“You’re behind the security leaks.” She tried to crawl away, but he grabbed her hair, jerking her to a stop. “I remember now. You and those men, you were talking about a new transaction. A divestiture of information we keep safe for our government and military, and you were—”
“Doing what I do best, same as you, building my fortune off our family legacy. Only I’ve doubled and tripled your profits since Father’s death.” He pulled her head up. The muzzle of a revolver bit into her temple, aligning perfectly with the scar from his last attack.
“From my headquarters?”
“From my office here on the mountain, underground in a bomb shelter that only Father and I knew about. He brought me there to heal from my injuries, after the burned carcass of some vagrant was mistaken for my body in the barn. Using Father’s office space to close deals has been a nice touch now and again, though. While you blindly go about your work, oblivious to the rest of the world. Until you showed up that night, cowering like a pesky rodent and threatening to expose me. It was very naughty of you, Shaw, after Father worked so hard to keep my hideous existence a secret. He knew I was no good, but he set me up in business anyway. I like to think he preferred the sociopath in me to the sniveling waste of air he came to see that you were.”
“That’s not true.”
“Perverting your precious work for my own personal gain was for a while a priceless pastime. So was framing you for my crimes, once it became clear the feds were wise to my operation. And then you cooperated so beautifully, losing your memory after my shot grazed your feeble brain and limping off to this godforsaken place to lick your wounds, precisely where I could torture you further. And then, right on cue, that bastard Marinos showed up.”
The pistol crashed into the side of her skull. Pain and stars and streaks of light ricocheted through Shaw’s brain as she collapsed to the floor, grappling to stay conscious.
“You won’t get away with this,” she said, stalling, praying Cole was recording every word, and that they’d have enough evidence soon for him to pull Sebastian off of her.
“I’ve already gotten away with it.” Her brother knelt by her side and smoothed back her bangs, his thumb caressing the scar from his first gunshot. “When you’re dead, your memory of that night dies with you. Everything I’ve done becomes your fault forever. You’ve proven to be very useful, in the end. If you’d simply forgotten completely, lost your mind permanently like a good little twit, I’d have no reason to end our fun together. Now that my business is at a standstill, now that you’ll no longer be around to make trouble for, what will I do with my time?”
“But how…” She fought harder, determined to get everything Cole had said they’d need. “How did you get away, that night at the office? Investigators searched the entire complex. There was no evidence of a shooting, of a clandestine meeting, anywhere.”
“Well, that would be because I’m smarter than the lot of you put together.” Sebastian’s smile was straight from her nightmare. His pleasure at his own derangement was evil incarnate. “I know unmonitored ways in and out of Cassidy Global, the same as I’ve secretly accessed the mansion this last month. And I assure you, I can have a room swept in under five minutes, no matter what mess I’ve made in it, like I’ve cleaned up after myself every time I’ve been in this house since you returned. Watching you sleep. Setting up fun little surprises to brighten your day. Checking on the surveillance equipment I’ve left everywhere, all with technology that’s made a mockery of your boyfriend’s pathetic precautions. It’s hell to be underestimated, but I’ve learned to relish the benefits of being a consummate shadow-dweller.”
“But why? You knew the government had discovered what you were doing. You knew they were looking at me as the prime suspect. You had what you wanted. Why keep coming after me?”
“After a while, a man needs a new challenge. You’d ceased being a worthy opponent in business. I thought you should have another chance to prove yourself useful.”
“So you decided to toy with me instead of getting away clean?” He was certifiable. She could feel blood trickling from her head wound, but her thoughts were clearing. And she was growing more pissed with every new revelation. She wouldn’t have stopped now, not until she knew it all, even if Cole had barged in and beaten Sebastian into submission. “That doesn’t explain what you’re doing in here, when you know Cole is close by. You have to know his team is on its way.”