The pack waited. Even Regan was quiet as I read until I handed it out for them all to see.
This would not be anything I kept secret. They passed it around as Aiden turned to me.
“Do you know what it is?” Regan asked.
“Can you tell her?” I asked Aiden. “Because I don’t think she’s going to believe me.”
“They are shipments,” Aiden started. “Ones that have gone missing over the past month and we have been trying to help find.” He pointed out one of the larger ones. “We got this one after one of their runners snitched to us. The others haven’t been found. The money amounts next to them are the values.”
“What are they shipping that is worth millions?” she asked.
“Drugs. You know Asher, and you heard the conversation we had with Cross. These shipments have been going missing fast and causing an uproar. None of the top guys are happy and have started blaming each other.”
“Why would my dad have the list?” she asked. I understood why she didn’t want to understand, but we didn’t have any more time for her to stay naïve to it.
“The same reason your dad is also going and offering his services to the same guys he’s stealing from. He’s weaseling his way in as a trustworthy person to these guys while also stealing from them. I would bet everything I have left that he’s also selling these shipments he’s stealing to start taking over new territory. Once he has a bit of business, and the trust of all four of them, he will start pinning them against each other and hope they take care of themselves. Then he has a top spot at a table.”
She was already shaking her head. “My dad wants to be what you are calling a drug lord? That’s ridiculous.”
Hero held up the papers, shaking them. “What the fuck do you think he would have these for, then?”
Hero was a little abrasive, but I was glad he was clear with his words. The proof was piling up, and it would be hard for her to keep pushing off the inevitable truth. I reached out, grabbing herhand and holding it tight. Part of me felt scared that she would run off, and the other part of me felt bad that the world she had known was falling apart.
“It might seem ridiculous, but the dad that you know is not the one everyone else knows. He’s kept you locked up and pushed away for a reason, Regan,” Evie said. “He didn’t think you would go along with the things he wanted to do and found someone he thought would. Rook said that he saw you two at Sweet Haven. He knew who the girl riding with Rook was and asked to have you killed.”
“Because you are smart, and he knew you were the one person close enough that could ruin his plan, and would,” I said.
Regan hadn’t cried or said a word, but she hadn’t let me go either.
I pulled her closer until she fell into my lap, and I adjusted her there as I flipped through more paperwork.
Evie stepped forward. “I think you should see this, Regan,” she said. “We all know about it and I think you deserve to know, too, even if you don’t want to. I managed to connect this tablet to your dad’s phone, including his texts.”
Regan started scrolling through the ones I had already seen. The ones admitting to burning down our building, and burning down our home ten years ago, even the ones detailing him putting the hit out on us.
“He still didn’t know it was me,” she mumbled. “But he did it all?”
“It looks like it,” Evie said, and I was grateful that someone else chimed in. I felt helpless. I didn’t want Regan hurt, but she couldn’t hide from the truth, either.
The front door to the house opened and slammed shut, and we all froze. I nodded to the pack as footsteps headed our way. They all stepped back, with Hero and Mason by the door and Aiden moving closer to Evie. Regan’s free hand fisted into myshirt, and I held my breath, wondering if Cameron would walk in and this would all be over soon.
But it was Elliot’s face that filled the door, and I felt Regan stiffen on top of me.
He glanced around, his eyebrows furrowing as he looked at everyone. “What the fuck are you all doing in here? What’s going on, Regan?”
She didn’t say a word, and he was already pulling out his cell phone. Hero and Mason grabbed him before he could, forcing him further into the room until he was sitting in the chair across from us.
“Hey, Elliot,” I said, smiling with Regan on top of me. “Come to check in with dear stepdad and get some cash? I wasn’t taking you for someone wanting a sugar daddy, but I really shouldn’t have ruled it out.”
“Oh, fuck you. He’s a business partner, not a sugar daddy.”
“No? You sit around and do nothing but chase after him and he pays you. Isn’t that a sugar daddy?”
“I believe it is, but usually there’s sex involved,” Hero said, looking Elliot over. I swear Hero looked at people like they could be his next science experiment, like he was inspecting them to figure out how to best cut them up.
“What are you doing to me?”
“Depends,” I said.