Page 66 of Exacting Vengeance

And the laptop. Which explained why they’d never found it.

The floor beneath his feet fell away, and he was free-falling into the worst nightmare he could imagine.

The future he’d been wishing for…that gaping hole in his heart that had finally been filled with hope… Gone in an instant.

He turned back to Victoria, hoping and praying he wouldn’t see what he knew to be true.

“Kyle, I’m sorry.” Her blue eyes shimmered. “This wasn’t my fault. I didn’t have a choice. I wanted to tell you. I just didn’t know how.”

After ten years of searching, the answers he’d needed were staring him in the face. He couldn’t believe the words he was about to say.

As he said them, his heart cracked wide open, the pieces shattering all around him in piercing, painful shards.

“You’re the accountant?”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Kyle, please. Let me explain.” She took a step toward him but stopped. The look on his face more than broke her heart. His eyes emanated a gut-wrenching mix of pain and shock. Then his mouth fell open, and she could practically see his emotions as they morphed from anger…to betrayal.

“Tell me they’re wrong.” He swung his arm in the direction of his boss. “Tell me this is a mistake. Tell me you’re not Yuri’s accountant.”

Her heart thudded so hard she thought it would slip out from between her ribs and splatter onto the floor. “I—I can’t.”

He shoved a hand through his hair, shaking his head as he walked to her. “I don’t understand. How could you have kept this from me? Why did you keep it from me?”

The absolute anguish in his eyes tore at her soul. “I wanted to tell you, I really did, but the time was never right.” Not that there ever could be a right time, just a better time than now. After he’d already found out. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“Everyone has a choice.” His lips compressed as he towered over her. “I told everyone—my boss, headquarters—that you had nothing to do with Yuri’s illegal activity. Because I believed it.” He jabbed a finger into his chest.

“I didn’t want to do it,” she pleaded. “Why can’t you believe that? How can you not understand?” Disbelief coursed through her veins. “You, of all people, know the power Yuri wielded over me. I was powerless against him. You know what I got when I asked him why he wanted me to keep a ledger for him? A black eye.” That day, she’d gotten off easy.

Kyle shut his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was a man of the law. Even though it wasn’t her fault, he would never forgive her. Hopelessness threatened to squeeze the air from her lungs. Now she, too, felt betrayed.

“I never wanted to be any part of Yuri’s crimes. You know me. Why can’t you believe that? All I did was keep a ledger.”

“This isn’t just about the ledger. You’re the missing link in a criminal investigation I’ve been working on for over a decade.” He paused to take a deep breath, as if he could barely contain his absolute disappointment in her. “This is about money laundering, engaging in monetary transactions involving criminally derived property, possession of ransom money.” Again he paused, and she swore there was a glimmer of remorse and fear in his eyes. “It’s about conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder.”

“What? I didn’t kidnap anyone, and I certainly didn’t murder anyone.” She looked into the eyes of the man who’d made love to her not twenty minutes ago, and who’d shared the most painful parts of his past. He’d wanted her to know everything about him, and she’d stupidly dared to hope the reason was that he’d wanted to start a life with her. But the warm, gentle, kind man she knew was gone. In his place stood the cold, hard, unfeeling federal agent.

Breathing became difficult, as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. This could not be happening. “This is all Yuri’s doing. I didn’t know about any of it.”

“No, but Yuri and Nikolai Lebedev did. It doesn’t matter if you weren’t the one to pull the trigger. You hid the proceeds of those crimes.”

“Oh my God.” She clutched the back of the sofa. Not from shock, but so she didn’t fall flat on her face. “I had no idea where the money came from. I swear it.”

Kyle’s voice softened, but his banked anger remained. “Do you still have the ledger?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I hid it near my apartment. I’ll give it to you.”

His boss rested a hand on Kyle’s shoulder. “We can’t risk anything she says being thrown out.” Slowly, almost regrettably, Kyle nodded. “Deke can do it.”

Deke strode to her and pulled a card from his pocket. “Victoria Kelly, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you can’t afford an attorney, one can be appointed for you by the court. Do you understand these rights?”

Victoria swallowed, numbness racing up her spine. She couldn’t believe this was what her life had come down to—being read her constitutional rights like she was a criminal. Like Yuri. “Yes.”

“Are you willing to speak with us without an attorney present?” Jack asked, having joined them.

Kyle’s brothers had rallied around him, but she had no one. Sure, she could get a court appointed attorney, but that wouldn’t be the same as having the support of someone who loved her.