. Even someone as seemingly heartless as Jade had to have been badly wounded by losing the one person who should have been there.

“I get why your dad doesn’t want to be part of Lumen once they acquire Senera, but there has to be another way he can leave the company, even with a non-compete in place,” Katie said, trying to keep her voice even despite the gun that Jade was still casually brandishing in her direction. “He has connections. He can do something else.”

Ben caught Grace’s eye, and she gave him a small nod of unspoken understanding. Both she and Ben had grown up with their parents running large companies, and they knew how the behind-the-scenes politics worked.

She remembered that Ben had told her Lumen was buying the shady pharmaceutical company as part of their expansion into the med-tech space, against Craig Gorsky’s wishes. Even though he was the founder of the company and had been instrumental in forming it into the powerhouse it was today, he ultimately had to answer to the board and to the investors. And they wanted Senera.

What surprised Grace the most was just how much Jade knew about her father’s work, and how involved she seemed to be in his decisions, including illegal ones. Ben hadn’t been the only one to underestimate her.

“Nothing that would give him the money he needed,” Jade spat. “Not even close.”

“So? That’s when you ask for help,” Katie argued. “Imean, clearly he did. He went to my dad and roped him into this whole scheme! He could have just asked him for money. They’ve been friends for decades. He would have helped you guys with whatever you needed.”

Jade shook her head, another one of her cruel smiles twisting her beautiful face into ugliness.

“You really don’t know how deep in the pit your own father’s company is, do you?” Jade asked. “Your dad isn’t just helping mine out of the goodness of his heart. He’s not giving my dad charity any time soon, not that he’d want to take it, anyway. AveroTech is going under. They’re totally done.”

This time, Katie’s look of shock seemed entirely genuine, and Grace was right there with her. Donald had failed to mention any of this when he’d solicited the help of Forge Brothers Security. Ben looked equally stunned.

“That’s not true. No. There’s just no way. He would have told me. He’s in China for a big deal as we speak. He?—”

“He’s desperate? He’s slinging microchips because AveroTech has nothing new to offer, and it’s killing them?” Jade finished for her. “His China deal might be enough to get the company through the next eight months, but after that, he’s going to need more cash. A lot more.”

Katie’s brows furrowed.

“So what’s the play here?” Ben asked. “Embezzlement? Fraud?”

Apparently, the fear of ticking off the crazy woman with a gun was overridden by his need to understand the truth of what was going on. Grace couldn’t blame him. Everything that Jade admitted to only raised more questions.

“Insider trading,” Jade said matter-of-factly. She didn’treprimand him for speaking, probably because she enjoyed any opportunity to hear the sound of her own voice. Fortunately, they could use this fact to their advantage.

“My father knew that an acquisition was coming, and he wasn’t about to climb into bed with the big pharma company that killed my mom. But he knew he’d need to find a clever way to distance himself from Lumen. Like Katie said, he had a non-compete. A strict one. And he’s too young to retire.”

Grace noticed Katie nodding in agreement with the story thus far, though no one else seemed to be looking at her. Unfortunately, Jade still had a good grip on the gun, and she didn’t really expect that her old friend would try for the radio again.

“Anyway,” Jade continued, picking an invisible piece of lint off her slender forearm, “when Katie’s dad came to him with his company’s own problems, he realized that he’d found a perfect opportunity. Both he and his old mentor would get the money they needed.”

“By breaking the law, of course,” Ben growled. “How original.”

Jade shrugged her shoulders, a smile appearing on her full lips. “It’s a shame I’ll have to kill you. You’ve got a certain charm, even if those muscles make you look a little too much like Donkey Kong for my taste.”

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