Chapter 12

January 16th

2:22 A.M.

"I"msorry I didn"t believe you," Tate whispered as they slipped back onto the sidewalk.

Did he really think one little apology was going to be a balm for her anger?

If he did, he wasn't as smart as she had given him credit for.

Scarlett was in full-on fury mode. Just because she was following Tate without argument didn"t mean she wasn't still furious with him. A simple apology just wasn't going to cut it. She was thinking something more along the lines of getting down on his knees and begging for her forgiveness for accusing her of being a traitor and refusing to listen.

For having sex with her when he still thought she was guilty.

That was the biggest gut punch of all.

A part of her kept whispering reminders that he was only basing his decision on her guilt or innocence on the evidence he had. That email was damning, she got that, she really did, but maybe she'd just expected more from him. Thought their night together meant more. At least meant enough that he would give her the benefit of the doubt.

Still, she shut that thinking down real quick.

She was entitled to her anger, and more than that, she needed it. It was either be angry at everything and everyone who hadn"t been on her side from the beginning or fall apart because everything that had happened really was too much for one person to handle, especially when the end didn"t appear to be anywhere in sight.

If Tate was surprised that she didn"t accept his apology, he didn"t let on. Just kept his hold on her hand as they walked through the quiet streets. With the early hour, there was no one else about. The occasional car passed, and every time it did, Tate would pull her into his arms and pretend to kiss her.

At first, she just closed her eyes, kept her head down, and held her breath. Silently counting the seconds until he let go of her. It was a different kind of torture, being held so intimately by a man that she had at one time craved with every atom of her body, heart, mind, and soul.

When she thought about it like that it made her sound extra stupid.

One amazing night and she had been already planning what an amazing future they'd share.

No more being that na?ve.

Love didn"t really happen that way in real life. Movies, sure, books, absolutely, and songs too, but not in real life. In real life, people just took what they wanted from you and then left. You had to fight on your own to make something of yourself. Which is why she was sure there would be no more dating, and no more letting men get close until she learned to love herself, be happy and content with her own company.

By the fourth time Tate drew her into his arms for a fake kiss, Scarlett could no longer kid herself into believing she didn"t want his touch. Didn"t relish it. Wasn't counting down the seconds until he could let her go but rather counting the seconds until he would hold her again.

She really had to be a glutton for punishment.

His touch soothed, comforted, and heated her blood, even though she was pretty sure he still had doubts about her and was yet to make up his mind if she was a criminal, a woman coerced into doing something wrong, or the innocent victim that she was.

Get over him.

He's over you.

Was from the moment he snuck out of your house without so much as a goodbye.

Even if he thinks you"re innocent he doesn't want you.

Never did.

Yet, as the taillights of the car disappeared around the corner, Tate took his time releasing her. His fingers trailed down her back, making her shiver, and it had nothing to do with the light touches against her wounds. Sure, they hurt, but his touch … warmed. It was so gentle, so tender, and the way he looked down at her like he wanted to kiss her until both of them forgot their own names, and then wrap her up in bubble wrap and stash her someplace safe, told her that he felt more than he let on.

Was he running because he was afraid?

They hadn"t talked a lot about their pasts so she didn"t know much about Tate Laurier or his life.

If he had pushed her away out of fear, she could understand that. Didn"t mean that hurting her because he was scared was okay, but she could understand it. There would even have been a time when she would have helped him with his fears if he would have just let her in.

But now …

Now she wasn't sure she had the energy to take on more problems than the ones already on her plate.

Another lifetime and they could have been really happy together. In this lifetime … it was already too late.

Still, when his fingers curled around hers again, she couldn't help the giddy little thrill she felt at holding hands. Was she really so desperate for love and attention that holding hands with a man who had made no secret out of not liking her and believing the worst without even giving her a chance was enough to make her heart race and her stomach cartwheel?

Pathetic.

"The park is right around the corner," Tate said softly. "I"m thinking we hole up there until it's light. Raul wants to stay under the radar, I don't think he'd want his men trying anything in broad daylight. Once the sun comes up, we'll get you someplace safe, and I'll head into Prey."

"Why can"t I come with you to Prey?" If Raul Castillo was hunting her then there would be no safer place for her to be.

After a moment's hesitation, Tate's fingers tightened around her own. "Because I think there might be a mole at Prey."

That shocked her enough that she jerked to a stop. "A mole? At Prey?"

That was crazy.

There was no mole at Prey.

Sure, there had been an incident years before she joined the company involving Fox and his now-wife, Evie. A mole at Prey had leaked her location when she was hiding from a crime boss with a hit out on her. Because of that, Evie had almost been killed.

But that was a long time ago, and Eagle was even stricter now when he hired people.

