Pike (The Pawn Duet #1) - T.M. Frazier Page 0,70

I was so glad to see that he was okay because I feared whoever killed my family might’ve been after him, too. And I thanked him for rescuing me.”

“And he believed you?” Nine asks.

“I didn’t give him a reason not to believe me. I let him believe he was the savior in my story, and he, in turn, filled the role.”

I clench my fists, understanding and sympathy flooding past any fucking guard I’ve been trying to build between us. “Jesus Fucking Christ. You put yourself in a pen with the fucking wolves.”

She sits on the bed, and I can’t help myself. This time, I place my hand on her thigh and give it a squeeze. She doesn’t flinch although her eyes widen with surprise. You and me both, I silently tell her, feeling her muscle relax under my touch.

“No, I didn’t put myself in the pen with them,” she explains. “I became a wolf. At least, as far as they were concerned.”

“So, your plan was to kill them?” I ask.

She nods. “Each and every one of them, starting at the bottom and working my way up. It’s not a quick death. It’s more like a biological weapon. I wanted to kill them from the inside, slowly and painfully. The whole organization as a whole. I didn’t want to take their lives I wanted to take their trust in the Fourth Reich, their beliefs, everything that held them together, but first, I had to gain their trust. Follow their orders. Darius even went as far as to feed me a lie of who was really responsible for my parents’ death.”

“Who?” I ask, squeezing her thigh again.

She glances up at me. “You.”

I stand like I’ve been shot at. “That motherfucker!”

“It’s not like I believed him,” she assures me. “I knew it was Darius all along, and I know he has an agenda that has to do with destroying you that has nothing to do with how he destroyed my family. He was just feeding me a lie to fulfill that agenda so I let him think I believed him.”

“Percy,” I mutter. “The fucker thinks it’s me that got him locked up all those years ago.”

“That actually makes fucking sense,” Nine replies. “It’s not like we’ve ever done business with them. They’d have no other reason to hate us. I mean, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but we’re white as fuck. Embarrassingly so.”

“I thought as much,” Mickey says with a sniffle. “But I know it wasn’t you who ratted on him.”

“How?” I ask, pausing my furious pace of the room.

“Because…it was me.”

Mickey

“Because it was me,” I say with both pride and regret filling my voice. “My father and Darius always pushed us Percy and me together in hopes that we’d be the new faces of the Reich. Of course, my father told me it was all part of his research, and I agreed to whatever he proposed, in the name of knowledge. His research was important. He was always so close to the end. To finding out what made the human brain hate.”

“He let you get close to a fucking monster,” Pike growls, his neck chording with anger. A vein in his forearm pulses under a tattoo of the name Greyson.

I nod. “He had me visit him in the detention center once, and while I was there, I was approached by the FBI. I was young and scared, and they threatened to put away my father, but the real reason I wore that wire is because it felt like the right thing to do. Now, looking back…” I can no longer help the tears that stream down my face. “It’s probably what led to Papa being found out, and my entire family being killed.”

Pike drops to his knees before me. “It wasn’t your fucking fault,” he says, grabbing my hands in his. “None of this was your fucking fault,” he says the words with so much passion and determination that I almost believe him, but being the logical person I am, facts are facts. My actions may have led to my father’s death.

Nine is typing furiously on his laptop. He finally looks up, and his expression is one of confusion. “You said your father was undercover? That’s what he told you?” Nine asks.

“Yeah, why?” I ask, hesitantly.

Pike rises to his feet but keeps my hand clasped in his.

Nine brings his laptop over and sets it down on the bed. “Because this says otherwise.” It’s an article. A newsletter rather. I recognize it