I asked, “What do you want to do?”

She hesitated and her teeth sank down on her bottom lip.

My hand rested against her cheek, and I said softly, “No more lies. No more trying to protect each other. What do you want to do? We’ll do it together. What are you thinking?”

Her head lifted, and a surge of strength flared over her features. Her chin lifted. Her eyes took on a fierce determination, and her entire body grew stronger. She said, “We take the flash drive to him. We make him do the dirty work for us.”

It was a gamble.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

She nodded. Her eyes were lidded with fear, but she murmured, “We have to try. He is my father, after all.”

Garrett was connected to whatever was on Summer’s flash drive. We still didn’t unencrypt it, but he was involved. He could warn them against us, before we even made our move, but this was Sam’s call. She wanted to go to her biological father first. And he was here.

The hotel door buzzed.

Sam was sitting in the corner of the room, wringing her hands together, and chewing the inside of her cheek for the last hour. She sucked in her breath and her eyes whipped to mine. I nodded, standing from my seat, and I crossed the room to open the door.

Garrett was on the other side. No welcoming smile came. No question lurking in his depths. He skimmed over my face and then looked inside for his daughter. Once he saw her, he looked back to me. He was waiting for me to invite him in. I nodded, stepping back, and he came inside. Shutting the door behind him, as he stopped behind a couch, I passed him to stand beside Samantha. We were on one side of the room. He was on the other, his hands fell to rest onto the couch. He let out one short breath before clearing his throat. “I take it this isn’t a social call?”

Sam stood next to me, her hand slipping into mine. She wanted me to be the spokesman, but I knew some of the talking had to come from her. In a way, Sam was exposing herself completely here. Garrett came into her life twice, and left twice. This was his last and final chance. If he rejected her again, that was it. She hadn’t shared that sentiment with me, but she’d been quiet the entire morning. She barely said a word. I knew Sam. I knew what this was going to do to her and if he chose wrong, I’d make him pay.

He looked from me to Sam, lingering on her. “Sam?”

She held my hand in a death grip, but her voice was sturdy. “Give him the flash drive.”

“What?” Confusion crossed over Garrett’s face.

But she was talking to me. I tossed it on the coffee table between us.

He didn’t grab it. He just looked at it. “What is that?”

I waited. When Sam didn’t say anything more, I moved forward. It was my turn. She would jump in when she was ready. “It’s information on whatever you’re involved in with the Sebastians.”

“What?”

I waited with my eyes narrowed. He wasn’t showing much. Sam inherited some of her emotionless expressions from him, I saw that now, but he was rocked. My gut was telling me that, even though I couldn’t tell from observing him. I felt it, though. My gut was never wrong.

“You heard me.” I added, “It’s encrypted, whatever it is, but it came to us straight from Park Sebastian’s safety deposit box.”

“You’re lying.” His nostrils flared, just an inch.

I tried to tell if he was pissed or scared. I didn’t know this dad of Sam’s, so I couldn’t get a good read on him. Again, I had to rely on my gut. I didn’t think he was pissed. I hoped not, for Sam’s sake. “You can take it with you. It’s a copy. We have more, but we were given that by someone close to Sebastian.”

Garrett still didn’t move to pick it up. He switched so he was watching me instead. I felt his gaze probing me. He was trying to figure out if I was bluffing or not. I wasn’t. I let him see that. There was no hesitation. I wasn’t hoping he’d buy a lie. I wasn’t doing anything. The only thing I was nervous about was what he did when he left this room, but as to what was on the flash drive—even though I didn’t know what it was, I knew it was important.

Another beat passed as Garrett was studying me, then his scrutiny dropped. His shoulders slumped down and he raised a hand to wipe at his face. He let out a deep pocket of oxygen. “If that’s what I think it is, you both could be in a lot of trouble.”

“That’s why we called you.” Sam’s hand loosened. It fell from mine and she moved ahead of me, one step. “We’re going to release that, but whatever it is; you’re on there. Aren’t you?”

His gaze switched to his daughter’s. He didn’t reply. Another moment passed before he nodded, slowly. It was like he was surrendering to us with that motion. “It’s the blackmail list, if it is what I think it is.”

“Blackmail?”

“For The Network.”

“The fuck?” Sam’s eyebrows lifted high.

I hid a grin, feeling she channeled Logan with that question.

“The Network. That’s the name. It’s not original, but that’s the point. If you’re in it, you’re in it. If you want out—” He nodded at the flash drive. “—they use whatever’s on there against you.” He was dead serious. He asked us, “Do you have any idea how bad this is for you two? Whoever gave that to you was handling dynamite. Who was it?”

“No way.” Sam shook her head. “You’re not getting that from us.”

“Samantha.” A warning growl came from her father.

I moved forward, urging Sam back a step. She was going to take this down a different path. Her ‘fuck you’ attitude about Garrett was close to the surface. She was going to make it about that, but he was right. Whatever The Network was, they were dangerous. We needed to keep it about that, not making it personal between father and daughter.

I gestured to the flash drive. “Will you help us?”

A second growl emanated from him. It was cut short, but he wasn’t happy. “You guys are nuts. You can’t take The Network on—”

“It’s because of Park Sebastian.” I stopped him. My own anger was starting to simmer under the surface. “We didn’t come to you to get lectures. You’re not the adult to treat us like we’re children in over our heads. We didn’t want anything to do with this. Our fight isn’t The Network. It’s Park Sebastian.”