Page 39 of Revenge & Truth

“That’s not all,” Liu admitted, giving me another document. “They want to question you as well.”

“No,” I snapped, slamming the paper on the table. “Everything spoken about in that room is privileged.”

“Between Luca and me, yes, but in this situation, you were not my client. The worst part is I can’t be your lawyer. It would be in conflict with Luca’s current case,” Liu explained.

Running my hands through my hair, I started to pace. They’d fucking warned me not to go there, and I’d ignored their advice. Countless times they tried to get me to understand that the prison wasn’t under our control and would be too big of a risk. Now here we were with new battles to fight that I created. Anger at myself for being so stupid and foolish burned in the pit of my stomach.

Then I came to a halt.

“Who runs that prison?” I asked.

“It’s a privately-owned prison,” Atticus answered. “I looked into the company to see if there was a way to buy into it when we first ran into the problem of our people not making it past two weeks.”

“The name of that company?” I pressed.

“Byklyn Ventures Inc.,” Atticus stated.

“Master Caprioni tried to connect with the owner many times but was ignored. No matter what channel we went through, he was blocked, so we moved on to other strategies that similarly didn’t work out,” Liu added but held up a fancy foiled postcard. “This time, I found the ‘in’ we needed.”

Walking over, I plucked it from his hands and read the invitation. “A gala hosted by none other than Byklyn Ventures Inc. for Springmont’s battered women’s shelters. Why on earth are we invited if they want nothing to do with us?”

“Because they know your father passed and was an extremely generous donor to this cause. It was one of the strategies he tried to use to get a meeting with the previous CEO,” Liu shared. “Something tells me this new CEO doesn’t have the same puppet master whispering in his ear as his predecessor did.”

“Do we have a name for this new CEO, or is he as mysterious as his predecessor?” I questioned, looking at the men gathered around the table.

Hound reached down and grabbed his laptop, fingers flying over the keys as he got to work on finding me that answer.

“Is there anyone else going to this gala who might be useful to us? If this event is as big as it seems, then there must be someone we know attending,” I reasoned.

“Two someones,” Braxton offered, holding the same number of fingers and wiggling them excitedly. “A Mr. Harvey O’Hagan and his date, the widowed Flora Caprioni.”

The grin that spread across my face hearing this information made Braxton laugh. “Okay there, Jack Nicholson, tone down the creepy serial-killer smile, would you? There is another person invited but hasn’t RSVP’d as of yet, Detective Koby White.”

“He just did,” Hound cut in. “I have the current guest list right here, and his name is on it. He seems to be flying solo… no plus one.”

I glanced at the invitation again, noting the event was in two days. “Looks like I need to go shopping.”

“Hold on a second,” Ryker barked. “Can someone please tell me why the hell any of this matters? So you meet this CEO, what does that do to help with the new charges?”

“It does, and it doesn’t,” I answered, taking my seat once more. “There is no reason someone should have recognized me. We’ve kept all pictures of me from the funeral out of the press, and there was no live coverage. Ry, I haven’t been outside this house much at all, and very few people have met me. The chances of a random person at the prison recognizing me and coming up with these charges is ridiculous.”

Leaning forward, I grabbed the papers with the new charges and waved them in the air. “I dared them to make their next move, and they just did. You were worried about a personal attack now that they know who’s behind it. Which made logical sense if they wanted it to be over quickly.”

Ryker frowned. “They don’t want it over quickly?”

“I’m sure they would if they could manage it without having any connection tracing back to them. They don’t just want me gone for someone else to take over. What these crazy old bastards want more than my head on a platter is to ruin the Caprioni name,” I said, a growl of irritation coating my words. “Everything they’ve done has been to target me in a way that makes my downfall public. Criminal charges would be blasted all over the news, as would charges of conspiracy and collusion. Hell, I could be labeled a terrorist if they got enough dirt. Which would make it so no one could use the name Caprioni without the stench of that following wherever they went.”

“All right, that makes sense, but I’m still not following what the owner of the prison has to do with all this,” Ryker admitted.

“The reason Daddy never got a meeting with the asshole CEO is because he’s tied to one of the founding families. Think about it… they got to a judge who, when given the chance, sends our people to a prison where they don’t last two weeks. It’s also privately owned, meaning the prison is paid a certain amount for each prisoner they house. Killing them off is taking money out of their pockets. Who would have a big enough grudge to throw money out the window when they could be pocketing it?” I asked but in a more rhetorical manner. “This invite is them telling me it’s now my move in our game of chess. The fact that three of our targets will be in one place is merely an added bonus.”

“What if it’s not just a coincidence the three of them will be there? Looks like Judge Rupp is a new addition to the guest list, and his plus one is Ivy,” Hound informed me. “Are you sure trusting this woman is the right call?”

I laughed, slouching in my chair, knowing exactly what Ivy was doing. “God, she’s fucking brilliant.”

The guys looked at each other questioningly but were wise enough to let me gather myself before demanding an explanation. “She’s not only getting the judge out of his house, she’s providing me with an alibi if something were to go wrong. Going to the gala, mingling, introducing myself to people, and hopefully, this CEO gives me cover. No way could they say I had anything to do with the gun showing up out of the blue.”

“Fuck me, that’s amazing,” Braxton muttered, then looked at me. “It also means she has the information you need.”