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“That's ridiculous. You're not going anywhere with this… This…”
“Careful where you're going with that.” Squealer moves in front of me protectively.
“And what do you suppose you’ll do, Alex? Your career is in tatters. You need that job, and you were warned about the consequences.” Father looks at me with stern eyes that remind me of the secret we share.
“Yeah, about those consequences, Mr. Foster, I think me and you need to go somewhere and have a talk. You can leave the ladies to enjoy the party, and Alex can say her goodbyes.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you. And neither is she,” my father argues.
“We could have this conversation here if you want, but I guarantee you’d prefer it to be private.” Squealer steps closer to my father, his huge body towering over him. I don’t hear what he whispers, but for the first time in my whole life, I witness my father looking scared.
“Get back to the party,” he snaps at Mother.
“Alec,” Mom sounds shocked.
“Just do what I tell you, keep the guests entertained while I deal with this.” He storms off toward the house, but Squealer doesn’t follow him straight away. Instead, he makes my mother's mouth drop wider when he steadily walks back to me and kisses me softly on the lips.
“Promise me you won't go anywhere,” I whisper, suddenly scared at what my father will try to tear us apart.
“You’re crazy if you think I’d leave you behind.” His finger draws a circle over the fabric around my belly button, and he smiles at me.
“About that, Squealer, I really need to talk to you.”
“Baby, we can talk when I’ve got you out of here.” Another kiss on the lips stops me from protesting, and my mom actually gasps when he walks past her and gives her a wink.
Alec Foster stands by his office door, and I strut right on past him and wait for him to close it before I grip his scrawny neck and throw him up against the back of it.
“You really thought you could use the club to keep us apart?” I hiss at him, feeling my grip close in around his throat.
“I don’t think,” he fights for breath. “I know.”
“You’re a pathetic excuse for a father, and an even more pathetic excuse for a man.” I release him, and he pulls himself together, trying to make good of his tie.
“How dare you?” He shakes his head at me. “Do you really think my daughter will last with a man like you? What can you offer her? You're a criminal. You really think she will want to be your pen pal when you're serving a ten-year plus sentence.” He laughs.
“We’ll ask your daughter the same question when she finds out that you knew all along about Hawker being the one who killed Danny. That she lost a friend and had to kill a man because you didn't have the nerve to put him away yourself.” Foster looks shocked at first, and then he looks fucking worried.
“You don't know what you’re talking about.” He shakes his head, probably thinking I’m bluffing.
“I don’t just know what I’m talking about, I got proof of it. On this drive.” I take the stick Maddy gave me, before I left, out of my cut pocket and slam it onto his desk.
“There’s copies of all the emails sent from Hawker to yourself. He was trying to use the fact your son was just as corrupt as he was to get some sway with you.”
“Nonsense, how could you possibly have those emails?”
“Turns out those encrypted sites you used to correspond on are the easiest ones to hack when you got someone who knows what they're doing. That's not all. We got payments made to Hawker from an offshore account, that after some hard work and a lot of digging, link directly to you. Seems to me, Mr. Foster, that not only did you know who killed your son, but you encouraged it.”
The man looks broken as I take a seat in his fancy leather seat.
“This big house, all these nice things, there are a lot of people out there for you. All here to recognize what a successful career you’ve had. How do you think the party would go down if I head out there and let them know that you let the man who murdered your son walk free because he had something on you?”
“Hawker didn’t have anything on me.”
I laugh at his awful attempt at a bluff.
“Rule one of the game, never, ever try to blag a blagger. I know what Hawker had on you. I know because the club has the exact same thing. You stole the file he had on us from the apartment he was using the day you came to bail out Alex. Got that on candid too.” I lower my tone to a whisper. “And you took something else…”
“How could you possibly know—”
