She paused by the window, looking out at the city lights, wondering what was happening outside this building. Were the co-conspirators at their own homes, enjoying their lives, or were they meeting somewhere, talking about Trent and the rumor that he might have been responsible for Landon's death? The real murderer would know that wasn't true. Would he or she feel more emboldened now with the finger pointing to Trent? Or would that person realize that the truth would eventually come out, that Trent would try to save himself, and they needed to move up their timeline?
With an endless line of questions running around her head, she left the breakroom and went down the hall to use the restroom. She killed a few more minutes in there, finally, splashing some cold water on her face before heading back. As soon as she stepped into the hallway, the lights went out, and she froze, panic shooting through her body. It was pitch black, with no windows illuminating anything.
She heard shouting. She thought Matt might have called her name. Then she felt a rush of cold air. It must have come from the stairwell. Before she could turn, she felt a figure behind her, and then something hard crashed down on her head.
Pain exploded through her skull, and she felt herself hit the ground as everything turned to black.
ChapterTwenty-Five
Haley woke up slowly, her head pounding like someone was using a sledgehammer against her skull. The first thing she noticed was an industrial, metallic smell. The second thing was that she couldn't move her arms. She was tied to a chair, and as her gaze cleared, she realized she was in a warehouse. A high ceiling, concrete floors, and rows of empty shelving stretched into darkness. A few work lights provided harsh illumination in the immediate area, but everything beyond that circle was lost in shadows.
She wanted to scream for help, but she had the feeling there was no help nearby, only danger. Maybe it was better to remain quiet, to pretend to be unconscious.
As her brain cleared, she remembered what had happened. She'd used the restroom at Matt's office and had been in the hallway when the lights went out. Someone had come out of the stairwell, knocked her out, and obviously kidnapped her and brought her here.
What had happened to Matt?
Panic gripped her chest as terror raced through her. Trent and the agents had not been that far away. She'd heard shouting, but what else…Had they been in trouble? Had someone been attacking them while she'd been grabbed?Was Matt okay?Her anxiety escalated at the thought of Matt being stabbed or shot or worse…
She tried to move but then realized it wasn't just her hands tied behind the back of the chair; her ankles were also bound to the chair legs. She wasn't going anywhere. She couldn't help anyone, not even herself.
A door slammed, jolting her with new fear. Footsteps came from behind her. And then three men walked into view, one she didn't recognize, but the gun in his hands told her he was there to ensure she didn't get away. The second man was Viktor Danilovich, the man she'd seen at the hospital with Kyle, and the third man…
Her blood ran cold as she stared at Drew Sanderson, Landon's big brother in the fraternity, the guy who'd pretended to care about her brother, about her loss. In the last few days, things had been pointing to Drew, but she'd secretly been hoping it was Henry who was in charge, not Drew.
"You're the one in charge? The one who killed my brother?" she asked Drew.
"Well, look at you. You finally figured it out," he drawled, no sign of the easygoing, happy-go-lucky, didn't-care-much-about-anything man she'd thought he was.
"Landon was your little brother. He was supposedly one of your best friends. How could you kill him?"
"That was an accident," Drew said with an unapologetic shrug.
"I don't believe you."
He shrugged, his eyes stunningly cold. "I don't care what you believe. It's not going to matter. You're not going to tell anyone anything. This is the end of the road, Haley. Your unwillingness to let Landon's death go finally caught up to you."
She shuddered at the threat behind his words, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her fear. "If it's not going to matter, tell me what happened to my brother."
He hesitated as if he wasn't sure what he wanted to tell her, but clearly, he wanted her to know. That's why he was here and not just Viktor. He wanted this conversation. And she needed to keep him talking as long as she possibly could.
"Landon was being uncooperative," he said finally. "Not as helpful as he was supposed to be as one of our brothers—as my little brother, the one who was supposed to have my back."
"You didn't have his."
He ignored her. "Landon didn't understand the concept of all for one, one for all."
"You wanted him to cheat. You wanted him to do illegal, immoral things. Of course, he'd say no. He knew what was right and what was wrong."
"Annoyingly so," Drew agreed.
"What did you do? How did it happen?" It was going to hurt like crazy to know about her brother's last moments, but she had to hear what he'd gone through. She had to finally know the truth.
"Landon came to the house that night. He was worked up about Professor Harrington going over his head and changing our grades after he'd already refused to do it. He felt betrayed by Harrington's willingness to use his access code in case the scandal ever leaked. The man he'd admired was a loser, and Landon finally saw that."
"But that wasn't all you wanted from Landon, was it? It was about more than getting your grades changed. Because you didn't really need Landon after Harrington agreed to bypass my brother."
"You're right. I wanted more. I wanted Landon to share his brilliant idea, something he'd told us a little about one night when we were drinking. I couldn't stop thinking about his plan, but I knew he wasn't looking at it the right way. He wanted to build a safeguard for smaller investors, but there's no money in safeguards. You don't change the world by lowering risk; you change it by increasing risk, by taking chances, thinking big."
