I take one step toward him. "So, all of this was a game?"
"No." His jaw tightens. "It stopped being a game the second your mother died."
My heart pounds. "You brought me back because of her?"
"Yeah." He nods. “I had to. It was her dying wish. My dad had been helping her investigate, and since he was adopted into this insane family, nobody really trusted him—or me. They also thought we were stupid and only after money, so a partnership was born.”
"But, you watched me lose my mind," I point out. “You watched me fall in love all over again and nearly get destroyed!”
His expression softens. "I was hoping that part would happen."
Lilah looks between us. "Axel..."
He lets out a slow breath. "I needed the truth, Lilah. I needed both of you to stop lying long enough to find it, I needed to know what you saw, what you said, why you said it. I needed to know I could trust both of you."
I laugh.
It's ugly.
Broken.
"So what? You have the list?" I ask.
His hand disappears into his coat.
Every muscle in my body locks up.
Lilah gasps. I tense.
But instead of a gun, he pulls out a black thumb drive. “What? You really think I’d carry around a giant ass piece of paper?” he asks. “I memorized the important pages, the others are on here.” He holds up the drive.
A voice cuts through the darkness. "Don't."
We all turn.
Charlie. She’s standing ten feet away. A gun shakes in her hands. It’s pointed directly at Axel. What the hell?
Tears stream down her face, ruining the careful makeup she'd put on just an hour ago in order to help us, so what the fuck is she doing now? “Don’t you dare hand that over.”
Axel stares at her, his voice breaks. “Charlie.”
"I'm on it!" she screams waving the gun in the air. “I’ve been on it since the beginning.”
Lilah steps forward. “Charlie, stop, what are you doing? You’re my best friend. If you’re on it, we’ll find a way to help.”
"I need that list." She sobs. “I need it!”
Axel slowly lowers the thumb drive. "Charlie, we can figure this out."
"No!" She points the gun at all of us now moving back and forth between Axel, me, even Lilah. The desperation in her voice is palpable. "You owe me!"
I stare at her wide-eyed. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Lilah shakes her head. “You’re my best friend. My sister!”
Charlie laughs. It's the saddest sound I've ever heard. Like she wants it so badly to be true but knows it’s one sided, knows she messed up. “No.” She shakes her head. “I’m so much more than that.”
Silence. The parking lot suddenly feels too small. Too quiet. She looks straight at me. "My mother slept with your father." My stomach drops. Shit. “He got her pregnant.”
