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the contract down. He goes back to searching the
room, checking the waste paper basket and smoothing out discarded
papers. “You said this Excaliber company had been trying to bid for
the company before, but Ashcroft always turned them down.”
    “Which means this
Ridley guy is bad news.” I look at the contract again, leafing
through the pages. There are notes in the margins, in handwriting I
recognize as Brent’s, and another even scrawl. I try to make out
the words, looking for any clues at all about what they’ve got
planned. “We’ve got to stop him. If Ashcroft didn’t want him
back at the company, there’s a reason.”
    I check every page,
looking for something, anything at all. And then it hits me. Not the
words themselves, but the handwriting.
    I’ve seen it before.
    “Vaughn,” I gasp,
chills running down my spine.
    “What is it?” He’s
at my side in an instant.
    “Look.”
    With shaking hands, I
unfold the photo of my mother I’ve been carrying around in my
wallet. The surveillance photo from Ashcroft’s attic, the one with
the bullseye on the front.
    You’re running
out of time. I promise, the people you love will suffer if I don’t
get what I want.
    It’s the same. The
notes on the contract. The threat on the photo. Written by the same
man.
    “Ridley,” I
swallow, another chill gripping my body. “It’s him. He was the
one threatening Ashcroft, promising to hurt my mother and your
father. He’s who Ashcroft was trying to protect them from. This is
all because of him.”

8
    VAUGHN
    I want to go smash
Ridley’s fucking face in. That’ll get us some answers quick. But
Keely pleads with me not to go charging straight in.
    “What will that do?”
she says, when we’re back at her apartment. “It won’t prove
anything. There are still too many questions about what went down.
Hurting him won’t solve anything.”
    “It’ll make him
talk,” I growl, pacing. I’m full of restless energy, wired so
fucking tight now I’m like a bomb about to go off. This guy is the
one, the one who destroyed my father and drove him to suicide. I’ve
been waiting twenty years to have justice done. “Let’s see if he
can lie about the past when I’m breaking every bone in his body.”
    “Vaughn.” Keely
tries to pull me back. “Vaughn!”
    I stop, turning at the
sound of her yell. She stares at me straight in the eyes. “I know
you’re angry and confused.” Keely takes my hands, holding tight.
“This guy is the reason both of our lives turned out like this. He
set everything in motion when he threatened Ashcroft, but it’s not
enough. We have to play it smart, we can’t risk our one chance to
discover the truth.”
    She’s right.
    I exhale in a
frustrated bust. Fuck. Even though every part of me is burning to
beat the answers out of him, I know Keely’s making sense. A guy
like Ridley would just call the cops and have me thrown in jail, and
then where would we be?
    I’d be locked up
somewhere, and Keely... Fuck, Keely would be on her own. Unprotected.
With that attacker still out there, ready to strike.
    I could never live with
myself if anyone laid a hand on her again.
    “What do we do now?”
I demand, still pissed as hell. My hands are tied, I hate feeling so
powerless. “Just sit around waiting. For what?”
    “We get ready,”
Keely corrects me. “Find out everything about this guy, everything
that was going on back when he and Ashcroft and your dad were
partnered up.”
    “He was threatening
Ashcroft over something. It has to be something big.” I scowl.
    “It’s all
connected,” Keely agrees. “If we can nail him on that old
blackmail, there’s no way the board will vote to have him take over
the company. Everything’s on the line now. We need to know the
truth.”
    “So how the fuck do
we get it?”
    Keely flinches. I drop
my voice. “I just mean we’re no closer to a plan.”
    “So we make one.”
Keely smoothes her hands over my chest. Her touch calms me,