Especially after his own wife—well, now wife, at the time they'd just both been attracted to one another—had been hired under false pretenses. Since Olivia had really been working for Eagle's brother Falcon, everything had worked out okay, and in the end, Eagle had managed to earn Olivia's trust back and win her heart.

"How else do you explain the email and the fact that Raul knew about the Reactivator?" Tate asked.

There was no way she could deny there was some logic to the theory, but still … a mole at Prey?

Impossible.

"If you have another idea, I"m open to hearing it, Scarlett," Tate continued. "Because as far as I see it, there are only three options. One, you"re lying to everyone, and you really did intend to sell the drug to Raul Castillo." When she snarled at him, he smiled and chuckled. "Didn"t say I was going with that option. Two, Raul somehow made contact with you and managed to force your hand. If that happened, I hope you would have told someone so they could help you. But even if that's what happened, it doesn't explain how he knew about the drug to begin with. Prey keeps things close to the chest until they"re ready. Or three, somebody set you up."

That was the theory she and her team had figured out before they left the other night.

But, somehow, she hadn"t really connected the idea to a mole at Prey.

That hurt almost worse than being accused of being a traitor. Because it meant that somebody she loved and trusted had set out to betray her. They had written those emails specifically to make her look guilty, and they had allowed her to be kidnapped and tortured, knowing it would eventually lead to her death.

"You"re the one who's been saying all along you were innocent," Tate reminded her. "This is the only theory that supports that. Someone at Prey set you up."

"Who?" she whispered. Who would do that to her?

"I don't know. You"re going to have to think about it and make a list. I"m guessing not a lot of people knew about the Reactivator so it's going to be a short list."

The problem was, everybody on that list was somebody she cared about.

Her team.

Fox and his team.

Eagle and probably some of his siblings and their partners, although most of them ran their own teams and left dealing with every single detail up to Eagle.

Prey's lawyer.

A couple of the people who worked in the lab with them.

A couple of other office employees.

Not a single one of them stood out to her.

January 16th

9:13 A.M.

She was goingto be mad when she realized what he had planned.

Tate knew he wasn't being fair to Scarlett. She was the one at the center of this mess, and she deserved every chance she could get to prove her innocence, but he couldn't allow her to go walking right into danger.

Someone at Prey was dirty.

Until he knew who, she wasn't setting foot in that building, nor was he going to tell a single person where she was.

Since he still had his phone on him, after they'd walked around the park until the sun came up, he'd suggested stopping at a gas station so they could both use the bathroom and grab something to eat. In reality, he'd wanted to be alone for a couple of minutes so he could set up some meetings without Scarlett knowing.

Yep.

She was going to be furious when she found out what he had planned for her.

His team already knew what was going on, he'd called them after Scarlett had passed out at his place in the early hours of yesterday morning. So, none of them had been surprised when he asked if anyone minded if he borrowed their hang-out place for a while. It was an old, abandoned bar that they had originally planned to makeover and run together. In the end, they'd had so much fun just hanging out there that the space was now simply used for that. While the idea of turning it into a bar at some point wasn't off the table, for now, it was quiet, it looked abandoned from the outside, but inside was completely renovated, had a great security system, and the basement had no windows and only one door out.

Perfect for keeping an unwilling guest.

Scarlett could hate him for this, but at least she'd be alive.

"Here we are," he said when they stopped in front of the building. When Scarlett's nose scrunched up in disbelief he laughed. "Trust me, it looks better inside."

"I should hope so."

From the small gasp when he unlocked the front door and guided her inside, he knew he'd proven his point. The walls were painted a dark gray, the hardwood floors stained a dark brown, there was a bar down one end, a couple of tables around it, then the rest of the floor space was taken up with pool tables, air hockey tables, gaming machines, and foosball tables. It was a dream hang-out space for a bunch of single guys.

"Wow," she murmured.

"Best part is the downstairs is a huge apartment. Bathroom with a jacuzzi and walk-in shower, a king-size bed, TV, and fully stocked kitchen."

"Why didn"t we come here last night? Would have been way better than wandering the park in bare feet and a ripped sweater," she grumbled.

"Didn"t want to risk leading anyone here if they were still out there. Thought we could hang out here for a few days until we get this mess sorted. Why don't you go down and shower and change, and I'll come check your wounds when you"re done."

While he would have forcibly put her in the basement if he had to, he knew he wouldn't when Scarlett's eyes lit up at the prospect of a shower.

"I'll be down in a moment," he added, leading her over to the door and opening it, switching on the lights.

Scarlett was a few steps down before she realized what was happening.

"Tate?" she screeched, running back up the stairs, but it was already too late.

He'd closed the door and locked it, trapping her down there.

