Page 35 of Pucking Snowed In with the Enemy

“He is, however, locked up in a cell, and I haven’t decided what to do with him yet. That has a lot to do with your father or ex-step-father.”

“Wait, wait, back up. Alex isn’t dead?” A weight lifted on my chest.

“Correct.”

“So, how do I get him back?”

Nathan picked up his champagne and drank down the entire glass before pouring another. “There is nothing you can do to get me to release him.”

The moment of lightheartedness I’d just felt plummeted. “There has to be something. Alex was annoying and arrogant. But mixed up with the mafia…that I don’t believe.”

“You really don’t know anything about him, do you?”

“What the hell are you trying to say?” My hand gripped the spoon tighter.

“I’m saying that you are the federal agent, and for whatever reason, you’re doing a terrible job.”

My mouth fell open as the insult not only stung my pride but also brought up the words Matthews had said to me.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” I stood and leaned on the table, but Nathan didn’t move. His features never changed. “I’m a damn good agent.”

“I didn’t say you weren’t, but in this case, you started all backward.” I crossed my arms. “Why didn’t you look into your family first?” I bit my lip as he called me out. “Here you are halfway across the country, determined to find your brother’s killer when all you had to do was spend a few minutes looking into Alex and your stepfather to find the answers you were after. Instead you have your finger pointed at me. Is it because I’m an easier target? A bad man, one that hurts people? There are a lot of assumptions in that line of thinking.”

I slowly sat down. “Fine, start at the beginning. I’ll listen,” I said, dejected that he was right. Even if I didn’t find anything, I should’ve been looking into why someone would want to hurt Alex. I ran my hand through my hair. It burned my ass that Matthews might have been right, that I was too close to this and should’ve left it alone.

Nathan stood and grabbed the file he’d brought and set it down. “This is your stepfather, yes?”

He pulled out a photo, and I nodded.

“He is a politician, but he also has very peculiar tastes when it comes to women, or should I say, girls. That is the real reason your mother left him but was paid off not to say anything.”

Nathan pulled out another photo. My stepfather was in bed with a very young girl. I covered my mouth and looked away.

“If you can’t stomach that, then you’d better decide now if you want to know more because it only gets worse from here.”

I stared into his eyes and didn’t see anything that made me feel better. My heart pounded loud enough to count the beats as he waited for an answer. I rolled out my shoulders. I needed to know.

“Tell me.”

“Alright.” He picked up a piece of paper out of the pile and laid it down. “These are all of Alex’s secret accounts and aliases. He has multiple depending on what he used it for, but most of them were to lure young girls.”

“No way….” Not the kid I knew growing up. Nathan lifted an eyebrow, and I crossed my arms, not wanting to believe this. “I’ll be quiet.”

He pulled a stack of photos and, one by one, placed them down. Each of them was a girl in a compromising position for the camera, all of them smiling or showing off like these were shots for a magazine. Some with pieces of clothing, but others fully nude.

He then pulled out a thick stack of paper. “This is all the correspondence between the girls and your brother. Each one of them sent him erotic photos and videos that he then used for blackmail to get them alone or give them to your father. I have more images and videos of his taped sessions, but I refuse to let you see them. There is some shit a family member should never have to see, and I don’t give a fuck if you are FBI.”

My mouth opened, and I shot up out of my chair and marched away. This couldn’t be happening.

“I lived with them until I was sixteen. Don’t you think I’d know if they were doing something so disgusting?”

Nathan stood and glared at me. “Savannah, you’re brilliant. So why are you so blind to what is right under your nose? You know the lengths people will go to in this world and the depth of depravity that exists.” I paced as my brain tried to comprehend this information. Could I have really missed something like this, and did my mother know? Is this why they divorced? There had to be a mistake, and yet, with just a glance, I knew that Nathan wasn’t lying. I was tempted to ask to see the videos to check for tampering.

I paced to the far end of the room and turned to find Nathan in my path. He grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look him in the eyes.

“You were young the last time you saw them, and if you had no reason to think anything like this, then I understand your confusion, but read the file. Don’t put blinders on just because you’re scared of the truth. The bit I have learned about you in our short time together is that you don’t hide from what is scary. You face it head-on.”

He was right. I could feel my heart steeling itself and my mind shutting down the emotional part of me that dealt with death, murder, and missing cases on a regular basis. I needed to look at this with impartial eyes and not as a family member.