Hacker: Hardpressed Part 30

Washington reached into his pocket and retrieved a business card. "Here's my card. Call us if you think of anything, all right?"

"I definitely will."

They left, and I collapsed into a seat at the counter, grateful I'd survived their interrogation without a breakdown. I honestly didn't think they suspected anything, and why would they? I had no ties to Mark that anyone outside of a few people close to me could ever find.

No sooner had they left, Blake appeared.

"What happened?"

"Nothing. They had photos of Mark and me dancing at the gala. They wanted to know how we knew each other. I explained that we were only acquaintances and he'd been flirting with me. They seemed satisfied and left."

"So they don't believe Mark's death was a suicide?"

"I couldn't say for sure. They didn't seem too concerned that it wasn't. Seemed like they were hitting a bunch of dead ends and about to pack it in. But I have no idea."

"All right, come back up."

"I'm here now. Let me get cleaned up, and I'll come up there when I'm done." As much as I wanted to be in my warm and safe Blake bubble after weeks of separation, I needed a minute with my thoughts.

He paused a second. "Okay, don't be long." He kissed me and left.

I stepped into the shower and washed. I thought about going back upstairs, where we'd be hiding. Sure, hanging out in bed with Blake all day wasn't exactly an inconvenience, but I also knew why we were lying low. So far, the only solutions on the table were coming out as Daniel's daughter, a saga I couldn't begin to antic.i.p.ate the complications of, or Blake could bring attention to the shady dealings that would undoubtedly ruin Daniel's campaign, possibly his entire career. I had a hard time accepting either as a viable option.

I toweled off and glanced out the window. Connor was parked down the street, almost out of my view. A rush of emotion surged through me, and I knew what I needed to do.

I pulled on my blue jeans and a T-shirt and slipped on my sneakers. I scribbled a quick note and left it on the counter before I rushed downstairs. I stepped outside. Clay was standing guard against the Escalade.

"Ms. Hathaway."

"Clay. Long time no see. Back on the clock, I see."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Well, good luck. I'm walking down to the store. I'll be back in a bit."

He nodded. I started a brisk walk down the street. I only had a few minutes to do what I needed to do. I crossed the street and knocked on Connor's window. He rolled it down, giving me a hard stare.

"Take me to him."

"Get in."

I opened the back door and let him drive us away.

I had no idea where we were going until I saw the familiar Boston Sand and Gravel storage tanks come into view. We took several back roads under the tangle of highways until we were in a secluded area, cut off by train cars and warehouses that stood empty on the weekend.

Daniel leaned against his Lexus SUV, dressed in khakis and a white collared shirt. He was smoking again. He should probably stop smoking, I thought idly. He pushed off the car and walked toward me. I scoped out the surroundings. We were so very alone right now. With the bypa.s.s above us, no one would hear me if I screamed. I stepped out of the car, fighting the urge to run in the opposite direction. Despite every reason he'd given me not to, I was determined to meet him head-on.

He flicked his cigarette and stood before me with his arms crossed. His lips were set in a firm line.

"Connor tells me you've been all over creation with Landon. I'm pretty sure we covered that."

"Did he tell you that the police stopped by this morning too?"

His eyes widened and shot to Connor. For the first time ever, I saw emotion in Connor's face. He seemed...fl.u.s.tered.

"I didn't see them, sir. I'm sorry."

Daniel looked back to me.

"Must have been on a coffee run. No worries, I had a little chat with them."

"What did you tell them?"

I waited, wanting the antic.i.p.ation to burn in him.

His lips thinned. "You'd better start talking."

"They had photos of Mark dancing with me at the gala."

"What did you tell them?"

I stared hard into his eyes, keeping my face as steady and emotionless as I could.

"What did you tell them, G.o.dd.a.m.nit?" He grabbed my shoulders and shook me.

"Let me go." I wrestled free from his grasp, breathless from the adrenaline that pumped through my veins. "Don't touch me. Ever."

I saw Connor moving from the corner of my eye. He had a wide stance, like he was ready to act on Daniel's command.

"I lied, Daniel. I lied like a pro. You'd have been proud. And do you know why?"

"Indulge me."

"Because as I've much as I've grown to hate you, for some inexplicable reason, I still care about you. I care about your life and your freedom, and I even care about your stupid f.u.c.king campaign. My finger's on the trigger, and I can't shoot." I took a breath, trying to keep the tremble at bay. "Because that's not who I am. I'm never going to be like you. I'm never going to play the game for the sick, greedy fun of it."

"I'm sure that's not the only reason."

"It is the only reason. I'm not scared of you anymore."

He shot me a chilling look, his lips curled into a snarl. "Maybe you should be."

"You'd no sooner kill me than I'd send you to jail for murder, Daniel. Oh, and let's not forget obstruction of justice."

His eyes narrowed a fraction.

"Yeah, Blake told me about all that. How does it feel knowing that all those great pains you went to covering Mark's a.s.s paved the way for him to do what he did to me, the same way he did it to so many other girls?"

His jaw clenched.

"Thanks for that, Dad."

He flinched slightly at the word. I was getting under his skin, and that emboldened me.

