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Sam’s hand was at the small of Scarlet’s back and he felt her rigidity, sensed the undercurrent of irritation she clearly tried to contain.
“I’ve told you everything I could,” Sam’s mother insisted.
“Could?” Scarlet baited. “But not all that you know.”
“Mother,” Sam said, his own rage close to the boiling point. “We know about Wyatt Hill. We know about Dylan Reed. My twin brother is the one who caused Scarlet’s accident.”
“I—oh, my God. I—” Karina’s jaw slackened and her eyes widened. Her hand pressed to her chest, over her heart.
“Enough of the secrets,” Sam quietly demanded, doing his best not to lose it completely.
Scarlet said, “I went to see Wyatt in prison. A couple of nights later, I was hanging upside down in a ditch.”
Karina’s other hand covered her mouth. Tears sprang to her eyes.
Sam’s gut wrenched again, his chest pulling tight. He was already in an emotional hell because of Scarlet’s injuries. Now he was faced with the turmoil of his mother’s reaction to him finding out about his dad and brother—from someone other than her. And her apparent horror over the danger Scarlet had been in.
It took all the willpower Sam possessed to not press his mother, not rush her. Instead, he forced himself to let her process the implication of what Scarlet had said.
Michael was chomping at the bit as well, shifting from foot to foot and looking as though he was biting his tongue so he didn’t jump into the fray.
But they both knew this was Scarlet’s investigation. She was the one who needed to get to the bottom of this, and justifiably so. Sam didn’t want to say anything that would have his mother running off to her room, Mitcham intervening, or some other inciting incident leaving them all hanging. This had to be resolved.
Now.
“Honestly, Karina,” Scarlet said, her dropping the polite “Mrs. Vandenberg” label speaking volumes. “I need to know exactly what’s going on. What you’re involved in. What your connection is to Wyatt and Dylan, because they didn’t just come after me for popping into the prison unexpectedly. I specifically mentioned the art theft to Wyatt. And then this happened.” She swept a hand in the air, close to her neck and face. “That tells me loud and clear that I was getting much too close to a truth they wanted to keep covered up. And the only trigger was the reference to the missing collection. That means we’ve all come full circle.”
Sam’s heart constricted further as his mother’s eyes squeezed shut and tears leaked out of the sides.
“Jesus!” he hissed, unable to control himself a moment longer. “You know something, don’t you? You know what this is all about and—”
“And you didn’t put a stop to it when you had the chance,” Michael quietly blasted. “You could have told Scarlet everything the last time she was here and she wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”
Karina’s eyes flew open. “I never intended that!” Through her tears, she said, “I had no idea they’d harm her. I would never condone that.” Her gaze bored into Sam. “You have to believe me. I wouldn’t put anyone in danger, especially someone you care for!”
“Yet Scarlet is in danger!” he roared. “Why? Why did they go after her?”
“Sam.” It was a simple warning from Michael. If they amped up this confrontation, they might not get the answers they so desperately needed.
Scarlet was the one to proceed, a bit more calmly. Deceptively calm, because Sam detected the underlying steeliness to her tone.
She said, “I think I have it all pieced together. It was a scam from the beginning. Karina actually did know who Mitcham was when he came into her diner. Somehow, through whatever research or reconnaissance she did, she learned his wife was ill and in the hospital. Using Mitcham’s grief against him, she got close to him. At some point, it was ‘love’—for him, anyway. And then she found the perfect way to steal eighteen million dollars from him. For herself and for Wyatt and Dylan.”
“Scarlet!” Sam thundered. Not at her. But in general. Because goddamn it, her conjecture was precisely what he was suddenly thinking. Yet … It just couldn’t be. “There has to be another explanation.”
“It’s a fantastically plotted-out crime,” Scarlet continued, undeterred by Sam’s outburst. “More spectacular than anything I’ve ever dealt with before.” She pinned Sam’s mother with a hard look. “That was the plan all along, right? To collect the insurance money, have Wyatt launder it or otherwise disperse it into offshore accounts so that it wasn’t traceable if anyone started to dig too deep into the theft, even after the FBI closed the case?”
“And once the statute of limitations ran out…,” Michael added, “you all could take eighteen mil and disappear.” Michael swallowed hard. Started to circle the room looking as tormented as Sam felt, because Michael had just recently developed a soft spot for Karina. He’d doubted her integrity initially, had gradually warmed to her, but after she’d fessed up to the addictions and the difficulty in fitting in here he’d succumbed to guilt and empathy. And now he felt as though he’d been played the fool.
It was easy to jump to that conclusion. Sam experienced the same angst. Though it was magnified a thousand times over because this was his mother they were talking about. And b
ecause Sam still couldn’t fully accept that she’d planned this all along.
He stepped toward her, grabbed her by the shoulders, and stared into her eyes. “Is Scarlet right?” he demanded much more forcefully this time. “Was this all a scam?”
Her lids fluttered closed again. Her breathing turned choppy.
“Mother,” he urged. “Is this true?”
