When her uncle followed her gaze, Davis’s expression shifted into something more neutral. “I found those numbers you wanted.”
Her uncle looked back at her, and Leila tried not to let her smile falter. “Never mind, Uncle Joel. It’s nothing.”
His hand didn’t leave her arm. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” She turned and followed Davis back toward her office, fully aware that her uncle didn’t believe her.
Even worse, Davis had clearly realized what she had been about to do. If he’d been lying to her before, what were the chances he’d give her any real information ever again?
LEILA PETROV HAD almost blown his entire investigation.
Davis tried to hold back his fury as Leila followed him into her office and shut the door behind her. As soon as it was closed, he whirled around to face her, ready to lecture her about all the reasons she should want to keep his secret. Not the least of which was keeping her out of jail.
Right before he blurted that out, he got control of his anger. Admonishing Leila wasn’t going to help. He’d already lost his cool with her earlier, blaming her for what had happened. That was probably what had made her seek out her uncle in the first place. If he compounded it now, he was the one who was going to blow the investigation. Along with it, he’d blow his chance to prove himself at TCD, and his chance to get justice for Jessica.
He took a few deep, measured breaths the way he used to do right before leaving on a ranger mission. His body recognized the cue and his heart rate slowed immediately.
“So, you found something in the ledger?” Leila asked.
Her chin was tipped up, her jaw tight, her gaze defying him to call her on what he’d overheard. On what he knew she’d been about to do.
“No. I said that to get you out of there. This is a secret investigation, Leila. The FBI could have sent anyone undercover here. Maybe they should have sent someone you wouldn’t have recognized, someone who could dig into the company without sharing a thing with you.”
Standing so close to her, he actually heard her nervous swallow, saw her blink rapidly a few times.
Good. She should be nervous.
“We didn’t try to hide what we were doing from you. TCD chose to bring me in because we believed you were innocent. We believed you’d help us find the truth for those soldiers who were killed.”
“You believed—” she started.
He cut her off before she could scoff at his statement about her innocence. He didn’t want to get into the technicalities with her. He did believe she’d had nothing to do with the faulty armor and the illegal guns. But he also believed that was no excuse not to know what was happening in the company she ran.
“I understand that you trust your uncle, but then maybe he tells someone he trusts and that person does the same. Faster than you think, our chance to catch this person—and potentially save your company—is gone.”
Leila blew out a loud breath. The proud, angry tilt to her chin was gone. So was the defiant look in her eyes, replaced by wariness and something else.
It took him longer than it should have to realize the other thing he saw was guilt.
He’d put that there. The thought made him hate himself and his job just a little. It was easy to believe that someone who ran a company should know everything that happened in it, take responsibility for all of it. It was another to see someone as honest and diligent as Leila suffer because she hadn’t caught a criminal inside her organization.
Should she have really been able to do that? Or was that his job?
The unexpected thought deflated the last of his anger.
“Look, I’m sorry about what I said earlier. I was out of line.” Davis wasn’t entirely sure what he believed right now, but one thing he knew: Leila would never intentionally let anyone get hurt. “I knew one of the soldiers.”
Leila’s lips formed a small O and she blinked again, this time as moisture filled her eyes.
“She was a friend of mine,” Davis continued, not sure why he was sharing this with Leila, but suddenly wanting her to know. “Jessica Carpenter. She was the one running that video footage, probably for training purposes. She was a single mom of three. Those little kids are all alone in the world now. Jessica was a great person. Strong, smart, willing to put up with all the crap that comes along with being a woman in a powerful role where too many men think it should only be for them.”
He paused, realizing Leila fit that description, too.
Shaking the thought away, he continued. “I’m here right now for Jessica. Whatever it takes, I need to get the truth. No matter who you think you can trust with inside information about our investigation, if I think you’re going to tell someone who I really am, that’s it. I’m out and the FBI is coming in with warrants to take this place apart.”
Leila stared back at him with a mixture of horror, sadness and anger, and he realized that just as he’d gotten her trust back, he’d ruined it again with a threat. Why couldn’t he find the right balance with her? Why couldn’t he be like Kane Bradshaw, step into whatever persona would get the job done, and to hell with real honesty? To hell with anyone’s feelings?
“I don’t—”
He wasn’t sure what she was about to say, but he didn’t let her finish the thought. There was only one way to remedy the mess he’d made of his connection with Leila. That was to be more honest with her, so she’d think she could trust him. So she wouldn’t feel like she needed to go to someone else for advice.
“Your dad...” He’d planned to tell her that someone connected to