"The threats, the manipulation, you trying to a.s.similate me into your world. All this s.h.i.t is going to stop right now. Today."

He let out a short laugh. "What gives you that idea?"

"When Mom died, I had no one. No one." My voice wavered, but I swallowed to keep the emotion in check. "She gave me all the love she could give, for as long as she could give it. And from that point on, I had to figure out how to make it on my own. I made the rules. I figured it all out. Even when people like Mark came into my life and threatened to destroy everything, I survived. I thrived. And you're not going to take that from me. I've come too G.o.dd.a.m.n far to live under anyone's thumb. Not yours, not Blake's. No one's."

He motioned to Connor who then walked a few paces away, out of earshot. I relaxed a little.

"You sound very certain of this. I realize you're trying to be strong here, but I think we talked about how I feel about people threatening me."

"I'm not threatening you. I'm reasoning with you because you've been nothing but unreasonable from the start. Don't you think I deserve to have a voice if this relationship means anything at all to you?"

His expression didn't change. He wasn't going to give in easily.

"I realized something today. You've been making my life h.e.l.l since Mark died, and I would have given anything to make that stop. But I can't watch you go to jail, or even watch your campaign crumble, at my hand. And you can't knock off your own daughter. Somewhere in that cold heart of yours, you care about me. And you can care about me and trust me without owning me. It's not quite like a father-daughter dance, but I suppose in some f.u.c.ked up version of reality, that's love."

He made no indication that he wanted to speak, so I continued. I'd give him all I had. I had nothing more to lose.

"I know you loved my mom. I see it in your eyes every time we talk about her."

He winced, his jaw tightening. "Don't talk to me about Patty. You don't know anything about it."

My voice quieted. I'd been nearly yelling up to now. "I don't know what went on between the two of you, but I know that if you'd stayed together, my life would have been so different. None of us can change those circ.u.mstances now. But trying to take the wheel on my life at this late stage of the game isn't going to work for either of us, trust me. If you still feel a shred of love for her, or regret for what you left behind, I'm begging you to give all this up and be the kind of man she wanted you to be before you wrote her off."

His lips parted slightly, and he looked past me. I caught a flicker of emotion then, the pain I thought I'd mistaken before when I spoke to him about my mother. I was gambling on the chance that somewhere in his heart, he did still love her. Enough to love me.

He let out a slow breath. "It would have never worked. I did her a favor by ending it. She wouldn't have been happy with this life."

"Then why would I?" I threw my hands up, exasperated.

He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked back to me. A long moment pa.s.sed between us.

Looking into his cool blue eyes filled me with conflicting emotions. We were supposed to be important people in each other's lives. A father, a daughter, and here we were, sparring and threatening. Our hearts were filled with anger and mistrust. Under all of that, there had to be something worth protecting, but it was so faint and buried so far deep under all the muck that I could barely believe it existed.

He broke my gaze and pulled out another cigarette. His hands shook slightly as he lit it. "So you've made your point. Now what?"

I sighed. "No more stalking. I never want to see Connor's f.u.c.king face again. And no more threats. You stay away from Blake and me unless, at some point, I feel like I can trust you again."

"He knows everything now, I gather."

"Don't concern yourself with him. I know it's hard for you to trust me, but I'm not really giving you a choice."

"Maybe he's the one I don't trust."

"Hurting you would hurt me. And he loves me too much to do that."

He paused. "What if he stops loving you?"

The words settled over me. I'd spent days in agony, afraid he'd done just that. I'd given him plenty of reasons to stop, but he hadn't given up on us. "I'll never give him a reason to."

"And the campaign work, I suppose you're hoping to bow out of that as well?"

"If I know I can trust you to stop this madness, I will help you. I spoke with Will and we came up with a good plan that would allow me to consult with your team without giving up the business. He seemed to think it would be a great solution, but he wanted to run it by you. I'm a.s.suming he didn't do that."

He shook his head and a smirk lifted his lips.

I frowned. "What?"

"I honestly can't figure out if you're more like me or her at this point."

I couldn't hold back a small smile.

"Yeah, sometimes I wonder about that too."

I fidgeted a little. This whole conversation had become somewhat surreal. Had I really just won an argument with Daniel Fitzgerald?

"Listen, I need to go before Blake sends out a search party."

"He didn't know you came?"

"G.o.d, no. I had to sneak out of the apartment and past a pack of bodyguards. He's probably completely freaking out right now."

His eyes narrowed slightly. "Well, I guess I don't need to worry about him not taking care of you."

I laughed. "Yeah, not a concern, trust me."

He exhaled heavily and flicked his cigarette. "All right. We'll drop this for now, but I'd like to meet again soon to talk about logistics."

I hesitated, sensing an authoritative tone in his voice that threatened to bring us right back to where we'd started.

"I'll call you. Frankly, I need some time to put my relationship and my business back together after all of this."

He nodded. "Fine. Connor will take you back home. a.s.suming you can handle that?"

"Yeah, as long as he doesn't plan on killing me and dumping my body in the river."

I called Blake on the way back. He'd called dozens of times since I'd left and I knew he was going to be a mess.

"Erica, where the f.u.c.k are you?"

"I'm on my way home. Please calm down."