mission: to make sure no father, no mother, no family suffered as he had suffered. And if they did? They would find peace when the man (or woman) who caused the suffering was wiped from the face of the earth.
Thompson had been arrested. It was a fluke, a witness plus a good cop plus a small mistake. Who could have predicted it? Michael would have killed himself … Jonathan couldn’t live with that. Not a good man, never a good man.
Then Colton analyzed the situation and came up with the idea to find someone to testify that he’d hired Thompson.
Because there were some money issues that might be traceable to Jonathan.
But who …
That’s when Jonathan took the information he knew about Sean and was able to track down Jimmy Hunt. It was a bit of a tightrope exercise, but it worked.
And he’d kept his fingers mostly out of it.
So how did they know? And so fast?
How, dammit?
Then Jonathan realized he’d made one tactical error. His blind spot, his one weakness.
Lucy.
She wouldn’t take the accusations against Sean at face value; she’d investigate herself. And he expected that, had planned for it—that’s why the gun had been planted, why other information had found itself to the investigative team so they would believe that Sean was having an affair with Mona. Information that would eventually get to Lucy, so she would doubt.
Lucy was smart—smarter than most people Jonathan dealt with on a day-to-day basis.
If she was so smart, why hadn’t she fallen in love with a man like Colton Thayer? A noble man, a man dedicated to doing the right thing always.
Instead Lucy had fallen for Sean, a womanizer and criminal who claimed to have turned over a new leaf, but had he? Lucy had been in danger because of him not once or twice, but at least five times. More, most likely … there were five that Jonathan knew about. What kind of man stayed with a woman when he put her life in perpetual danger?
It was unconscionable!
He had thought about killing Sean. Michael Thompson was more than willing to do it. Yet … Lucy might fall apart and grieve, and Jonathan didn’t want to hurt her.
He wanted her love to turn to hate. He wanted her to grow a backbone and never settle for a man unworthy of her. He had to destroy Sean Rogan—so Lucy would see that he was rotten, deep down bad news.
The plan had somewhat gotten away from him. Simpler was always better, but he’d been convinced that killing Sean in prison—his second idea, after planting treasonous evidence on his computer failed—would make him a martyr to Lucy.
Jonathan had long had the idea that he and Lucy would make amends. She had told him she never wanted to see him again, but he’d hoped that when she realized that he had always looked out for her, had always had her best interests at heart, that they could do so much good together … yet she wouldn’t speak to him. Without Sean in the picture, a few months from now, he would find a way to run into her. By accident. And she’d remember that they had once been friends, that he’d looked out for her, that he loved her as if she were his daughter.
She’d return to the fold.
It was a dream that kept him going, even though he knew the odds were slim. All the things he loved and admired about Lucy—her perseverance, her wisdom, her strength—told him she wouldn’t easily forgive.
But couldn’t she see that his way was the best way? Without Sean Rogan in the picture clouding her judgment, she would see the truth.
Yet … he knew that if she never came back to him, he would still protect her, as he was doing now. Protect her from her one flaw: the inability to see through men who were no good for her.
That might have to appease him.
Once Sean Rogan was gone.
Chapter Forty-six
HOUSTON, TEXAS
“I thought he would talk,” Megan said when they left the jail. “He was so close.”
“I knew he wouldn’t, but I’d hoped by appealing to his loss that he might give me something.”
“Well, his reaction was confirmation, at least for me, that your theory is right. And we can convince Rick. But beyond that … I don’t know.”
They were heading back to the hotel. It was late; Lucy was exhausted. Talking to Thompson had been emotionally stressful; her head pounded. She didn’t know how she would sleep. Not only was she