Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
“Is everything okay?”
He knows. She fought down the impulse to confess. He’d used that trick on her more times than she could count while she was in high school. Finally, she’d caught on to the fact that he often didn’t know a damn thing until she told him. Confess nothing became her mantra after that. “Sure. Why wouldn’t it be?” How closely did he keep watch on the O’Malleys and the other families in Boston?
Her dad laughed, but it was as fake as her cheery tone. “No reason. I just worry about you, you know.”
He just lied to me.
“I know.” Bitterness threatened to choke her. Her fall from grace wasn’t her dad’s fault. He should have been in her corner, though—the one person who would back her up no matter what. She’d known one of John Finch’s unforgivable sins was being a dirty cop. She just hadn’t expected him to turn on her because of it.
The truth was he’d always loved his job more than he’d loved anything—anyone. Including her. Any chance she’d had of changing that disappeared with her career in law enforcement. These days, all she had was their regular dinners, complete with strained conversation and quiet judgment.
When she was branded a dirty cop, she’d lost two families.
Maybe she hadn’t even had them to begin with.
She cleared her throat, not liking the way her thoughts were headed. “I’m fine.”
“I stopped by the bar, but Jacques said you were on vacation.”
She frowned. “You were checking up on me.” In the years she’d worked for Jacques, he’d never once gone there. Even before she was kicked out of the force, she and her dad had led separate lives. They’d had their dinners, but that was it. And after…Well, there wasn’t much to talk about without a mutual career in law enforcement. Anyone sane would have stopped trying after the first few months, but if the Finches had nothing else in common these days, they had sheer stubbornness.
To have him suddenly showing up at the bar the day after she agreed to help Aiden…
Charlie didn’t believe in coincidences.
“I’m your father. I was worried about you, so I dropped by.”
She hated his high-and-mighty tone, the one that said he had no intention of explaining himself. He was always so damn sure he knew best, and he thought that gave him permission to do whatever he pleased. Getting him to admit that maybe he’d been wrong was a lesson in impossibility.
Charlie forced the tension out of her voice, though it was a struggle. “It’s been several years. I needed a vacation, so I took one.”
“Spur-of-the-moment, without sending so much as a text to tell me where you’ve gone.” The suspicion in his voice was so thick, it was a wonder he could speak at all.
He definitely knows.
Maybe he had someone watching her, or maybe one of his contacts who monitored the O’Malleys had reported back—but her dad knew exactly where she was. She could keep pretending that everything was peachy, or she could drop the veil and hope he did the same. Even though she knew better, she said, “This is the only way, Dad.”
“Walk out of that house right now, baby. Just walk out. I’ll see that you’re protected.”
Like he’d seen that she was protected from her former brothers-in-arms? No, that’s not fair. What happened to me wasn’t his fault. She paced from one side of the room to the other. It was one thing to suspect that he knew where she was and what she was up to—it was entirely another to know for certain. He’ll never forgive me for this.
Then again, it’s not like our relationship can get more strained and distant.
She’d gone too far. There was no turning back now. She didn’t want to. “No.”
“Charlotte, you listen to me. You’re in over your head and you don’t even know it. He’s using you to get to me.”
She’d suspected her father’s identity had something to do with Aiden choosing her, but she’d let herself put that aside because their purposes aligned for the time being. She’d gone into his scheme with her eyes wide open, even if her dad was determined to see her as an innocent who’d lost her way. And maybe there was a petty part of her that had known that the second her dad found out about this he’d lose his damn mind. “This is something I need to do.”
Maybe if she could see Romanov find justice, she could stop living the half life she’d condemned herself to.
Maybe she could finally move on.
“Baby, you don’t know who these people are.”
She laughed, the sound raw and jagged in her throat. “I know as well as you do.” She’d seen the worst the world could offer, and Aiden wasn’t it. She might be giving him too much credit because her attraction to him was clouding her thoughts…It didn’t matter. He’d help her see her vengeance come to fruition. And after…