“He hid your information—”
“Because he knew how corrupt my father was.”
I hate the look Isaac is giving me now. I’m more than willing to hand him my power in the bedroom, but that doesn’t extend to everyday life. Here, right now, he’s supposed to be my equal, yet I’m feeling more like a member of his staff. He’s talking down at me all because I’m working on half-truths.
“I wouldn’t seem so daft if you’d give me accurate information to assess. You’re always mollycoddling me, Isaac.”
The anger radiating off Isaac could be felt in China. “I do so to protect you.”
“Or perhaps it’s because you don’t trust me as much as you say you do.”
He scoffs as the fury swirling in his stomach works its way up to his face. “I trust you.”
“Prove it.” I drop my eyes to the tablet in my hand. “Show me what you think I’m not brave enough to see, then give me a chance to prove I am.”
I don’t expect him to fall for my ruse since Isaac hates being strong-armed. There’s no way he’d let me goad him into doing something he doesn’t want to do, so you can imagine my surprise when he merely says, “Fine,” before snatching the tablet out of my hand and logging into a secure set of files that require both a fingerprint and retina scan. “But don’t think you won’t pay your penance later. I don’t like being strong-armed, Isabelle, even when it’s happening by my equal.”
I shouldn’t be excited by the threat in his tone, but I am.
The shocks keep coming when he hands his tablet back to me. It’s not open on a dossier of Brandon as I was anticipating. It’s Hugo’s file, and it’s a lot more comprehensive than the one I unearthed when I dug into his personal life after Isaac took me home when I was severely inebriated.
The longer I read Hugo’s file, the slicker my skin becomes. “These charges can’t be true. Hugo would never hurt anyone… except perhaps Brandon.”
I only express my last three words after taking in an image attached to a police report of the night Hugo was charged with the battery of a fellow marine. The man pictured isn’t an oddly compelling match to Brandon as Grayson is for Alex, but they have remarkably similar features—features I took in extensively when Mrs. James primed me to within an inch of recognition.
“The initial suspect in the crime Hugo was convicted of was Brandon’s brother?” When Isaac nods, I dig deeper into Madden’s case files. “The accuser originally documented Madden McGee as the main accomplice, so why was Hugo charged months later?”
Although I appear to be asking questions, I’m not. This is how I sort through facts. I talk out loud. It’s better than my previous outlet of babbling which got me nowhere fast.
After a few more minutes of silent reading, I discover Brandon’s real name is Brandon James McGee, he’s the youngest child of Vincent and Barbara James, who now goes by her maiden name of Raven.
My brows furrow when I stumble upon a damning piece of evidence. “How could they let Madden’s father preside over his son’s case? It’s highly unethical.”
“But not illegal. An accused has the right to pick any counsel they see fit. If they believe it to be a person related to them by blood, the court will allow it.” Isaac’s face doesn’t give anything away, but the sneer in his tone sure does. He’s as suspicious of Vincent’s motives as I am.
“Still, it’s in poor taste.”
Isaac flicks his finger across the screen four times. “Not as ill-mannered as pinning the charges onto the man who saved the victim from her attackers.”
Attackers.That hurt as much to hear as it did reading it.
As I read a report stating Hugo’s DNA was found under the victim’s nails during the processing of evidence, Isaac says, “Hugo’s DNA was only found because Gemma clutched to him when her attackers fled.”
My eyes float up to Isaac’s “So why did Hugo plead guilty? Gemma would have backed him up. He saved her.”
“He pled guilty after the victim, his friend, tried to kill herself.”
My stomach gurgles when Isaac taps the screen two times to bring up a hotel room bathroom that looks like it underwent a massacre. There’s blood and medical gauze everywhere. Gemma didn’t do a half-assed attempt to end her life, she went the full gung-ho.
“Did Gemma survive?”
The tightness lassoed around my chest slackens when Isaac nods. “I doubt she would have if she were forced to endure the witness stand again, though. Vincent tore her apart.”
I’m not surprised. He has beady, unscrupulous eyes. “So Hugo pled guilty, so Gemma wouldn’t have to take the witness stand again?”
Isaac nods again. “Since this was a military case, it was handled differently than a standard citizen case. Hugo was given probation and dishonorably discharged while Gemma’s real attackers roamed free.” He clicks into a secondary subsidiary file. “It also means Gemma’s accusation wasn’t mentioned during a recent court proceeding.”
I assume he’s referencing Hugo’s attempt to be resurrected from the dead the past six months, but I am proven wrong when I take in the name of the accused on the court transcript in front of me. Madden McGee.
