I scrolled up in disbelief. Every message the girl sent, Lowell answered almost instantly—and when he couldn't, he'd fire off a quick line about what he was doing and promise to reply soon, then report back the moment he was free to tell his wife exactly what had held him up.
Right now.
It seemed something was holding him up. He hadn't gotten to her message yet.
My hand hovered over the keyboard. I hesitated. Then I typed:
【He's lying to you. Run!】
Just as I was about to hit send, a hand shot out and clamped around my wrist.
Lowell's breathing was ragged, his eyes cold on mine. On his phone, a login alert was flashing across the screen.
I didn't hesitate. My finger went straight for send—and he wrenched my wrist and slammed it against the wall.
"This one, you don't touch."
I fought him. "You sit there playing the devoted husband for her. Doesn't it make you sick?"
He gripped my hand tighter.
"I did lie to her. But I've never wronged her.
"She's innocent. She couldn't survive news like this.
"I'm confident I can hide it for a lifetime, and keep her the happiest woman alive for a lifetime.
"And you, Naomi Joyce, if you dare drag this in front of her, if you make her cry.
"I won't think twice about taking back even the last bit of mercy I've shown you."
A dull pain spread through my wrist. It hurt enough to bring tears.
He looked at me for a few seconds. Only then did he let go, letting me slide down the wall to the floor. I clutched my wrist, shaking.
"I told you. Be a good girl, do as you're told, and you'll only gain."
"You call yourself a man who loves her, and this is how it looks? Keeping a pile of women she knows nothing about?"
His steps paused. He let out a cold laugh.
"As long as you don't run your mouth, she'll be happy her whole life.
"But the moment you dare break her heart, I can also show you exactly where all those girls who went missing ended up."
I clenched my fists.
Lowell had taken the computer away. Anything that might carry a trace of the girl, he'd had his men strip clean. She'd appeared out of nowhere, and just like that she'd vanished into nowhere again.
I gripped the flash drive in my hand. He didn't know yet—before he caught me, I'd already exported the important data.
I wanted to see for myself. What this was really about!
I pulled the girl's information up on my personal computer. When the search engine matched her face, one entry stopped my breath cold—
The only daughter of the richest family in the country... Kitty Sullivan.
Right now she was overseeing an infrastructure bid, with her father heading it up. Her husband would be part of it too.
I thought of the file I'd glimpsed on Lowell's computer, and my hands and feet went cold. I used to work in accounting.
Kitty Sullivan didn't know yet. Lowell was setting a trap for her. Once the project was completed, the Sullivan family could very likely fall into a massive tax-evasion snare. And Kitty Sullivan still trusted her husband, handing every money-related task over to him without a second thought.
The first thing I did was go to Lucy Fox.
"Right now, we're the only ones who can save Kitty Sullivan.
"She still has no idea what she's up against.
"We have to find her. We have to tell her the truth."
Lucy frowned. She didn't answer.
"Ms. Fox?"
"You go yourself. I'm not going."
I froze.
"Why?"
