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However, one thing stood out. The rock collection had simply been misplaced because Dale was no longer interested in it. Kids were like that. They changed hobbies when the wind changed.
“Anything else, Dale?” Ruby asked.
“No.”
“And you haven’t seen that guy on the playground since the last time?”
Dale shook his head.
“Okay.” Ruby smiled. “This is really good information, Dale. You’re helping us a lot.”
He smiled again.
And that was worth every dollar of the Steel fortune.
Chapter Forty-Five
Bryce
Your father trained him.
I opened my mouth, letting my jaw hang there. Words flew through my mind, none of them coming together as a coherent sentence to speak.
My father trained him.
“I don’t understand,” I finally said.
“I’m not sure I fully understand, either,” Brad noted. “Now that your father’s gone, we may never know unless Cade decides to come clean. But I have a theory. I think your father took him as a sort of…protégé.”
I stood, my mouth still dropped open, most likely looking like an imbecile.
A protégé?
A strange wave of envy passed through me, and then I had to stop myself from doubling over.
Envy, Bryce? Really? That your father took a protégé other than you for his life of horror?
I was being stupid. Really fucking stupid.
“But he…” God, what a moron. I couldn’t even form words.
“Like I said, it’s only a theory. But we know your father bought Cade’s father’s silence.”
Money buys silence for a time, son, but a bullet buys it forever.
“I just assumed he…” Again, the words stopped. Brad and I both knew what I meant.
“He probably did. I’m sure Joe told you what your father and the others went through in their training.”
Again, the nausea. “Yeah. He told me. Who would do that?”
“Someone for whom money trumps all else,” Brad said, shaking his head. “Your father wasn’t always that way. Neither was Larry. They were corrupted.”
“Sorry, I don’t buy it. They had to have the propensity for it to even be corrupted like that.”
“I won’t disagree with you there,” he said, “but they were corrupted.”
“By whom?”
