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“I’m going to kill you,” I say quietly.
“Yeah, like you did Senator Green?”
Fuck.
I freeze, cold dread washing over me at his words. Heknows. Somehow, this vile man knows the truth about what happened between me and Calista’s father.
“Oh come now, don’t play dumb,” he says. “I know all about your little confrontation with the dear senator that night.”
Calista stirs by my side, inhaling sharply, but I can’t look at her. I don’t want to see the look of hurt on her face. And I don’t want her to see the look of guilt sure to be on mine.
Chapter29
Calista
“I’m going to kill you,”Hayden says to my captor.
“Yeah, like you did Senator Green?”
I stare up at Hayden, waiting for him to deny it. He doesn’t look at me. Anxiety slams into me, and my heart stutters in my chest. Why isn’t he saying anything?
“Oh come now, don’t play dumb.” Russell shakes his head, clicking his tongue in admonishment. “I know all about your little confrontation with the dear Senator that night.”
For the first time, I think death might not be the worst thing to happen to me. As if I’ve been kicked in the stomach, I suck in a breath and curl in on myself. Part of me wants to reach out and grasp Hayden’s leg to anchor myself emotionally, while the rest recoils at the idea.
“Whatever it is that you think you know is wrong,” Hayden says.
Russell holds his arms out. “How can I be wrong when I’m the one that put you up to it?”
Hayden doesn’t move, but the muscles in his legs tense underneath his slacks. If they weren’t in my line of sight, I doubt I would’ve been able to tell. I glance up at him again and then Russell, unsure of who I should watch. Which man is my true enemy?
Right now, they both are.
“What are you talking about?” Hayden asks.
“You think you’re the only person who employs a hacker?” Russell lets his arms fall to his sides with a slap. “I made sure to plant ‘clues’ that would lead you to believe the Senator killed his secretary. It was actually me, by the way.”
“Why?” I say, my voice barely above a wheeze.
Both men glance in my direction, but I keep my focus on Russell. My desperation for knowledge overrides everything.
“Your father helped me a lot when I first bought AstraRx,” Russell says, holding my stare. “When I wrote my doctoral thesis, it was about depressants and their effects on the central nervous system. After buying the pharmaceutical company, I wanted to expand that research and develop a marketable drug. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it to pass FDA standards until Senator Green got involved. But that didn’t stop me from putting it out on the street.”
He turns to Hayden. “Your addict mother came into contact with it through her boyfriend and died in this very room. It might comfort you to know she wasn’t the only person who overdosed. That drug was so potent, it didn’t take much to cross the line.”
“You son of a bitch!” Hayden takes a step forward, and I throw out my arm to grab his shoe. He stills at the contact and drops his gaze to me. When our eyes meet, I swallow at the unholy rage burning in their depths.
“Don’t,” I whisper.
“Listen to her.” Russell nods in my direction. “If you don’t, you’ll get yourself killed faster than I’d like. Anyway, after that debacle with the first drug, I moved onto something else. The users call it a roofie, but it has the potency of Valium. It creates the effect of cocaine binge while feeling the high similar to being on heroin.”
He sighs. “It’s a thing of beauty. Don’t you agree, Calista? After all, this is your second time experiencing the narcotic. I doubt you remember the first time I gave it to you in the children’s center.”
“Oh, my God.” My stomach heaves as memories, both clear and muddled, barrage my mind. I gag until I’m sick all over the carpet. “It was you.”
Hayden gently lifts me onto the dusty couch before spinning to face Russell. “Did you rape her?”
I watch the exchange while struggling to control my panicked breathing. The letter opener digs into my side and I slowly dip my hand inside my coat, concentrating on keeping my expression dazed. If the man who kidnapped me had searched me like he did Hayden, he would’ve removed the only weapon available to me.
