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“My employer considered me inefficient,” he said and didn’t seem embarrassed to say it, making her think that Kahlil had an agenda of his own. Did he want to punish his previous associate? Or was this an attempt to impress the new boss in his life while humiliating the old one?
He was guarded enough that she recognized his reluctance to give her details and retreated so as to not aggravate him. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have the authority to make deals for Cormack Industries,” she said. “Any deal that we discussed—”
“No,” he said, shaking his head and letting himself lean into the desk. “We knew that Grant was conducting negotiations privately, using CI as a shield, a front to protect himself. No one else here knew about it. But Grant trusted you, he brought you inside.”
“If you saw what happened at Atlas then you know how our association was strained.”
“That works in my favor,” he said. “You have no concerns about loyalty. Grant is dead. You are free to sell the device.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
He smiled and pushed back in his chair again, restoring his confidence. “We know about your connection to the Kindred. About your affair with Raven.”
“You heard what was said in the Atlas warehouse?”
“No, we only saw it.” She didn’t like the knowing slant of his mouth. “But I have inside sources of my own.”
If he was trying to charm her into working with him or surrendering Game Time, then he was going about it the wrong way. “Good for you,” she said, pushing away from the desk with designs on rising, but he spoke again before she could get her feet under herself.
“I know the truth,” he said and she relaxed her arms.
“The truth?” she asked, wondering what he was going to declare.
“About who your Raven is.”
His confidence was warranted and she stayed glued to her chair. Knowing who Raven was changed everything, he could reveal that knowledge and bring Raven’s enemies to her and Brodie’s door. Kahlil had admitted to knowing what had happened in the Atlas warehouse. Therefore, it was also possible he knew about Sutcliffe’s compound and could know how Grant had died. He might even know about who Leatt was working for.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific, Mr. Samara.”
“Have many secrets, do you, Miss Bandini?” He arched a brow, but she wasn’t biting, so he came nearer to the desk. “I know who killed them.”
Again, she wasn’t sure who he was referring to, but if he ratted Brodie out to the cops for his work as Raven, it could destroy all of their lives. “Are you threatening me?”
“No. I’m offering you a chaser. Give Game Time to me, you’ll get a fortune in cash and the truth of what happened on that boat twenty years ago.”
Her lips were stuck together, but they unglued when her shock weighed down her jaw. “The boat.”
“Future’s Hope, that’s what it was called,” he said.
That was the name of the boat Brodie and Grant’s parents were killed on as the boys watched on from shore. Zara had been focused on what Kahlil knew about the present. She could never have guessed that he could solve a twenty-year-old mystery. But that did explain how he knew who Raven was. If he’d known for twenty years and kept the secret to himself then there was no reason to assume he’d betray it to anyone now. But he had kept another secret all this time, and she couldn’t begin to guess how he’d been involved in a boating accident that occurred two decades before.
“How could you possibly know that?” she whispered and there was no way she could disguise her amazement.
Kahlil was in no rush to satisfy her curiosity. “Do we have a deal?” he asked, straightening in his seat to meet her eye.
All joviality was gone and she saw nothing but a ruthless businessman in front of her now. Just as she’d suspected, the charming, stylish friend was a cover.
Sliding her hands together, one went over the other until she was covering the watch on her wrist. Touching it was acknowledging the link to her Kindred colleagues, and she needed a buoy while under Kahlil’s scrutiny.
Kahlil knew his opponent. Teasing her with the truth of Future’s Hope was a prime weakness he could exploit. Money wouldn’t tempt them to release Game Time. “You’ll tell me what happened to Future’s Hope?”
“You give me what I want and I’ll tell you who you’re looking for.”
Who. The person responsible for taking down Brodie’s parents could still be alive. “If you know,” she said, curling her fingers around the watch face. “Did Grant tell you?”
Could her boss have known something so profound and always kept it to himself? If Grant had kept the secret, she could think of no reason that he’d confide it in Kahlil. There was no affection between the men, and Grant had dismissed Kahlil’s original bid for Game Time suggesting no loyalty.
“No,” he said. “Nothing as simple as that.”
