Page 91 of Forged in Secrets

Grace felt prickles of anxiety tracing up her back as she stared at Jade. The young woman’s cold indifference to human life went far beyond anything that could have been caused solely by grief. They had to stop her from doing whatever she was planning, but right now, she was armed and unpredictable. The worst combination.

Grace glanced out toward the open waters of the Gulf.Help was on the way. The only question was how long it would take.

“Insider trading is illegal, sure,” Jade continued, “But so what? No one will be able to prove it. My father and Donald Fairman have been friends for years. There’s nothing suspicious about them talking, even before a big acquisition.”

Grace picked at a fingernail, trying to think. She was starting to understand some of what was going on, at least in regard to why the Gorskys had wanted to keep Katie quiet, but there were still too many unanswered questions.

“So Craig told Donald to buy up Lumen stocks before the Senera acquisition caused them to skyrocket?” Ben asked.

“Pretty much,” Jade said with a nod.

“It wasn’t for free,” Katie cut in, sounding less meek and more angry now that Jade was giving her side of the story. “On the phone, I heard your dad demanding money from mine. He said he was late and that he needed it immediately.”

“Obviously the information wasn’tfree,” Jade said, waving her gun-hand dismissively. “No wonder AveroTech is in the toilet. You probably get your business sense from your father.”

Katie opened her mouth with a retort, but Grace cut her off before she could speak.

“So Donald agreed to pay Craig some kind of fee in exchange, right?” she asked, shooting Katie a warning look. Now was not the time to defend her father’s honor.

“Yep,” Jade said flatly. Already, she was starting to look bored. She touched the phone in the pocket of her jeans again, and Grace half expected her to pull it out and start scrolling on TikTok. “Donald is paying up front, but after ayear or so, he’ll be able to dump his shares and make a killing. He’ll have the money for R&D that his company so desperately needs to get out of the stone age.”

“So why go to such lengths to keep me quiet?” Katie asked, looking up at Jade. “It seems like my dad has a lot more to lose.”

For a terrible second, Grace wondered if Donald had neglected to tell FBS about more than just his financial crimes.

Had he been involved in his own daughter's disappearance?

She dismissed the idea as soon as it came. Her old family friend was clearly not the man she thought he was, but she couldn’t imagine him doing anything to hurt his only child.

But Katie had a point.

Did Craig hate Senera Pharmaceuticals enough to take such a huge risk? And would his daughter really be willing to kill three people just to keep their secret?

CHAPTER

FORTY

GRACE

Jade’s phone began to jingle within her pocket.

“Well, it’s noon. Looks like I’m done answering stupid questions,” she announced as she took out the phone, her dark eyes seeming to glow as they reflected the bright screen.

Grace caught Ben’s eye for a moment as they waited for her to say more.

Katie looked equally nervous, fiddling with the armrests of the captain’s chair she was sitting in. Through the front window, Grace noticed for the first time that she could see the shore in the distance.

They were close to land. Could they get off the ship and swim to shore somehow?

Grace looked over at Ben’s thick arms.

Maybe he and Asher could propel their bodies that far, but she and Katie wouldn’t make it. Not to mention the fact that Craig would be left alone to bleed out.

The sound of the phone ringing again yanked Grace from her reverie.

This time, the tone it emitted was brief, like a notification for a text.

Whatever it was, the smile that spread across Jade’s face as she read it made Grace feel instantly sick. The woman looked between her three captives, clicking against the side of her gun with her perfectly buffed artificial nails.

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