Dane did not know and did not deserve to have to hear that his own family had betrayed him. There was nothing natural about this. Family should not betray family. As many petty problems as I’d had with my own family, they’d instilled that much in me.
After I’d arrived back here with Max, I’d texted Dane to ask him to please get a burner phone and call me from it as soon as he could. Even though it was the middle of the night. This could not wait until morning.
It wasn’t fair for him to have live in the middle of a lie, unaware, for even one more moment.
I could only hope that he’d left his phone on tonight. Maybe, in case I reached out? And he had. He’d texted me back to say he would call, as soon as he could.
I had no idea how long it would take him to get a burner.
When my burner finally rang, I jumped.
“Shit,” I muttered, heart pounding.Keep it together, Devi.Then I picked up the phone. “Hello?”
“Devi,” Dane said, and it was crazy, the warmth that flooded my system at the sound of his voice. I closed my eyes and just tried to absorb the sound of his breathing. “It’s me. What’s going on?”
“Hi,” I breathed, just relieved to have this connection to him. “We need to talk. Are you alone and somewhere safe?”
“I’m at my house,” he said, alarm in his voice. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Can you go somewhere outside? Like somewhere no one can hear you, and there wouldn’t be any possibility of a bug planted nearby?”
“Uh…” I heard him moving around. “Yeah, I can do that. Talk, Devi. What’s going on?”
I took a breath and dove in. “Someone left a gift for me at the penthouse yesterday.Insidethe penthouse. It was an audio recording of you and me talking. Someone recorded us when we had our little fight the other day. You know, when I stormed out.”
“What? Someone… recorded our conversation?”
“Yes. Just the audio. There was a bug in the penthouse.”
“What…?” he said, and I could feel him struggling to follow. It was shocking, really. “Where are you?”
“I’m okay. Really. I’m at Katie’s house. And one of Darrell’s guys is outside. I haven’t been back to the penthouse.”
“I don’t understand. A recording was left for you inside the penthouse? Where?”
“Someone got into the apartment and left it for me on a USB stick in a little gift box. It was sitting in the middle of the floor when I walked in last night. And it had my name on it, Dane.”
He said nothing. I had no idea how he was taking this. Not well, I assumed.
“That little gift was a threat,” I went on. “I’ve been watching the internet like a hawk for any sign of the recording getting leaked. I’ve got a million Google alerts set up. But it doesn’t seem to have been leaked.”
“But it could be,” he said, slowly. “We need to find out who sent it. And make sure you’re safe.”
“I’m safe,” I assured him. Then I took a deep breath. “You haven’t figured it out yet? Dane. You can’t be this blind.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know you love Lex. But who else stands to gain from ruining you and getting you cut off from your inheritance, if not Lex’s family?”
“This wasn’t Lex,” he said firmly. “He has friends in some pretty dark places, but I’m telling you, he’d never do that to me.”
“No. It wasn’t Lex. I thought it was his dad, actually. You didn’t tell me about his dad being in the mafia.”
“Uh… it’s not really something I think about, honestly. Lex has no contact with his dad.”
“Well, it wasn’t his dad. It was his mom.”
“Laurinda?”