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“I’d rather be well rested so nothing goes wrong when it really matters.”
“And you’re sure that’s still what you want?” He arched a brow.
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Just making sure. It’s still not too late to walk away. Once you take this next step, there’s no going back. There’s no choice but to follow through to the end.” He narrowed his gaze at me. “But right now, youstillhave that choice.”
I stared into the distance, ruminating his words over in my mind.
DidI have a choice?
CouldI forget this entire thing and stop living in the past?
I would have been lying if I hadn’t thought about that more and more the past few days, especially as I spent time with Imogene.
As I made love to her.
As she ran her fingers over each of my scars and called them beautiful.
It was so tempting.
But I wasn’t only doing this for myself.
I was doing this for Jonah.
For his mother.
“Thereisno choice,” I told Henry in a determined voice. “To the end. No going back.”
He pushed out a long sigh. “No going back.”
ChapterThirty-Two
Gideon
Darkness surrounded me as I crouched amongst towering redwood and sequoia trees. The only light came from the tiny sliver of a moon and the thousands of stars scattered across the sky. They seemed even brighter tonight, especially out here in the middle of nowhere, no light pollution to dull their vibrancy.
At one point in my life, I never understood why someone would want to live this far removed from civilization. Now, it sounded like the perfect place to end my time on earth.
Just like Alton was about to.
As was predicted, when the markets opened Monday morning, GeoCom stock tanked. Within hours of the opening bell, their board unanimously voted to temporarily remove the CEO, pending an official investigation into the allegations against him.
That did little to restore confidence in the market, considering there was evidence of a company-wide culture of sexual abuse, as well as bribing victims and law enforcement to keep it quiet. Instead of the stock price recovering with a new interim CEO, it kept falling over the course of the past several days as more evidence came to light.
It appeared that would continue for the foreseeable future.
To make matters worse, investigators learned that, not only was Alton involved in insider trading, but he’d also been lying to his clients. Made them believe their investments were safe with him. All along, Alton was pocketing huge sums of their money to finance his lavish lifestyle.
He’d stolen dozens of people’s life savings.
Further proof he only cared about himself.
And money.
“I’ve remotely disabled his security system,” Henry’s voice sounded over the small earpiece I wore. “You probably have about an hour to get in, get it done, and get out before the FBI comes knocking, thanks to a little anonymous tip.”
While Alton may have done everything to make it so no one could trace this particular property back to him, going so far as paying cash for it and buying it in the name of a shell corporation, I needed the authorities to find his body. Needed them to comb his property for evidence.
