It was Nicole.
23
It had been over an hour since I had aimed a gun at Orson Lockwood’s face in the basement of Floorboard Lit. The Raptors’ leader was the last person I had expected to see, and a quick glance at Lauren’s stupefied expression affirmed my assumption that she hadn’t planned on meeting her father there either. Even more astonishing was the route the conversation had taken upon Lockwood’s arrival.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I’d demanded, lowering Wes’s Glock to angle it at Lockwood’s chest. Behind me, I heard a sharp intake of breath. Whether it was Lauren’s reaction to her father’s appearance or to the fact that I had a gun pointed at him, I couldn’t say.
Lockwood raised his hands above his head, opening himself up for a clear shot. My hands shook around the gun. I had no idea if I had the capacity to pull the trigger. Lockwood was scum, but taking a life was beyond the stretch of my moral compass.
“I’m here to help,” he declared in that strong, booming voice of his.
“Bullshit,” I growled, and the Glock seemed to twitch in my grasp. “How did you figure out that we were here?”
“Did you think that Lauren picked up her computer-hacking abilities all on her own?” questioned Lockwood. He peered around me to address Lauren. “Hello, daughter of mine. It’s nice to see you haven’t been picked off by your aunt. I trust you’re well?”
I looked over my shoulder. Lauren gazed open-mouthed at her father as if hardly believing they occupied the same space. She had been the perfect double agent, betraying her father and the other Raptors behind their backs, yet here he stood, his tone as light and as conversational as if we had all been discussing the unseasonably cold weather.
“I’m fine, Dad.”
He nodded, satisfied. “I admit, when I first discovered that you had betrayed the Raptors, I was severely disappointed in you.”
“That’s—”
He held up a hand to hush her. “Let me finish. When you hacked into my personal computer earlier today, you left traces. First of all, I thought I taught you better than that—”
“You left traces?” I asked Lauren in disbelief. No wonder Lockwood had found us. Evidently, Lauren’s covert IT skills weren’t as advanced as I thought.
“I didn’t—”
“I’m glad she did,” Lockwood interrupted once again. “Because if you hadn’t, Lauren, I never would have figured out what Catherine was up to.”
Silence fell in the basement, and a palpable confusion hung in the air.
“What are you saying?” I asked, wary of Lockwood’s scheming. “That you had no idea what Flynn was doing? You didn’t know that she took my boyfriend for ransom? That she killed my father?” My voice wavered, and the Glock trembled in my hands.
“Nicole, please put the gun down,” pleaded Lockwood.
“I can’t do that until you tell me what you know.”
Lockwood sighed and sank into the leather sofa near the bottom of the stairs. I followed his movements, keeping my aim locked on him, but my finger drifted off of the trigger. There were deep, dark circles beneath Lockwood’s eyes, and the lines around his mouth and eyes seemed more prominent than before. It was disarming to see him so vulnerable when previously I had only known him to be at the very top of his game. Without the carefully constructed mask of the elite businessman, he bore so much more of a resemblance to his daughter.
“When I saw that Lauren had been going through my emails, I started questioning myself,” Lockwood began, running his fingers through his dark hair. “You were looking for O’Connor’s body, correct? I can only assume that you found it.”
I didn’t reply. It was beyond dangerous to give the leader of the Raptors more information that he already assumed.
“It’s fine,” he went on with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Although I do wish you’d managed to rescue O’Connor’s remains without lighting my building on fire.”
I gritted my teeth as Lauren snickered under her breath.
“The thing is,” said Lockwood, “your actions made me realize the absurdity of what I had done. One moment, I’m leading the most successful class of Raptors since my own, and the next, I’m illegally cremating a man whose murder I practically facilitated and boxing up his remains behind a false wall. Christ—” He leaned back, resting his head against the wall behind him, and took long, steadying breaths through his nose as though trying to come to terms with his actions. “There are things you should understand about the Black Raptor Society,” he said, still staring at the ceiling. “From the day the first group of Raptors signed that charter, the society emphasized that it was built on a foundation of brotherhood. It was nepotism and networking at its finest. It was never moral, per se, to further ourselves in that way and to take advantage of our connections, but in reality, it was just good business.”
As he pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, I realized that I had lowered the gun without noticing. I listened with rapt attention to Lockwood’s speech. Lauren had gone quiet as well. Only the light sound of her breathing reached my ears.
“The Raptors were always about advancing their own reputations,” said Lockwood. “I won’t deny that, but as of late, the society has taken a turn for the worse.”
I scoffed. “That is a severe understatement on your part, I think.”
“I don’t disagree,” admitted Lockwood, finally lifting his head to make eye contact with me. “Nevertheless, it is difficult for me to admit. This shift, this negative direction of energy, happened beneath my very nose, and instead of taking action to subdue those putting these radical ideas forth, I allowed them to continue out of the fear that I would be called a coward had I attempted to stop them.”
“Dad—” said Lauren with a note of remorse in her voice.
“No, Lauren, it’s true,” he