"What are you doing? You locked me in? Why would you do that?" She sounded so incredulous, so hurt, so betrayed, that for a moment, he second-guessed himself. Just because he was doing this to keep her safe didn"t mean she would see it the same way even after he came back later and explained.

"Sorry, sweetheart," he murmured, touching his forehead to the door where Scarlett was hammering on the other side.

Then resolutely, he straightened and walked away, locking the front door behind him. Calling an Uber, he gave the address of Prey's West Coast office building and tried to relax. Scarlett was safe. Angry but safe. For now, he had to focus on finding the mole so that she wasn't going to wind up spending the rest of her life in prison.

Just because Prey was on her side, and he was on her side, didn"t mean she wouldn't be charged and sentenced.

Twenty minutes later, they pulled up outside Prey, and he paid the driver and then headed inside. Standing in the lobby was none other than Eagle Oswald himself. With his jet-black hair, piercing blue eyes, expensive suit, and confident posture the man looked every bit the legend he was.

"Laurier," Eagle said in way of greeting, gesturing for him to follow him into a quiet conference room just off the lobby. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?"

There was no way Eagle didn"t know about the dead bodies left behind just down the street from Scarlett's house. Or that his own place had been shot up. The billionaire didn"t look surprised to see him there, so he knew exactly why Tate had come.

Scarlett.

"Was I wrong about you, Laurier?" Eagle asked, a taunting lilt to his tone.

"Wrong about me?"

"When I requested your team go in after Scarlett."

"You requested us?" He had assumed they were just assigned that op because they were the only available team, not that they had been a special request. "Why would you do that?"

"Because I needed someone who cared to go after her. I couldn't risk her being hurt and I knew you would make sure she was safe even if you thought she was a traitor."

"How could you know that?" He had never spoken to a single person about his night with Scarlett.

"You ran a search on her a few months back, right before Halloween. Any time someone searches one of my employees I"m notified. I assumed it was because of a romantic interest so I did a little digging into your background. I don't know why nothing ever happened between you two and I don't care, but when I needed someone I trusted, I asked for you. Was I wrong? Should you bring her in so I can assign someone else to look after her?"

Why did Tate get the feeling the man was playing matchmaker?

And why did the thought of anyone but himself protecting Scarlett fill him with a deep protective rage he'd never felt toward another person?

"I can keep her safe," he replied and was rewarded with a smile as Eagle's posture relaxed. "Wait, you said you needed someone who would keep her safe even if they thought she was a traitor. You never doubted her. How can you be so sure she's innocent?" As far as he was concerned, everyone at Prey was a suspect except Eagle. There was no need for him to sell anything, he was richer than Raul Castillo could ever hope to be. Still, he wondered how the man was so sure.

"Because we only released part of the evidence," Eagle replied, pulling out a chair at the table and gesturing that Tate should join him. "More than one email was uncovered. Whoever wrote them slipped up. One out of the six emails wasn't signed with Scarlett's name, it was one of the other women on her team."

"So, Scarlett didn"t write those emails." Tate waited for the wave of relief to hit having verifiable proof that Scarlett was innocent, but it didn"t come. Somewhere along the way, he had come to the conclusion on his own. He'd known it, felt it, understood it even when he didn"t realize that he did.

"I"d confirm that, but you sound like you already believed it anyway," Eagle said with a grin, before sobering. "We knew it wasn't Scarlett, but then she was kidnapped, and I knew that if I released everything I had, it would be tipping my hand, putting her and the rest of her team in more danger. Whoever set her up wasn't targeting her specifically. I believe there were emails "written" from all of the women, so whoever they ended up going after could be framed. The timing of us finding those emails suggests we were supposed to find them, supposed to believe Scarlett was guilty so we wouldn't be looking anywhere else."

The same conclusions he'd come to himself even without knowing there were emails in one of the other women's names.

"I have a mole in my company," Eagle said, tone gone dark and cold. "I won"t tolerate that. I needed to keep that evidence under wraps because I need whoever really wrote those emails to think they worked. They would have been suspicious if we immediately turned on Scarlett, so I"ve played everything as though we believe in her, because we do, but that we're also bringing in outside help so nobody can accuse us of covering anything up. We need to keep the mole content. So long as they think the focus is still on Scarlett, they'll become complacent and I can flush them out. When I do, I'll make them wish they never thought of hurting one of my people."

Tate liked that Eagle's main priority was on the people who worked for him and not his company's reputation.

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need to know that Scarlett is safe and being protected. I"m trusting you with her life, Laurier, and I think possibly with her heart. Don't make me regret it."

The threat hung in the air between them, and Tate wished he could say that Scarlett would walk away with her heart intact, but the truth was, he wasn't sure either of them were going to.