Replica(4)

“You want me to do this—to throw away my career—so you can save face? Why on earth would I do that?”

“They’ll discredit your father,” he said quietly.

I took a step back. “What?”

“Your father was involved in an embezzlement case a couple of years before he died in the bank robbery shootout. They’ll release a report stating he planted evidence to get the conviction. The guy will walk and your father’s memory will be tarnished.”

My father had been a detective on the Dayton, Ohio police force—much loved by the community. Hundreds of people had shown up to his funeral, but while it’d helped to know our father was so well regarded, my four brothers and I had still suffered. Our mother had died years before him, so his death meant we were alone in the world.

My reaction had been to run off to college soon after his death, then immediately to Iraq to cover the war, but my eldest brother Michael had dealt with his grief by creating a charity in our father’s honor. The program helped match troubled youth with mentors who put them back on the path to becoming productive members of society. If Dad’s reputation were smeared, it would destroy everything.

“Those goddamned bastards.”

“You have twenty-four hours to issue a statement of your own.”

“Let me guess…Kristen is out there in front of the camera discrediting me right now.”

He had to decency to look guilty. “I’m sorry.”

“Save it for some other idiot who believes you.” I shoulder-checked him as I stomped out the door and headed for the elevator bank.

Why was I so surprised? There was big money backing the Asclepius Project. It made sense they would go after me. Whoever was in charge of the mess knew exactly how to get me in line. Had my ex-boyfriend Sean filled them in? He’d always accused me of hero-worshipping my father and trying to live up to his expectations. Sean had always known exactly how to manipulate me like a puppet master with a puppet.

But I wasn’t going to do it. Sometimes standing up for what you believed in meant making sacrifices. This whole mess was a giant powder keg waiting to blow. Stravinsky and the military were nearly ready to unleash a weapon of mass destruction unlike any the world had ever seen. They weren’t going to kill people. They were going to turn them into mindless monsters to attack everyone in their path. There was no way I was issuing a retraction when there were thousands of innocent lives on the line.

Standing up for what was right, no matter how much it hurt, was the best way to honor my father’s legacy. I couldn’t back down.

But my brothers had no idea what was coming, and I had to warn them. While I waited for the elevator, I pulled out my phone and called Michael.

“You’ve stirred up a big pile of shit,” he shouted in my ear as soon as he answered the phone. I heard the hum of voices around him.

“You saw the report?”

“Saw it?” he barked. The background voices quieted. “Everyone came to Vincent’s bar to watch. Half the damn neighborhood saw it.”

I cringed. At five on a weeknight? The neighborhood where I grew up was full of blue-collar people and über conservative. “So you’re catching a lot of flak, huh?”

“You have no idea the shit we’re getting.”

I pushed out a breath. “Well, it’s about to get a whole lot worse.” I ran my hand over my head, grabbing my ponytail out of habit. “There’s big money behind this whole thing. They want me to denounce my story or they’re going after Dad.”

“Dad? How can they go after him if he’s been dead for years?”

I told him what Don had said. My brother was silent for several seconds.

“Is it true?” he asked quietly. “Are they really doing those experiments?”

I leaned my back against the wall. “Yeah.”

“And there really are vampires. You’ve seen them?”

I’d said that in the report, but I understood his need to hear confirmation from me. “Yeah. I’ve worked side by side with one. Lea. She helped expose this whole thing.”

“Then don’t you dare back down, Rachel Sambrook. You stand up and fight like your brothers taught you.”

A lump filled my throat. “Thanks, Michael.”

“You would have made Dad proud.” His voice broke.

I took another breath to steady my voice. “I really wish Dad had told me that. Just once.”

He released a soft chuckle. “You think he told any of us kids that to our faces? He worried we’d get swelled heads. But he used to tell everyone who’d listen his Rachel was going to grow up and face the monsters when she became a journalist. She was going to report corruption and save the world. So, no bullshit cover-ups. I’m telling you now, Rach—” his voice lowered, “—go fight those bastards. Your brothers have your back, and I will personally kick the ass of anyone who tries to discredit you.”