"What is there to plan? I told you I'd take care of it."
He rubs my feet, and I want to moan with how good it feels, but I don't want to give him the satisfaction. We've been going back and forth about this since we got home, and neither of us is giving up much ground. We've skated around the subject of my dad for long enough. He knows that I want him to pay for what he did, and I want to be as much a part of that as possible. Captain thinks that I shouldn't be involved.
"I've got information about where he is. I found everything you need the night you caught me in the office. I've waited long enough, and I don't want to wait anymore." I point to the laptop on the table beside me, as if he can't see it's right there.
He looks at me intensely, but understanding passes through his beautiful green eyes. "I will do this for you, because I don't want any of his darkness to touch you. If you step down this path, there's no going back, Paige. I'm going to protect you from what this will do to you. When it happens, you won't know about it. And I'm not going to sit here and plan out every detail of something that could take away the light in your eyes."
He leans forward and puts his hands on my knees, getting so close that he's almost in my lap. I want to hold him to me and tell him that he's right, but a part of me wants to fight for what I think I should be doing.
"You remember every detail of everything that's ever happened to you, kitten. Don't let this be something else that you won't forget. I will give you the revenge you want and the closure you need, but I refuse to let you get your hands dirty. I love you too much to let you do that to yourself."
He sits up and kisses me on my forehead, then takes our empty plates to the kitchen. I sit there, listening to the water running as he washes dishes and cleans up. I think about what he said and how I know he's right. But I also think that if I don't do this, then it will feel like I'm standing idly by all over again. If I don't make some kind of effort to plan this out, then what have I truly done to avenge my mother besides find a man to do it for me? Does that mean I'm like her?
Captain's phone rings. "Justice," he says, and I hear him rumble a few words before ending the call. He walks out to where I'm sitting and slips on his shoes. "I've got to run upstairs for a second. Miles wants me to look at the baby monitor. He said he's having problems getting it hooked up. I swear that man is crazy. He wants his baby's crib camera circuited to the building's security feed."
I smile at him as he leans down and gives me a quick kiss before he goes. I see the laptop beside me and decide that if I give him the information, then I'm doing some kind of good. This way he won't have to take time digging on his own. I reach over and pull up the encrypted files. There could be a few things that Miles already dug up when he was closing his business deal, so it could save me some time starting here. No sense in looking up information Miles already found.
It takes me a few minutes to decode some of the folders, and after a few failed attempts I finally find one that's marked AO. I take a guess that the initials stand for Alexander Owens and click on it. When it opens, I have to run another encryption. This must have something I need, otherwise why would it be so difficult to get to?
Once it's unlocked, I see pages of documents on Alexander, and a lot of it is business related. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it could narrow down where he's working and possibly staying. I make my way through a few of them, and then see that Miles has pages of notes to go with each document. Miles has always been thorough. I read through a few and then organize them by date. I search through everything until I find a phone number.
I do the search like Jordan showed me, locating his phone, then hacking into it. I start with his text messages. I stop cold when I see Ryan's name. I start to read them.
My heartbeat quickens and my palms sweat. What the fuck am I reading? There's another entry a few days later.
Ryan reporting in on what's happening at Osborne Corp. Months and months of texts that stopped a little over a month ago when Captain stopped responding to my father.
"Hey, kitten. You miss me?" My whole world drops out from under me as he walks in and smiles. He sees the look on my face, and he knows something's not right. "What's wrong, Paige? You okay? Your face has gone solid white."
I push my computer to the floor and run to the bathroom. I don't make it to the toilet before I start throwing up. I hear him somewhere behind me, but the sounds of my retching are ringing in my ears. I'm sick. I'm physically ill from his betrayal.
He knew. He knew who I was before Miles did. He fucking worked for my father. The man I want dead. He betrayed me like no one ever has, and I loved him. I loved him.