Red Handed(65)
She felt like a fool. “All of you were in on this?” She looked at her friend. “Gracie?”
Guilt in her eyes, Gracie lowered her gaze to the floor. “At first we weren’t sure why you were here or if you knew anything about the offshore account.”
“And when you realized I was innocent?” Danielle asked. “What then? You all just decided to keep me in the dark without any concern for what I might be going through and putting my life in danger?”
“Since you’ve been here, your life has never been in danger,” Cole said firmly.
“Then how do you explain the knife at my throat the other night?” she asked, staring directly into Cole’s eyes.
His anger disappeared as his brows furrowed. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Apparently he wasn’t satisfied with the progress I’d made.” She could still feel the cold metal against her neck. “He said the longer I stayed, the more opportunity he’d have to rape me. I didn’t want to take the chance that it was merely an intimidation tactic.”
Cole ran his hand over his head and sat on the couch, then gathered her into his arms. “You should’ve come to me. I would’ve protected you. You were supposed to be safe here. We’ve had the video cameras on you the entire time.”
She pulled back. “Except for the residences, right? Everything that’s happened to me was in my bedroom.”
Cole slid a glance at Adrian. “Before you arrived, I had Adrian add a camera to the upstairs hallway with a view of your front door and one inside your room. Gracie, Logan, and Adrian all watched and reviewed the footage, and none of them saw anything out of the ordinary.”
She put her hand up in front of her. “For the moment, I’ll ignore the fact you violated my privacy, but are you accusing me of lying?”
Cole shook his head. “No, I’m saying someone messed with the recordings.”
Adrian took a step toward her. “Earlier today, I found a bug in the screening room. One of the dungeon monitors has to be working for Rinaldi.” He turned to Cole. “I realize you’ve placed your trust in your dungeon monitors, but people can be bought for the right price. Outside of the people in this room, we can’t assume anyone is innocent.”
Cole nodded to the others. “Why don’t you three go back to the club while Danielle and I talk?”
When they closed the door behind them, Cole cradled her face in his hands. “Now, why did you really come to Benediction?”
She took a deep breath. “My stepmother was kidnapped.”
Beginning with the night of Tasha’s kidnapping, she filled him in on all the events leading to tonight.
“You’re not to blame for any of this. Not for Tasha, and not for your father.” He paused, the silence of the room deafening. “Danielle, your father didn’t commit suicide.” He stroked her cheek. Studying her face, he blew out a warm breath. “He was murdered.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
MY FATHER WAS murdered.
The words hung in the air as if they had physical substance.
Her mind rejected it even as her gut twisted in painful acknowledgement. For eight years, she’d carried the belief her father had chosen to end his life rather than fight to return to her. He’d left her alone in this world, and she’d hated him for it.
If she’d been wrong, if he’d been murdered . . .
“No, that’s not true. The prison said he paid off another prisoner to buy him peanuts at the commissary, and he ate those peanuts knowing he’d have a severe allergic reaction. That sure sounds like suicide to me.”
Cole’s jaw tightened, but his touch remained soft as he caressed her face with the tips of his fingers. “I believe he felt he had no choice.”
Cold barbs of shock ripped through her, stealing the breath from her lungs. “Why?”
“Two weeks before your father’s death, his lawyer brought him a message from an extremely dangerous organization.”
“His lawyer? That idiot?” She remembered the greasy older man well. Her hackles went up anytime they shared space. He’d refused to entertain any notion her father could be innocent and had told them there was no way to win at trial. He’d convinced her father to take the first plea deal that had passed his desk.
“He wasn’t an idiot. He was just another pawn. Who, by the way, died in a car accident one week after your father’s death.”
She shuddered, doubting the veracity of Cole’s words, of everything she’d known for the last decade. Rage surged hot and strong. “How do you know this?”
“Because he told me when I went to visit him a day before he died. Danielle, he was the one who gave me the files to take to the FBI. It was the only way.”