Page 88 of Wicked Brutal

“I know.”

“He knows it sticks too. He just thinks I don’t understand it.”

Ryan’s expression hardens. “He knows you’re intelligent. He just doesn’t think your intelligence is useful against him.”

That lands somewhere deep — because yes. That’s exactly it. Dad loves telling people about my grades. My test scores. My essays. He likes having a smart daughter. He just doesn’t think a smart daughter belongs in the same category as a smart man.

Ryan looks back at his phone. “We need to organize this.”

“How?”

He opens a fresh note. At the top: ROMAN. Then underneath: People. Places. Money. Trips. Companies / Organizations. He pauses, then adds another. Things Jane reacted to.

I look at him. “Why Mom?”

“Because she knows him better than anybody.”

“She’s scared of him.”

“Exactly.” He lowers his voice. “If something made her question him, scared her enough to fight with him, or made him lie to her, I want to know what it was.”

I nod slowly. That makes sense.

He hands me the phone. “Anything you remember.”

I take it. “What if I’m wrong?”

“Then we check.”

“What if I remember a name wrong?”

“We check.”

“What if it’s nothing?”

“Then it’s nothing.”

I stare at the categories. For months, everyone has been looking at me like I’m the problem they have to solve. Not in a bad way. Never that. Ryan loves me. His parents already love our baby. The girls have closed ranks around me so quickly I still don’t entirely understand how it happened. Arthur is trying to figure out how to get Tobias out safely. Everyone is helping. But they’re helping me.

Ryan watches my face. “What?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do.”

I look at the phone. “I can actually help.”

His expression changes immediately. “Ally.”

“I know I’ve been helping. That’s not what I mean.” I struggle to explain it. “You found everything. Arthur knows the law. Walter knows politics. The boys have all done this before. Everybody has something they can do, and I’ve just been…”

“Surviving it?”

I look at him. “Yeah.”

“That’s already a job.”

“I know.”