Page 7

“If he had time to hide it, this won’t show us what happened to him,” I say quietly to the girl I love. Mostly I want Harper to be prepared. Part of her longs to know what happened to her father too, but I don’t think she actually wants to see it.

“I know.” She leans her head against my shoulder. Loving her is a gift that I won’t let go to waste.

Jack queues the video up, and the screen goes live. The ground moves, and there’s the sound of a man breathing. It’s dark, but enough moonlight bathes the area to make things visible.

“Shit,” someone on the video whispers as the camera jerks for a second.

When he gets to the area where we found the SD card, the camera stops moving. He lifts it and looks into the lens critically, maybe making sure there isn’t dirt on it, but Harper gasps at the image of her father.

He’s the same as in the video he left for Jennifer. He swings it around and must place it on something. The shaking stops and gives us a clear view of the clearing with the woods beyond it.

He blows out a breath. The sound of cars closes in on the location. Headlights swing into the area, illuminating it. The headlights remain on. Another car joins the first, but they turn off their lights.

Figures get out of the two cars. As they come into the light, I recognize a younger William Foster and Bruce Ross. Another car pulls up, and they both turn to see who arrived. Mark Lee gets out of the car and walks over to them.

The camera adjusts the angle and then zooms in.

“What’s with the cloak and dagger, William?” Mark asks as he stands near the other two.

“We could have just as easily done this at your house,” Bruce agrees.

“It’s not secure.” William shakes his head. “Someone’s trying to take us down. We need to be careful what we say and where.”

“Paranoid much?” Mark laughs and Bruce joins in.

“Keep laughing when your asses land in prison. How do you think you’ll hold up in prison, Bruce? You know they don’t serve six-course meals in there.” William leans back against his hood and regards the others.

“The guys in there also aren’t five-year-olds who you can kick around whenever you have a bad day.” Bruce scoffs. “Why don’t you get to your point? Why are we here?”

Harper’s hand tightens on mine. Her gaze goes to Luke, but it’s not really surprising someone else knew about his abuse and did nothing about it. None of our parents said no when we asked if Luke could stay with us. When we tried to get him out of that situation. But the truth is, everyone in this town is afraid of William Foster and the power he wields.

Too frightened to even help a defenseless child.

“Cameron,” William says my father’s name, and I stiffen and narrow my eyes at the screen.

“What about Cam?” Mark shrugs like it doesn’t matter. “He wants out of the operations. So fucking what? He wasn’t that involved to begin with. He’s still going to be our attorney.”

“This is a slippery slope. First Robert, now Cam. That wasn’t the deal we made.” William appears casual, but there’s tension in his words. He wants them to stick to the deal. What deal?

“A deal we made when we weren’t even out of college yet. Based on stuff we thought up as teenagers.” Bruce shakes his head. “A deal that no legal court would uphold.”

“Then we uphold it.” William’s voice is cold.

“Uphold it how?” Mark asks, but he takes a slight step away. They know who they’re dealing with.

“There should be consequences for them leaving.” William rubs his chin like he hasn’t already thought this through. The man is cold and calculating. As a child, I was fascinated by him. There’s something about him that felt like me.

I run my thumb over the swell of Harper’s thumb. I may have thought I was like William Foster, even tried to be like him, at least when it came to business, but Harper makes me realize I could never be him. She makes me regret looking up to that man because if I’d become him, she wouldn’t love me. She couldn’t.

And I need her love more than I need my next breath. It centers me and makes me whole. She’s everything to me.

“Consequences?” Bruce asks suspiciously. “You’re going to decide what happens to any of us if we leave you, William? Should we punish Rob for wanting out to make a better life for his family by not being involved in our ‘businesses’? Cam wants to make a name for himself as an attorney. Not become notorious for the shit we do.”

“The shit we agreed to do to build the wealth we needed to have the legit businesses that keep this fucking town running.” William straightens. “Is that what you mean, Bruce? Or were you going to dip into your trust fund for everything we need?” William’s chuckle is dark and condescending. “But you’d never do that. You were too afraid of Daddy to ask for what was owed you. You’ve always been weak.”

“Fuck you, William.” Bruce narrows his eyes on him. “You know nothing about my family, so don’t fucking act like you do.”

“I know that shoulder injury destroyed your hopes of being something besides your father’s son. You’d all but signed the dotted line to escape us with the NFL.” William smiles coldly. “But you came back begging to be part of us again. To make your own money when your old man left all his wealth to your children instead of you.”