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Harvard picked him up and shoved him back into the chair. “Get out of that seat one more time, and I’ll cuff you to it,” Harvard said evenly. “And watch your mouth. I even get a hint you’re insulting Rachel, I’ll make sure you can’t talk again without medical help. You get me?”
Terrance nodded as he rubbed the back of his head. For the first time since they’d stepped into the room, he seemed to realize that none of this was within his control.
“Let’s get this over with quickly, shall we?” Rachel said. “Who told you to steal that drug?”
“I don’t know,” he hissed out. As Harvard moved fractionally closer to him, Terrance winced. “I honestly don’t know. I got an envelope, with photos, and a note telling me what to do.”
“And you just did it?” Rachel asked the weaselly excuse for a man.
“They were going to send the photos to TayFor, and I wouldn’t get the job. Worse, they said they’d send them to my superior in the police force. And my wife. I would have been left without a marriage or a job. And for what? She was of legal age. All I was guilty of was—”
“Please,” Rachel snapped, “don’t say loving too much. We both know you’re guilty of a whole lot more than that. The girl was barely legal, and you were a dirty old man who cheated on your wife.”
“You’re judging me?” He sneered at her. “If I’m guilty of anything, it’s the exact same crime your family commits every single day—I was protecting my reputation.”
“By stealing a date rape drug from a pharmaceutical company that trusted you with their security.”
“It wasn’t a date rape drug. It was a party drug.”
“You were a police officer. You know exactly what people use that drug for.”
“I was told they planned to party with it.”
“And you believed your blackmailer?” She scoffed. “How very trusting of you.”
“Nobody was hurt.” He glanced at Harvard, suddenly looking very uncertain.
“Oh, Terrance, you unctuous little man. Somebody was most definitely hurt.”
She cocked a thumb at herself. “Me. That drug was used on me. Without my permission. By the men who raped me.”
For a second, he seemed completely shocked, then something like horror stole across his face. And before anyone could guess what he’d do, he turned, bent double, and vomited all over the floor.
“Open the door,” Rachel called to the surveillance room. “And somebody get a bucket.”
When Harvard and Rachel stepped outside the room, they were met with a wall of male outrage.
“Damn it, Rachel,” Callum roared. “We hadn’t finished deciding who’d talk to him.”
“You were taking too long.” She glanced back at the room. The smell coming out of it made her nauseous. “Feel free to take over. I’m sure he’ll tell you whatever you want to know now. You might want to clean the floor first though.”
“It’s Saturday,” Callum raged. “We don’t have a cleaner. Just who do you think is going to go in there and wipe up the mess you caused?”
As one, every person present looked at Ryan.
“Oh, hell no,” he said.
Two hours later, Benson Security’s conference room was packed. Everyone who wasn’t out on assignment had crammed inside to listen to Harvard update them on the theft investigation and the hunt for Rachel’s attackers.
Rachel felt like the main attraction in a three-ring circus.
“So that’s where we stand,” Harvard said from the head of the board table. “Terrance doesn’t have a clue who blackmailed him, and he destroyed everything the blackmailer sent. He’s a dead end.”
Thankfully, he kept his eyes from Rachel while he spoke. Enough people were looking at her with varying degrees of pity as it was.
“Elle,” Lake said, stepping up to the head of the table and looking very much in charge, because he was genetically incapable of doing otherwise, “where do we stand on the forensic tests you’ve been running on the photos?”
Elle, as usual, looked out of place in a room filled with ex-servicemen. She wore a blue and yellow polka dot dress and had a yellow headband in her blue hair. The look made Rachel long for her sunglasses.
