<span>Whenever my father was working a case, he’d pin pictures, maps, and any leads he had to the corkboard on the wall of his office back in Florida. Then he’d sit in his chair for hours every day, staring at the visual map.


    It looked like something straight from any detective movie ever. He even used different-colored strings to group the evidence. For a long time, every time I went in there to see him, I saw that man’s face.


    Dad used to call Octavius Grey a ghost. He knew Grey led the biggest drug ring in Tampa, but despite years of investigating, he couldn’t find enough evidence to lock him behind bars.


    My eyes brim with tears as I stare at a picture of my dad, the epitome ofw and order, the man I’ve looked up to for years…


    epting a bribe from Octavius Grey. He’s holding an envelope stuffed with hundred-dor bills.


    My stomach churns with nausea as I flick through the pictures. Each one showing envelopes of cash being passed from<span id="page_339">hand to hand. Passed into Dad’s hands. I click faster and faster, the sequences of images blurring into little movie clips.


    “Stop,” Koby says, stepping closer. “Go back.”


    I nce over my shoulder, catching Carter’s concerned gaze. His features pinch and his hands ball into fists—a look I’ve seen too many times. He’s worried. The pathological protectiveness is written all over his face, making me realize tears are dripping down my nose.


    “What did you see?” I ask, marshaling the hurt and sense of betrayal tearing me apart.


    I’m questioning everything. Every single interaction I’ve had with Dad since the hospital. The concern in his voice… was it concern or fear? Did he send me to Lakeside to protectmeorthe evidence? Was he keeping me safe or covering his own ass?


    Koby gently shuffles me aside, bending over theptop to back up a few images, stopping on one in a strip club, judging by the women writhing around poles and the dimmed red lights. But that’s not what caught his attention. When I realize what did, bile climbs up my throat.


    Sitting in the same booth as Dad and Octavius, while an envelope of cash changes hands, is Alex Fletcher.


    “Looks like Alex was on the take as well,” Koby says.


    “Yeah, but given we never found anything on him,” Ryder clips, “maybe he wasn’t even a fucking cop. Grey probably nted him with Vaughn. I bet his name wasn’t even Alex.”


    I can’t process the information fast enough. All these years when Dad worked as a cop rey in my mind. Everything he said, how much he detested mafia men, the precautions he took whenever he was investigating someone particrly dangerous. He sent me and Mom to my grandparents in Idaho again and again, worried we’d get caught in a bacsh. One time, a cop trailed me from ss to ss because Dad couldn’t take me out<span id="page_340">of school during exams, and they coincided with him moving in on yet another big fish.


    And now I find out he not only worked with the man he spent months investigating, not only did he flush his entire moral code down the drain, but he invited a criminal into our house.


    He left me alone with him so many times. Turned a blind eye while we sneaked around…


    It’s too much toprehend. My worldview, everything I knew about my own father, shatters before my eyes.


    The evidence was supposed to answer questions, not flood my mind with more.


    I back away from the screen, unsure how to proceed. Unsure what to believe. “This isn’t right…” I whisper, my back hitting the kitchen cupboards. “I… I need a minute.”


    The weight of their gazes follows me as I rush upstairs, two steps at a time. My mind’s a nest of drunk hos. Too many thoughts fight for attention, spiking my anxiety so high I’m not far off hyperventting. I burst into the bedroom, shaking all over. One second, I think there’s a rational exnation and in the next breath I’m drowning in hurt, hatred, confusion, and fear.


    It’s too much. I don’t know how to stop the tornado tearing through my head. Pacing the room doesn’t help. Every footstep is a new idea, a new possibility. Nothing I conjure makes me feel any better.


    My heartrate climbs higher and higher, every breath harder to pull down, a panic attack well underway.


    “Calm down, breathe,” I chant, inhaling through my nose, then out through my mouth. “Everything will be okay.”


    The bedroom door opens and closes, the scent of Carter’s cologne breaching the warm space. I’m still walking in circles,<span id="page_341">talking myself out of a panic attack. I don’t trust my mind right now. If I stop moving, I might crumble.


    “Hailey, stop.” Carter grips my wrist, pulling me into his chest. His other hand tangles in my hair.


    “I’m okay. Don’t worry about me. I’m overwhelmed, but I’m dealing with it. I just—”


    “Don’t analyze. We don’t have enough information yet. You need to stop thinking or you’ll drive yourself crazy before Charles gets here.”


    “I’m trying,” I mutter, molding myself further into him. “He’ll exin, won’t he? It’ll make sense. I’ll be fine. I just need to keep my head upied until then.”


    Carter inches away, enough so he can cup my face, his thumbs swiping the remnants of tears from my cheeks. “I hope you realize how strong you are. How resilient. You have so much fight in you.” He kisses my forehead, keeping his lips there as he speaks. “I’m so fucking proud of you.”


    I wrap my hands around his neck and rise on my toes, sealing his lips with mine. Nothing clears my head better than Carter. Whenever hemands my body, hemands my mind, and right now, in all this chaos, his dominating, imposing ways are the only thing that will help me switch off.


    Our tongues mingle, my breathing rolling from one end of the spectrum to another. Instead of nearly hyperventting, I’m close to breathless, the conflicting emotions inside me morphing into pure, adrenaline-driven lust.


    “I know Ryder’s pulling up more evidence,” I whisper in his mouth, biting his lower lip, “and you want to see it, but—”


    “It’ll wait,” he cuts in, filling his big hands with my thighs to haul me into his arms. “You need me, don’t you?”


    I nod, weaving my hands through his hair as he drops me on the bed, covering my body with his. “Make me forget the world.”


    He grabs a remote control from the nightstand, aiming it behind him. Thick, ckout curtains slide along the ss wall overlooking the gallery and the lower level of the loft.Belongs to N?velDrama.Org - All rights reserved.


    “Before you start wonderingwhyI have them,” he says, helping me out of my hoodie. “I usually don’t go to sleep until the early morning hours.”


    “I don’t care why you’ve got them. I just wish they were soundproof.”


    “So do I… but they’re not, so you’ll have to be quiet.”