"No. And some of the information was false. Some of his later notes changed the way it worked."
"He was trying to protect it from you," she said, realizing the truth. "He must have anticipated you were going to try to steal it, and he changed key points to prevent you from making it work. That's why he had the videos from his apartment and your room."
"Yeah, I found that camera the day after he died. He was spying on me."
"He didn't trust you, and he had good reason." She paused. "Is that why it's taken you six years to get to this point? You killed the brains behind the algorithm, and then you had no one to finish it."
His lips tightened. "Most of it was there. It just took a little longer than we thought to bring it to fruition. But it's ready now, and we are going to be very, very rich. Landon built the perfect weapon for financial warfare, and he didn't even realize it."
"He realized it; he just wasn't evil."
"Maybe not, but he's dead." Drew gave her a hard look. "I thought we were done with him a long time ago, until that stupid woman started digging up the past."
"How did you find out about Sabrina?"
"She was digging into one of our test company's stock drops, and we have had people in place to watch for that for a very long time. When she went to see Harrington, we knew she was putting the entire picture together."
"So you had her killed," she said flatly.
Drew's gaze shifted to Viktor, who stared at her with an inscrutable expression. Then Drew turned back to her. "I'm not a killer, Haley."
"You just have others do your dirty work."
"Why would I do it any other way? I am my father's son after all."
The mix of admiration and hatred in his voice startled her with its force. "Is this about your father? About being better than him?"
"Now you sound like Trent. Of course, it's not just about my father, but I will take great joy in watching his financial collapse."
"You're going after your dad's company?"
"I'm going after all of them. Because you and your FBI friends have been interfering, we had to move up the timeline, but it doesn't matter. We're ready. In less than three hours, we're going to trigger the largest financial collapse in history. It will take out the leading candidate for president. He'll lose all his money, and so will his donors. When the dust settles, the old guard will have lost everything," he said with smug and evil satisfaction. "It's time for change. My father, his precious alumni network, all these old men who think they rule the world—they've had their turn. Now it's ours."
"You're insane. You're going to destroy millions of lives because you want to take down your father?"
"He's just a piece of delightful collateral damage. He thinks I'm stupid, that I can't compete with him, that I would never be worthy of running his company. That's why I went out on my own, why I created a dozen shell companies, all of which are going to benefit tremendously while he watches his investments go to zero. And the beauty of it is that no one will ever know what happened. Your brother's algorithm will trigger cascading failures across multiple markets simultaneously. We'll profit from the chaos while everyone else scrambles to understand what went wrong. And in the end, they won't be able to prove anything."
"Someone will figure it out. The FBI is already on to you."
"I have people in place to make sure that investigation doesn't touch us. We own pieces of the system at every level, Haley. You can't stop us. We're invincible. Haven't you figured that out yet?"
She felt sick to her stomach. "You and your friends are already rich. You already have so much. When will it be enough?"
"It will never be enough until we have everything." He paused. "You didn't have to end up here. All you had to do was look away, go on with your life."
"I could never look away from my brother. And you're wrong that there won't be evidence. Landon left something behind. The FBI has already decrypted it. They're going to stop you."
"They'll be too busy looking for you." Drew checked his watch. "This was fun, but it's almost time for your final performance." He gave Viktor a nod. "Once I get to Branson, I'll text you."
"What final performance?" she asked.
"You're going to call Agent Lawson and tell him where to find you."
"I don't know where I am, so how can I tell him?"
"We'll make sure you have enough information for him to find you. He and his FBI buddies will be desperate to do that, turning all their attention from me to you. At the right time, he'll come running to save you, and when he does, this warehouse will become his tomb along with yours and everyone who comes with him."
Terror ran through her as Drew and Viktor walked toward the door, leaving the third man behind to watch her. There was no way she would tell Matt where she was and lead him to his death. She would never do that. She cared about him too much. She couldn't imagine letting him get hurt. She wanted him to have a long life. She wanted him to have love and a family of his own. She wanted that so much, because she was falling in love with him.
