Chapter 76
Q uaid stared at Alaistair in disgust.
“It’s true, Slade! She’s betrayed you again. It’s all been lies. She did take that information from your safe for Billy. Did you ever see him on the cameras? And she has been playing a long con on you guys. She wanted to get access to your money, then she was going to drain you dry!”
“Really?” Quaid drawled. “Keep going.”
“She told me that she wanted to be with me. We had a connection years ago. Pretending not to know me was a lie as well. And the pen drive that Billy’s lawyer had?
Well, that held information that would prove she’s a liar.
So as soon as she knew the lawyer was bringing it to you, she arranged to have those guys come ‘steal it’.
” Alaistair stared at them desperately. “She knew you’d check what was on it and Billy had lots of evidence against her.
I helped those guys gain access to the club because she said she loved me.
But now I know that she’s a liar and a bitch! ”
Quaid stepped forward and punched Alaistair in the nose, satisfied as he heard it crunch.
Alaistair squealed like a pig as blood gushed out of his nose. “What was that for? ”
“The lies. Our girl would never betray us. Did you really think that lying about her would save you? What was the point of all this? Why do this, Alaistair? And why try to drag her down with you?”
Quaid was aware of a gaze on him. He turned to find Indie gaping at him in shock. “What is it, baby girl?”
“You . . . you believe I wouldn’t betray you? Without even asking me?”
He frowned. “Of course I know that.” Understanding filled him. “I was an idiot before. I promised you never again, remember?”
Tears dripped down her face so he walked over to wrap his hand around the back of her neck. He kissed her forehead. She was still holding Hope. Neither of them needed to be here for this.
“Why don’t you take Hope into your room,” he said to her.
“No, no, I want to stay. I just . . . I love you, Quaid.”
“Love you too, baby girl.”
“This is all so fucking sickening,” Alaistair snarled. “How can you believe her over me?”
“Because we love her,” Slade said. “And with love comes trust. We know her. Last time, we made an error in judgment that nearly cost us everything. We won’t make that mistake ever again.
Indie would never betray us. You, on the other hand, have been a problem for a while.
But why, Alaistair? I thought we were friends.
How did you get involved with those guys? Why did you do this to us?”
“Because you always have everything!” Alaistair roared. “The respect of everyone. All of the subs want you. I was always second best. Even at university. That time I came home during the holidays with you, I saw her. I knew she was meant to be mine but she barely knew I was alive.”
Quaid gave him a confused look. “Indie? You’re saying you wanted Indie back then? Slade’s stepsister?”
“It’s sick that he’s with her,” Alaistair spat. “It’s unnatural!”
“And that gave you the right to do this?” Slade snarled. “Grow up, motherfucker. You aren’t owed the world. None of us owed you anything. ”
“I don’t even remember that,” Indie said quietly, turning to look at Alaistair. “I don’t even remember you.”
Alaistair snarled at her. “I know. The four of you got everything, including her. Roger is a good friend of mine. He and I were in business together and now that’s all tanked thanks to you assholes.
I had to live in my car these last two weeks while hiding from Shepherd!
Cleaning myself in public bathrooms! Do you know how humiliating that is? ”
“You told Roger where the girls were going for lunch that day,” Slade said slowly. “You were in my home office when Indie was leaving. You asked her where she was going. Why the fuck didn’t I think of that? It’s your fault that Roger was there.”
Alaistair smiled. “Yep. And you know who else I was friends with? Billy.”
“You were?” Indie asked. “He never mentioned you.”
“Oh, I went to your apartment a few times when you weren’t there. Had lots of fun with your underwear. Jerked off with your panties around my dick so many times.”
“Oh my God, I’m gonna be ill,” she said.
Fuck this asshole. That was disgusting. Spencer wrapped his arm around Indie.
“Billy and I were going to ruin you all. He fucking hated the hold you all had on her.”
“Wait,” Indie said slowly. “I thought your voice sounded familiar and I put it down to the fact that you said we’d met years ago. But . . . no, that’s not it. Is it? Shit. I thought I’d dreamed that someone else was there that day Billy stole information from Slade’s safe . . . but it was you.”
“It was me,” he said proudly. “Billy was going to share you with me, you know.”
“Oh God. No,” she said.
“Yes. He promised me if I helped destroy your relationship with these assholes that you’d be ours.
He hated all of you as much as I did. Everything always came so easy to you.
And you idiots thought it was about the bid.
Sure, that was a bonus. A means for Billy to buy his way into a partnership.
But that was never what drove him. It was separating her from you.
He wanted to turn you all against her. To punish her for wanting you and not us.
He was simply waiting for his opportunity.
When he learned that your parents were divorcing, he figured you might make a move on Indie.
