Page 184 of Deceived Wrath

For one horrible moment, my finger hovers over the option to delete it.

It would be so easy to do what Lorcan asked and pay off the debt that has been hanging over my head ever since Carly died. But I can’t.

Something good has to come out of this mess. Even if Cormac and I have no future, I want to at least try to give him a fighting chance at one with his son.

I open the file and curse at the rows upon rows of data. There are so many numbers it makes my eyes hurt.

The encryption is dense and layered, designed to slow anyone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, but I’m well-versed in this.

After all, forensic coding was what I thought I wanted to do with my life.

Now, when I think of my future, all I want is a life with Cormac and Scout.

Sweat beads at my temples as I work, my fingers flying across the keyboard as muscle memory takes over.

I don’t let myself think about cameras or footsteps or Brennan calling my name from outside. All I think about is finding leverage that Cormac can use against Lorcan.

When I finally break through the encryption, rows upon rows of names and numbers that mean nothing to me start flooding the screen. But as I continue to scroll and start to notice the patterns, I start to see it for what it is. Nothing but transactions that don’t exist on paper and meetings that never officially happened between Lorcan and someone named Adrian Smirnov.

“Oh, my god,” I breathe as I continue to read.

My hands start to shake as I read faster, dread blooming into something cold and heavy in my stomach as I realize why Lorcan wanted me to delete this file.

This isn’t leverage.

This isn’t insurance.

This is preparation.

He isn’t trying to protect himself by making me delete this. He’s positioning himself to set up a chain reaction that ends with Cormac and his brothers completely blindsided, fractured, and exposed.

This document has Cormac’s world completely laid bare and marked for impact, and I was never meant to be anything more than a pawn he could dispose of.

The realization knocks the air from my lungs.

If Lorcan manages to go through with his plan, if I don’t stop it, once again, people I care about will die. At some point, the cyclehas to stop, and I have to be the one to do it, even if it costs me everything.

The distant sound of a door closing echoes through the house, and I snap the laptop shut without deleting the file.

I scramble to my feet and put the laptop back exactly where it was as my heart hammers so hard it hurts.

When I step away from the desk, it’s like I was never there, even though I know Kieran will have cameras that will show otherwise.

When I leave the office, my legs feel weak, and my thoughts are racing too fast for me to make much sense of them.

I’m halfway down the hallway when footsteps approach.

My heart slams into my ribs as I try to keep my expression neutral, but I’m so in my head that when I turn the corner I walk straight into Brennan.

“Whoa,” he places his hands on my shoulders to steady me.

“S-sorry.”

His eyes quickly flick over me. His expression doesn’t change, but I know he sees the guilt I’m trying so hard to hide.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” I say a little too quickly. “I-I’m fine.”