Page 73 of Untamed Sinner

“No.”

“Ashford was part of it.”

“Yes.”

The word lands like a bullet.

I stare at the screen. All this time I thought Ashford wanted me because I’d killed the wrong man. Or maybe I’d asked the wrong question and gotten too close to something he wanted protected. Turns out I was thinking too small.

Turner wasn’t working around Ashford. He was working with him.

“Why keep this?” I wonder out loud.

Hendricks looks at me.

“Turner.” I wave at his phone. “Why document any of it? If Ashford is this powerful, keeping evidence linking him to the operation is suicide.”

“Leverage,” Hendricks says. “If Ashford ever decided Turner had become a liability, Turner has enough evidence to take him down too.”

I look at the files again, and everything clicks into place. “Oh, shit.”

Hendricks’s attention snaps to me. “What?”

Cold, ugly certainty crawls through me. To Ashford, I’m not simply a problem anymore. I’m evidence with a pulse. “Oh, fuck.”

Hendricks slides his arm around my waist and pulls me to him. “Are you worried?”

“Because I’ve spent years dismantling pieces of their network, killing their clients and partners, and Ashford apparently has a problem with that?” I give a fake laugh. “Why would I be worried?”

Hendricks’s jaw hardens. I can tell he wants to promise me it’ll be fine, but we both know he can’t.

But it can be for Clara, if she’s still safe. “Clara’s part of this.”

He nods. “We don’t know how yet.”

“No, but Turner put her in that notebook for a reason.”

Hendricks takes the donut I abandoned and holds it out to me.

I blink at the donut, then him. “Seriously?”

“You stopped eating.”

“I just discovered one of the most powerful men in the Lower 48 may be involved in human trafficking.”

“You already suspected.” He holds the donut up to my mouth. “You can be pissed off and eat a donut at the same time.”

“That’s disturbingly sensible.” I take a bite, my eyes on his as I chew.

“I have my moments.”

I take the donut from Hendricks and have another bite, thinking. I always think better with donut in my mouth. Hendricks returns to scanning the information his contact sent him. I watch him as I run through it all in my head.

Turner.

Ashford.

Clara.