Chapter 6

The investigation consumed the next forty-eight hours.

Scarlett barely slept. She barely ate. She moved through her apartment like a ghost, surrounded by screens and documents and the growing realization that everything she had believed about Adrian King might be wrong.

The evidence was damning and confusing.

Adrian King had destroyed fourteen companies. But each of those companies had been involved in criminal enterprises. Money laundering for drug cartels. Human trafficking rings. Arms dealing. Every single one.

And after destroying them, Adrian had not kept the assets. He had liquidated them. Sold them off. Donated portions to charities that supported victims of trafficking and financial fraud.

It was not the behavior of a ruthless vulture. It was the behavior of a vigilante.

But if he was a vigilante, why had he destroyed her father's company? And why was he trying to destroy hers?

Scarlett sat in her office at Hayes Collective, staring at the wall of evidence Maya had assembled, when her assistant buzzed.

"Ms. Hayes? There's a delivery."

"What kind of delivery?"

"A man. He says he's from King Industries. He won't leave."

Scarlett walked to the lobby. A young man in a courier uniform stood by the reception desk, holding a package wrapped in brown paper. He looked nervous. Sweaty. He handed her the package and practically ran out the door.

Scarlett opened it in her office, alone.

Inside was a dossier. Thick. Heavy. Labeled with a single word: TRUTH.

She opened it.

The first page was a photograph of her father. Charles Hayes. Standing in a parking garage with a man she didn't recognize. They were exchanging an envelope. The date on the photo was six months before Hayes Industries collapsed.

The next page was a bank statement. Offshore account. Deposits of two hundred thousand dollars. The account was in her father's name.

The third page was a transcript. Her father, speaking to someone named Mendoza. The words made Scarlett's blood run cold.

Mendoza: The auditors are getting close. We need to move the money.

CHARLES: I didn't sign up for this. I thought we were just sheltering assets.

Mendoza: You're in too deep, Charles. You don't get to walk away.

CHARLES: I'll go to the police.

Mendoza: Then your daughter pays the price. Do you understand?

The transcript ended there.

Scarlett's hands trembled as she flipped the pages. More photos. More documents. More evidence that her father had been involved with Mendoza Capital. Not as a victim. As a participant. He had known. He had taken the money. He had stayed silent even as his company collapsed around him because the alternative was worse.

And at the bottom of the dossier, a handwritten note.

Scarlett.

I destroyed your father's company to cut him free from Mendoza Capital. He was in too deep, and the only way to save him was to burn it all down. He never knew. He never understood. And I couldn't tell him because Mendoza was watching.

I know you hate me. I know you have every right to hate me. But I need you to understand that the men who are coming for you now are the same men who owned your father. They want Hayes Collective. They want you. And I will not let them have either.

Accept my offer. Not because I want your company. But because I want to protect you from the people who will destroy you if I don't.

- A.K.

Scarlett read the letter three times. Then she walked to the window and stared out at the city.

Her father. The man she had defended. The man she had rebuilt her life to honor. He had been dirty. He had taken money from criminals. He had known what Mendoza Capital was and he had stayed silent.

And Adrian King. The man she had hated for five years. He had destroyed her father's empire not to steal it, but to save her father from something worse.

The world tilted again. Scarlett pressed her forehead against the cool glass and tried to breathe.