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Sam braked suddenly and pulled onto the shoulder He shoved the truck into park but left the engine turning Then he rotated around so he too could stare back at her

"You want to run that by ain?"

"I killed him I shot him to be exact"

"Holy fuck," Garrett muttered

Saesture of frustration

"You shot him"

"Yes"

"Christ, is that why your uncle is after you? Revenge?" Garrett asked

"I have so he wants"

She chased the tre to wimp out now that she’d boldly made her confession

Sam immediately became more alert His eyes sharpened, then narrowed

"What do you have, Sophie?"

"They key to my father’s vault"

Garrett frowned harder "And? That has significance why?"

"The vault houses my father’s wealth Not only his wealth, but all the details of his business transactions, his contacts, prototypes of the weapons he has developed over the years Your Mr Resnick was concerned about the idea of hiy If he has, the details are there with everything else"

"And he just keeps this shit locked in a vault?" Garrett asked incredulously

She alround, state-of-the-art, completely secure, cliine so you could e chamber with only one way in and one way out And once you enter, you can’t exit the way you came in It’s all one way"

"And you have the key to this He just left this lying around for anyone to get," Saain "I cut it from his neck with the knife you left in the hotel room After I shot hi sure I stayed alive I knew they’d co my father They’d hunt me down and they’d dispatch me like they would any other enemy But I wouldn’t die quickly Because I’ and painful Because I turned on ed for death That key prevents the me If they findthe only way into Alex’s vast underground network of wealth and business Tomas can only temporarily take over as leader of the Mouton family ‘business’ Soon he’ll run out of resources, money and support Without a way into "

"Christ," Sam swore "He keeps that shit in a vault? It’s insane"

She raised an eyebrow "How so? He deals in gold Gems Untraceable wealth He doesn’t trust banks He never leaves records of his transactions Everyone else? He keeps s with In his books he has the names of countless world leaders, many froht Many would kill for this key I never plan to give it up"

Garrett blew out his breath and looked over at Saot a hell of a lot more complicated"

"Can you drive for a while, Garrett? We can’t afford to get held up We’ve got to get to Dad"

In response Garrett got out and walked around to the driver’s door He waited for Sam to slide out before he settled into the driver’s seat Instead of going around to where Garrett had been sitting as Sophie had expected, Sam opened the door next to her and slid in beside her

Garrett pulled back onto the road, and Sophie sat staring at Sa the inevitable questions And the change in the way he’d look at her from now on

She slowly bowed her head and stared down at her fingers curled so tightly together in her lap

"What did he do to you, Sophie?"

Her head came up in surprise That wasn’t what she’d expected him to say or ask

"What do you mean?"

"Why did you shoot hi"

"I believe you killed him," Sam said softly "But I don’t believe for a moment that you killed him to rid humanity of a first-rate bastard"

"Then you don’t know me very well," she taunted "I killed him for just that reason He’s a bastard He’s a cold, calculating sociopath Lifeto hi he valued His own life It was the only thing he was passionate about"

She hadn’t realized that Saainst the curve of her neck, waiting until she hushed her tirade Suddenly he was caressing her skin, soothing so from her

"And I took the key because it acy"

"That was a pretty daingly "More stupid, ly brave"

"Where is the key now?" Saht caresses he feathered over her skin But she didn’t want to talk about the key She wanted to knohy he’d set her up with Resnick If his father hadn’t had a heart attack and his mother hadn’t been abducted, would Sophie even now be on her way to soovernment would put her in, where she’d never be seen or heard fro to need her no that circuoing to need to trade Sophie for the one thing that mattered the most to him

She tried not to think about how much that hurt It seemed everywhere she ended up, she was expendable

"Why Resnick?" she asked hoarsely "Why did you lie?"

"I didn’t lie"

"You withheld infor"

Hisinfor out on me from the start"

She bared her teeth and pushed forward into his space "Exactly as I supposed to do, Sanant, and oh by the way, you’re the father, and since I kno much you hate your potential father-in-law, I shot him down in cold blood and then ran like hell?