I nodded, still gripping his hand as my pulse pounded in my ears, not wanting to say anything more until he was done.
“I met up with Mortez and gave him the samples and after that, I didn’t hear anything more. I emailed, called, but heard nothing. All lines of communication between us were dead and in the meantime, the virus was leaked into the world. That’s when I started to get nervous, so I enrolled you at Everlake, sensing something wasn’t right. I’d stolen a deadly virus from one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the country. I could go to prison for that alone, especially if the CIA were going to deny all knowledge of my involvement with them. I laid low after I dropped you off, waiting to see if I was being paranoid, but my hunch paid off. My name was splashed over the news when they obtained that footage of me stealing the samples and confirmed that the leak had come from the Apollo Company. A day later, I got a call from that very same agent, asking me to meet him, apologising for cutting me off and saying that it was protocol. He said if I met with him he could ensure my name was cleared. That my old boss was responsible for the leak of the virus and that we needed to expose him together.”
“Did you go?” I asked, my fingers digging into his skin as I held onto him. Could this Mortez man help us? Could he really clear Dad’s name?
“Yes,” he sighed. “But I was cautious. The whole world were hunting for me so I couldn’t make a wrong move. I gave him coordinates to a forest in Haverwood so I could be sure it was far away from other people. But when I got there, the fucker started shooting.”
I gasped, clutching his hand tighter. “What? Why?”
“He’s a corrupt piece of shit, that’s why. Wherever that virus went after I handed it to him, it wasn’t to some government lab to make more vaccines. So now he wants me dead to tie up his little loose end. Singh didn’t leak it. Mortez fucking tricked me to get his hands on those samples and I’d bet my life that whoever he gave them to, they released it on the world. ”
“Oh my god,” I breathed. “You’ve been running from him all this time?”
“Him and everyone else in the country,” he said grimly. “Dead or alive, my head is worth over a million fucking dollars right now, kiddo.”
I sat back in my chair, releasing his hand as I anxiously threaded my fingers through my hair. This was worse than I could have imagined. How were we ever going to fix it?
“We have to expose this. Can’t we call a reporter or something?” I suggested desperately.
He hung his head. “I don’t know. I’ve thought about all of it, every angle. But I don’t think I can easily approach anyone without ending up in handcuffs or worse, with a bullet between the eyes.”
“Don’t say that,” I begged, the thought making my heart twist. “We’ll find a way.”
He smiled sadly. “You get that from me, that stubbornness. Of course, your mother had it in her too.”
“I don’t wanna talk about her. Where is she when the shit hits the fan?” I said bitterly. “Where is she at all?”
He nodded, resting his elbows on the table with a sigh. “Well, I’ll tell you what, she’s missing out on knowing her beautiful daughter. You didn’t get her foolishness, Tater-tot, and thank fuck for that.”
“I don’t know…” I dropped his gaze as my stomach knotted. “Sometimes I don’t think I make the best choices.” I thought of everything that had happened between me and the Night Keepers. I’d tried to survive and ended up tangling myself up with them so deeply, I didn’t know where my loyalties lay anymore.
“You follow your heart, always have. Your mother followed whatever wind happened to be blowing. Trust your choices, baby girl. I know you’ll always make the right ones.” He glanced out the window into the dark. “That man out there, don’t ever tell him that I said this, but he’s a good bet.”
“You reckon?” I asked, heat rising in my cheeks.
“Yeah, he’s got that look in his eyes…” He turned to me again. “Like he’d kill for you. Any boy who looks like that at you, I know his heart’s in the right place.”
I thought of the other Night Keepers and wondered how fast Dad would take those words back if I told him about them. I couldn’t imagine he’d ever want me with men who hurt me so deeply, even if they had protected me too.
“I’m glad someone’s been there through this. And I’m sorry it couldn’t be me.” He frowned and I felt the depth of his feelings about that right down to the pit of my soul.
“We’ll come up with an answer for all this, Dad, I’ll help you,” I swore to him, feeling that vow