Turned out, he was right. He called me as he followed her here that day.
When I arrived, she was already drugged and unconscious. ”
“You fucking asshole,” Quaid snarled.
Alaistair shot him a nervous look before his gaze went back to Indie.
His obsession with her was clear. “I could have gotten access to this place and the safe on my own. But Billy wanted to frame you, Indie. To make it look like you’d stolen the information.
He had a tracker on your phone, but I also set it up so all of your messages came to his phone first. Then he could block them from reaching your phone. ”
“He told me that,” she said. “I had no idea how he did it, though.”
“I’ve always been good with technology,” Alaistair said as he grinned up at Shepherd. “Haven’t I?”
“We’ve worked together in the past. I trusted you,” Shepherd whispered.
“Big mistake,” Alaistair sung. “I knew all about your watermark, it was easy to copy. You never even knew. I put it into my footage of Indie coming and going from the penthouse. I probably could have faked the footage with an actor or something, but real footage was better. And I was able to manipulate the video of her coming into the penthouse to make it look like she was leaving by herself. You never picked up on that.”
They hadn’t bothered to look too closely at the video footage of her leaving. Shepherd looked ill.
“I hacked into your computer, Slade, and replaced the real footage with mine. I knew where the safe was because I’d seen you put files in there before. I just didn’t know the code. As it turns out, that part was ridiculously easy. You were sappy enough to use her birthday, huh? ”
Oh God.
How hadn’t she known any of this? Billy had never talked about him. He’d been in the apartment where she’d lived! He’d touched her things.
Yuck.
She felt nauseous at the thought.
It still shocked her that Quaid hadn’t believed him. Not even for a second. Her most suspicious, untrusting guy trusted her fully.
Under different circumstances, she might have felt .
. . euphoric. Lighter. But she was still reeling from everything that Alaistair was telling her.
Had he seriously wanted her back when she was a teenager?
And he’d actually paired up with Billy to destroy the guys trust in her so they could have her to themselves?
Would Billy have really shared her with him? Somehow, she didn’t think so. He was too jealous for that.
But he’d let Alaistair take her panties to jerk off with them?
So gross.
What was wrong with him?
Pervert!
She sat down on a chair, her legs feeling shaky. Spencer took Hope from her which was probably just as well.
“Fucking hell,” Slade said. “And we never suspected you.”
“That was the best part, you all thought I was your friend. You were relaxed around me, let me into your penthouse, your office. I also knew that Billy had been gathering information about the people he was partnered up with. Things he could use to blackmail them. I helped him with that too. But then Indie disappeared and Billy was growing more deranged. So I decided it was time for him to go and I told his partners about the information he had on them.”
“You got him killed,” Quaid said.
“Well, yes, of course. He couldn’t keep what he was doing from them forever. How did you know it was me that got them into the club, though? I kept my face hidden from the cameras.”
“You had your own code to get in,” Shepherd said. “Everyone does. It was for security.”
“Fuck you, Shepherd,” Alaistair snarled. “I should have known. Let me go. You can’t keep me here. It’s kidnapping. You have no reason to hold me. You can’t prove any of this.”
“Who would we need to prove it to?” Quaid told him. “We’re not going to turn you in to the cops. Not just yet, anyway.”
“Take him to a secure location,” Slade ordered Shepherd.
Shepherd stood tall and saluted him. “Yes, sir! Right away!”
“I still don’t want you to kill him,” Indie said, feeling shaky and pale. They’d said they wouldn’t. But they were also furious.
Slade walked over and cupped her face with his hand. “No, we told you that we wouldn’t. You don’t need to worry about him anymore, though. Understand? You trust us to deal with him?”
“I trust you guys with my whole life.”
“Thank you,” Indie said to them later as they lay in bed.
Hope was asleep in the bassinet next to the bed.
She couldn’t believe they were finally home.
To her surprise, they’d managed to fit another bed in this room.
So now they had two large beds next to each other for the five of them.
And there was still room for Hope’s bassinet, which was thankfully quite small.
“For what, Boo?” Slade asked.
“For not believing him and believing in me.”
You don’t have to thank us, Rock signed.
“We’re always going to be on your side.” Spencer leaned in over Slade, who was next to her, and kissed her lightly. “I love you, Princess. I’m so glad that you’re here. That you’re safe. And ours.”
“Always ours,” Quaid said from her other side. “Our girl.”
“You didn’t doubt me. Not for one second,” she said to him.
“Never. I love you, baby girl. ”
“You were always meant to be ours,” Slade added. “From the moment we met you. Ours to protect, care for, and love.”
Love you, Rock signed.
“I love you guys so much. Thank you for everything, but mostly for being mine.”