Page 86 of Sinner
“And the missing page?” That came to mind suddenly, and since he was insisting they talk things out, West figured he may as well put it all on the table. “Yejun said he got the paperwork for Nix’s membership from you.”
Beck dropped his gaze, appearing sheepish for the first time. “I…knew it was foolish. I thought maybe if I stalled a little and left your page out, I could gather the courage to confess to you before it was too late. I was going to bring it to your match the next day, use giving it to you as an excuse, and then tell you how I feel.”
“It was already too late by then.”
“I know.”
West didn’t owe him anything, and yet he found himself feeling a bit sorry for him. “Maybe if you’d come to me about this years ago—and that’s a big maybe—things might have been different, but the second Nix appeared in my life, it was game over for me. No one stood a chance against him. Not me, and certainly not you.”
Beck gave him a sad smile. “I know.”
“Why’d you make me think you had a thing for June?”
“When you asked me about that, I panicked. Then it was too late to take it back without making it obvious why, so…I just let you keep believing it. After Yejun learned the truth, it was even more important that I have a backup plan. I just didn’t want to lose you. I knew I’d never confess, and I didn’t want to lose our friendship, so I leaned into it, just in case.”
In case Yejun ever got nosy and told West that he thought Beck liked him.
“You do recall you’re the oldest one here, right? You’re supposed to set a good example,” West said.
“What can I say? Love makes fools of us all.” He cleared his throat. “But I digress. This isn’t why I brought you here tonight.”
“It isn’t?”
“Juri’s death made me realize there was only one other person close enough to you who could pull this off.” Beck held his gaze. “Your father.”
West didn’t know what to say, but fortunately for them both, Beck must have anticipated that, because he barreled on.
“I tried gaining access to his personal devices, but it was a lot more difficult than breaking into Hendrix’s things. Your father is more paranoid than mine; despite knowing me my whole life, he guarded against me enough to make it nearly impossible. So I did what I had to in order to gain his trust. I confronted him.”
“You went to my dad and told him you knew he tried killing his own son?” West exhaled slowly. “Bold move.”
“It was risky,” he agreed, “but it paid off. Apparently, Yejun isn’t the only one who noticed my affections for you all these years.”
His clueless, self-absorbed father had somehow picked up on someone else's feelings?
That was the least believable part of this whole story.
Sadly.
“Demitrious likes feeling like he has power over everyone else,” Beck continued. “All I had to do was let him believe he had something over me. You. I got down on my knees and begged him to spare you. I swore I could either get you to see reason or convince you to have an affair with me. The other day? At the restaurant? One of Demitrious’s people was there, taking photos. I made sure they got some good shots.”
When Beck had leaned in close to him…touched his face and his shoulder…It was all an act? A show for the cameras?
Was West really buying this?
…His confessionhadfelt like it’d come out of nowhere.
“The pictures are meant to be Demitrious’s backup plan. He’ll give them to Nix, try to convince him you were cheating on him with me this whole time, if I can’t get you to leave with me willingly.”
“Why didn’t you just say something?” West asked. “Find a way to tip me off.”
“The man working for your father wasn’t just taking pictures, he was listening in on us. I needed to make it sound believable. Needed him to buy that I was desperate to have you. After you stormed out, I went to Demitrious’s house. I knew he was going to be receiving a call from Orson later about the meeting—I’d overheard him and Gerty talking about it. When hetook the call, I had just enough time alone in his office to plant malware onto his systems.”
Beck removed his multi-slate and clicked a button on the side that activated the holographic screen. Images of text appeared, and he flicked through them quickly so West could get an idea of how much there was.
“It’s all incriminating evidence. He got the poison from mercenaries from the planet Ignite.”
Ignite was one of the few planets that hadn’t signed the agreement with the Intergalactic Conference, which meant there was very little on their world and the things they produced in secret in any official records.
