Liam's POVThe three people tied to chairs next to a man whose face has been covered with a cloth — I assumed he is my father and also faces I hadn't expected to see ever again. Faces from a life I'd tried to leave behind when I became part of everything.Curry James sat in the chair closest to my father. The investigative journalist who'd been digging into Mr. Edwards before Edwards turned up dead. Curry had questions about that death. Questions I'd never answered. Now he was here with duct tape over his mouth staring at me with eyes that said he finally understood what kind of world I lived in.Next to Curry was Laura Winifred. My best friend from college. The only person who'd stayed in touch after I dropped out. We'd grab coffee maybe twice a year without letting Claire know. Talk about nothing important. She'd tell me about her marketing job. I'd make up stories about what I was doing. Laura had no idea about the Rossi family. No idea about any of this. She was just a normal pers

Liam's POVThe windows exploded inward as the breach teams came through from both sides of the building at the same time. Glass rained down while men in tactical gear poured into the room with weapons raised and shouting commands. Michael's mercenaries responded immediately by opening fire from their positions in the shadows where they'd been waiting.The noise was deafening because gunfire echoed off metal and concrete in the enclosed space. I dove toward my father's chair to try to get him out of the line of fire but someone tackled me from the side before I could reach him. One of Michael's men. We hit the floor hard enough to knock the wind out of me.I rolled away then came up swinging because there was no time to think about technique or strategy. Just survival instinct taking over. My fist connected with his jaw but he barely flinched before coming at me again with a knife in his hand that hadn't been there a second ago.The blade sliced across my shoulder as I twisted away. No

Liam's POVThe police arrived three minutes after Michael stopped breathing and found me still kneeling next to Curry's body with blood covering my hands and clothes. They came through the building with weapons drawn shouting commands that echoed off the concrete walls just like the gunfire had earlier. I didn't move when they told me to put my hands up because I was still staring at Curry trying to understand what had just happened.Torres stepped between me and the officers before they could get too aggressive about my lack of response to their orders. "He's in shock. Give him a second to process.""Everyone on the ground now," one of the officers yelled anyway.Ashley helped me stand then guided me away from Curry's body while Torres explained the situation to the police. There were bodies scattered throughout the building from the firefight. Michael's mercenaries mostly. A few of our people. Too many dead for one night.They separated us for questioning which meant I sat in the ba

Liam's POVI demanded to see Elijah the same day Martinez revealed his criminal record to the court but the detention center wouldn't allow unscheduled visits so I had to wait until the next morning when Patterson arranged it. Elijah walked into the visitation room looking like he'd aged ten years overnight with dark circles under his eyes that matched the ones I saw in the mirror every morning."I'm sorry," he said before sitting down across from me. "I should have told you about my past before any of this started but I didn't think it would matter since that was so long ago.""Tell me what happened," I said while keeping my voice level even though I wanted to shout. "Tell me the whole story so I know what we're dealing with here."Elijah sat down then stared at his hands for a long moment before speaking. "You knew all that happened with my parents, Liam. I found out that my father had been working on something he wouldn't talk about. Something that made him nervous for weeks before

Liam's POVI kept going through the files while sitting on my father's bedroom floor because there had to be more information buried in these pages about Charles's operation.The evidence I'd found so far was damning enough to destroy him but I needed to understand the full scope before making any moves. I needed to know everyone who was involved so I could protect myself from blowback.That's when I saw it.A memo dated three years ago with my father's name at the bottom next to his signature.The memo detailed a transfer of funds from Harrington Tech to one of Charles's shell companies using accounting methods designed to hide the transaction from auditors.My father had signed off on it. He had approved the transfer and helped funnel money out of Claire's company.My hands went numb while I stared at his signature.This had to be a mistake…Some kind of forgery…My father was a humble man. A person who'd raised me to value honesty above everything else. He wouldn't participate in c