My voice didn’t shake. I was almost proud of that.
My dad smiled wider, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Is that right?”
A slow, creeping unease slid through me.
“Yeah. Why?” I forced a fake laugh that sounded hollow to even my ears. “Where else would I have been?”
He hummed, glancing briefly toward Natalie before looking back at me. “Well… Natalie here seems to think you were up to something different. Something far more beneficial to the club…Ifshe’s to be believed, that is.”
“I’m confused,” I said. “If Natalie has important information, why has someone hit her? Why is she being forced to kneel on the floor?”
“Tell me about you and the Devils,” my dad said, ignoring my question.
“There’s nothing to say,” I said quickly, feeling my stomach twist. My only saving grace was that I didn’t have the scan pictures with me. We decided it was safer for Luke to have them, and keep them in his room at the Devil’s clubhouse.
My dad would never see them. He would never know. He might know other stuff—stuff I’d soon find out, no doubt—but he didn’t know about the thing that mattered the most.
“Natalie says differently. According to her, yourbestfriend, she says you’ve been meeting up with them for years.”
“She’s lying,” I said quickly, stepping forward before I could second-guess myself. “She’s clearly been—”
“I’m not lying,” Natalie cut in, her voice rough and unsteady. “We’ve been working them. Both of us.”
The words didn’t make sense at first. I stared at her, my brows pulling together.
Betrayed. That’s all I could feel.
Sharp, hot, burning betrayal.
And yet, I knew it wasn’t her fault. One look at her and it was obvious she had been coerced.
“That’s not true—” I began.
“It was all a setup,” she continued, her eyes locking onto mine with a desperation that made my chest tighten. “Gabby is lying because she thinks you’ll be mad. We know we let it go on fortoo long, but this was always the plan. Getting close to them. Gaining their trust. Feeding information back.”
My heart began to pound, each beat louder than the last.
What are you doing?
“Natalie—”
“Funny…” my dad said slowly, eyeing us both with suspicion. “You say you were getting information, and yet neither of you has ever come to me with news of the Devils. Neither of you has ever aided us in any of our schemes to bring them down. So tell me why I should believe either of you?”
“It’s true, sir,” Natalie all but begged. “We can give you—”
“Show her,” my father said calmly, cutting her off.
The Sergeant-at-Arms tightened his hold on Natalie as the VP stepped forward, turning his phone so the screen faced me.
And everything inside me went cold.
Vienna stood in the middle of an empty lot, exactly where he’d said he’d be waiting for me later. For a second, it looked like he really was alone.
But then I saw them.
Our men.