Page 193 of Deceived Wrath

Tears burn my eyes. “I’m not pretending. And I know it doesn’t.”

“Then why the hell are you still here? Why didn’t you just delete the file like he asked?”

“Because I’ve already lost one family… I won’t lose another.” My voice breaks.

Something flickers across his face then. Not forgiveness but…understanding?

“You think this absolves you,” he says coolly as he stalks toward the door.

“No. I think it condemns me.”

That stops him.

“I was never supposed to survive this. Lorcan didn’t bring me into this because he trusted me. He brought me in because I was expendable, because if things went wrong, I would be the one to pay the price.”

Cormac turns around and stares at me like he’s seeing me clearly for the first time. But I can see it in his eyes that he hates what he sees.

“You put my son in danger.”

I sob. Once. “I know. And I will spend the rest of my life paying for that if I have to.”

He steps closer, towering over me. “You don’t get a rest of your life. You get what I decide you get.”

“I know.”

He exhales slowly, scrubbing a hand over his face. “If you’re lying, if even one part of this is false?—”

“I’m not. But you can verify it for yourself. Give it to Kieran or Brennan, toanyone. I don’t care what happens to me after, just…take Lorcan down.”

Cormac looks away then, like he can’t stand to look at me anymore.

“This doesn’t mean I forgive you.”

“I know.”

He goes back over to the desk and picks up the laptop, tucking it under his arm like a weapon.

“But if you’re right, then Lorcan just signed his own death warrant.”

I close my eyes as I exhale a shaky breath.

Because if I’m right, then so did I.

Chapter Forty-Two

CORMAC

Lorcan killed my father.

It wasn’t an accident. He didn’t let someone else pull the trigger while he looked the other way. He engineered the entire damn thing.

Suddenly, memories of my father start to become clearer. Looking back, there were decisions my father made that never sat right with me, deals he took that felt reckless instead of calculated.

At the time, I thought he was losing control. But now it seems that Lorcan was positioning him.

The proof sits in front of me, impossible to ignore.

My hands curl into fists against the edge of the desk.