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Milliseconds seem like hours as she fights like an animal against a man more than twice her size. She bucks wildly, kicking and rotating her hips until, to my surprise, she manages to throw him off.
Before he can recover and grab her, she’s off the floor. Then he’s standing, his arms up as he walks backward toward the gun display. Emily reappears in the corner, a firearm in her steady hand. He takes a step toward her and she shoots.
My father jumps back from what I believe was a warning shot. But like a rabid dog, he lunges for her again. Her arm moves infinitesimally, and this time when she shoots, he stumbles against the curtain as he grasps his arm.
His face contorted, he says something to her. Then he bolts from the room with her following close behind, the gun aimed at his back. And the video ends.
Kyle plays another video. This one shows a view of the Shaw’s front door. It starts where the first left off.
My father bursts through the front door holding his arm and runs out of frame. Emily is behind him, only, she stops at the threshold. She remains there for several moments, her arm outstretched and steady.
But after about a minute, she sags against the doorframe and her hand is shaking so hard, I can see it through the camera.
“Noah, you all right, man?” Kyle’s voice sounds distant to me, as if I’m sinking into a deep black ocean and he’s calling to me from the surface. “Noah.”
“He tried to rape her,” I finally manage to say through gritted teeth. “My father tried to rape Emily.”
I’m staring at the screen, even though nothing is playing on it now, my mind processing what I just witnessed.
The wound on my father’s arm was from Emily’s gun. It was his blood I saw on the curtain. She’s a good shot. From the way she held that firearm, I believe it. That means if she’d meant to kill him, she would have. But she didn’t, even though he tried to rape her. She had the power to end his life and didn’t.
Emily might have shot him, but when he left her house, he wasn’t mortally wounded. And she didn’t follow him out.
That means Jackson might have still been responsible. When he learned about what happened—”
“It wasn’t her father,” Kyle interrupts my train of thought. “There are more video files for you to go through. But he arrived home five minutes later and didn’t leave for several hours.”
“I wish it had been me who killed him,” I growl, unable to keep the regret and fury from my tone. “He deserved to die a worse death for what he attempted.”
“There’s something else,” Kyle says. “It may give you a clue as to who truly killed him.”
He types something into his computer, bringing up two screenshots. The first is a photograph of a man running in front of a glass door. The second is of a red vehicle passing that same door.
“The police may have missed this. It goes pretty fast, so I had to take snapshots. This is from a café across the street from the alley he was found in. I know it’s blurry, but I’m pretty sure that’s him.”
“It is,” I confirm.
“Do you recognize the vehicle?” Luca asks, leaning in to look closer.
I grind my teeth nearly to powder. Yes, I recognize the car because I’m the one who purchased it. “I know who killed him.”
* * *
An hour later, I’m at Francesco’s house with my men. They’re sitting quietly, staring at me across the desk. I’ve told them everything. Left none of the details out, because I want nothing to come back to bite me in the ass later.
“I need to know if after all this, you’re still with me,” I ask.
Alex glances at Matteo and shrugs. “I’ve done worse things for a woman. Can’t fault you for that. Besides, she didn’t kill him.”
Matteo’s gaze darkens as he steeples his fingers beneath his chin. “My mother was raped while I was forced to watch. If Leonardo was still alive, I’d kill him myself.”
“Boss.” We all turn to the door, where one of the soldiers stands. “He’s here.”
He moves aside to allow another man to enter.
“Hello, Justin,” I greet. “Have a seat.”
Alex stands and offers him his chair. Justin looks at it warily, but goes to it anyway. As he’s sitting, Alex grips onto his shoulders and shoves him down forcefully and holds him there.
