Debra almost rolled her eyes at that.


    Drake''s smarts came and went. Sometimes he was sharp; other times, she wondered if he was just faking it. Marion had been right about one thing. Drake''s reign over Orkgate owed a lot to luck.


    "When you got hit, the Lowe Group went to Jordan," she exined. "But we know Jordan''s one of us. After Jeffery died, he handed power back to you. Then you got nabbed by the Illuminati. Orkgate turned into a mess. Sure, the Trennery family looked like they were thriving, but the Sharp family, supposedly under your thumb, didn''t take a single hit. Isn''t that weird?"


    "You''ve got a point," Drake muttered, leaning against the headboard. "But the Sharp family has always had clout in Orkgate."


    "The Illuminati''s whole deal is sucking bigpanies dry to feed their members," Debra countered. "The Sharp family''s a juicy target. Why would the Illuminati pass up such a fat duck?"


    She paused, letting the information sink in. "When Marion and I went to Orkgate to find you, I asked Lara for some Illuminati intel. She gave me some core Sharp family secrets, but we found out it was all cherry-picked, useless stuff that wasted our time and resources. Even your family is tangled up with the Illuminati. How could a century-old giant like the Sharp family be squeaky clean? As you said, Conrad was likely dealing with them. His words, about us messing with people we can''t handle, prove he knew something."


    "That was when you started suspecting Lara?" Drake asked.


    "It started when Erica said the files had no trace of the Illuminati," Debra said, shaking her head. "Think about it. Lara worked in your house for years, and you never once thought about offing her. Out of all the Sharp family''s illegitimate daughters, you picked her."


    She paused and continued, "After that first kidnapping, we barely escaped together, and I started trusting her. When she betrayed meter, I figured she had her reasons. She kept feeding me Orkgate intel, ying the pity card as Conrad''s daughter until she took him down. Because of me and her status, you handed the Sharp family to her. It all feels scripted, but every step was so natural, ying perfectly on human nature."


    It took Debra this long to suspect Lara. That showed how clever the woman was. If the Illuminati hadn''t gotten greedy and stopped hiding so hard, Debra might not have caught on.


    Drake suddenly threw off the covers, ready to get up.


    Kale groaned and rushed up to support him.<fnb1cb> For more chapters visit find?novel</fnb1cb>