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Sadie had thought when she learned the truth, there would be some sense of relief, but there was none. She felt empty. Ill. Lost ... and then mad as hell.
At her lack of a response, he continued, “Walsh and Kurtz were preparing to contact other business owners and digging around in cartel business. They veered too close. Leland Walsh tried to stop his son, but, like you, he wouldn’t listen.”
Sadie felt her lips tremble, felt the emotion burning her eyes. She would not cry in front of this son of a bitch. “My father, the cartel’s private assassin.” She shook her head. Launched to her feet. “I need to get out of here before I puke.”
“Everything I did was to protect you. Leland Walsh wanted you dead. He figured out I was the one who killed his son, and he wanted revenge. A life for a life.”
“I guess you killed him too.”
“It was the only way to protect you. All of it, every move, was to protect you.”
“Except.” Sadie pointed a finger at him, emotion pulsing so loudly inside her she felt ready to come apart at the seams. “Exceptwhen you started fucking around with the cartel princess because your wife was dead. What were you doing to protect me then?”
He lowered his gaze, unable to look at her.
Maybe that last part wasn’t fair. He hadn’t known she was an Osorio. Didn’t matter. He deserved no sympathy. No leeway from her. Head spinning, stomach churning, Sadie turned for the door. She couldn’t look at him a second longer. Couldn’t share the same air.
But she couldn’t go yet. Not until she knew the answer to her other question. She shifted her attention back to him, took a breath. “Did you do something to cause Pauley to have that heart attack?”
For the first time she noticed how very tired her father looked. Not that she cared. Damn him. She had known—she had—that he was cold and heartless. Ruthless, really. But she would never have imagined him capable of taking so many lives without hesitation.
“Leland Walsh told Emma that his wife had hired Winters. Emma ordered me to watch him. When he got too close with his investigation, I had no choice but to stop him. The heart condition made the job simple. I replaced his medicine with placebos.”
Hatred whipped through Sadie, mixing with the fury, forming a bitterness that stole her breath. “I guess you did that for me too.”
He shook his head. “No. I did that for me. Pauley was taking my daughter away from me.”
Sadie turned away, grabbed the doorknob.
“You have my word, Sadie; I’ve made right my biggest mistake.”
She didn’t want to hear any more.
“I only asked for one thing, and it wasn’t for me. I suppose perhaps that constitutes a deal, but it was something I needed to do.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” she demanded.
“Just know that I’ve taken care of the mistake I regret the most. The bargain I negotiated before—I allowed them to keep something I shouldn’t have. But I’ve made it right now. You’ll see. I love you, Sadie.”
She yanked the door open and walked out.
Maybe a good daughter would have said she loved him back. But she wasn’t a good daughter, and he damned sure wasn’t a good father.
49
5:40 p.m.
Birmingham Police Department
First Avenue North
Sadie walked across the bullpen. One of the detectives she’d met in the stairwell had told her which cubicle belonged to Devlin and Falco. She spotted Falco as she moved in that direction.
She wasn’t sure what she was doing here. Her first thought after the meeting with her father was to go home and get shit faced—but that was the old her. She was free now. Maybe she didn’t have every single piece of her past intact. Some parts she might never know, she supposed. But today had explained a lot. The past that had haunted her so darkly was out in the light now.
For example, why she was able to escape the cartel. Why she was even alive. Why her father had stopped looking at her the way he had before her mom died. His mounting guilt had put distance between them. His inability to control his daughter had kept him worried.
She couldn’t forgive him for all the terrible things he’d done. He’d killed at least two of the most important people in her life.
