Broken Trust: A Dark High School Romance(61)

Walking back into the Deboise mansion felt ... weird. I’d only had my apartment for a week and a half and it was already a million times homier than this soulless estate.

“Hello?” I called out, hesitating in the foyer. I was still a stranger in this house, blood ties or not. “Richard? It’s Riley.”

I didn’t know why I announced myself like that. As if any other teen girl would be wandering into the Deboise manor uninvited.

My biological father—who I honestly knew about as well as Stewart, the butler—came through from another room and smiled broadly when he saw me.

“Riley,” he greeted me, “It’s so good to see you. I heard about the unpleasantness last week. Are you doing okay?”

His casual mention of my gang rape attempt had me taken back, and I stumbled over some kind of neutral response without really hearing what I was saying. But what the fuck? Richard knew about that and never reached out to me? Obviously he was my father by DNA only but still...

Then again, just because Catherine held his seat by proxy now, didn’t mean Richard wasn’t the true Delta member. Maybe I’d been giving him too much credit as a nice person.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, leading me through to the dining room, “Of course you are, you’re a teenager. I remember what Oscar was like at eighteen, he never seemed to be full.” He started to smile at the fond memory, then his face crumpled with grief.

Awkwardly, I sat down at the seat he indicated and cleared my throat. “I, um, went to see him the other day,” I said softly, not wanting to upset him any further. “I hope that’s okay. I just wanted to...” I shrugged “... I don’t really know. It just felt right to visit.”

Richard nodded. “He would have liked that. He would have liked you. I’m so sorry you never got the chance to know him.”

His words got me a bit choked up, and I needed to swallow the lump in my throat before I could respond. “Me too,” I whispered.

As if by unspoken agreement, we both rushed to change the subject to more neutral topics.

Throughout dinner, which Stew served, we remained on safe conversation. School assignments, sports teams, movies. It wasn’t until Stew had cleared our dessert bowls that Richard got to the point of why he’d asked me over.

“Riley, I know I’m not currently an acting member on Delta’s council,” Richard began, handing me a crystal cut glass of whiskey as we relocated to the sitting room. “But that’s by my own choice. After Oscar’s death, I didn’t feel like I was of a sound enough mind to handle the decisions and votes which are required of a Delta sitting council member.”

I snorted quietly with contempt. “But Catherine is?”

Richard’s lips tightened. “Catherine ...” He sighed heavily. “Catherine is a very smart, very calculating woman. When she sets her mind to something...” he trailed off again, then shook his head like he was saying too much. “Anyway, what I was saying, is that although I’ve allowed Catherine to proxy my position, I am still aware of everything going on. I was kept well informed of your mission with the other successors on the weekend, and given a full report on your success. I wanted to tell you how proud I was of you.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “For ... breaking into a senator’s office and stealing his illegal sex tape? Strange thing to be proud of your daughter for, but whatever.” That was mostly muttered to myself, and I took a long sip of the amber spirit to stop running my mouth further.

“Yes, well. Strange world we live in.” Richard just shrugged it off. “Here’s the thing, though.” He paused, like he was trying to decide if he should continue or not. “Somehow, Huntley also obtained the same recording.”

My brows shot up in surprise. “How?”

“Well, that’s what I’d like to figure out,” he said softly, his gaze all too sharp on me for comfort. “What can you tell me about that night, Riley? Could anyone else have gained access to that recording room? Made a copy of the flash drive, perhaps?”

I blinked at him a couple of times, comprehending his question while I took another sip of the whiskey. “You mean... did Dylan or Beck make a copy?” I was already shaking my head. “There’s no way, they had one copy and it was handed off immediately.”

Richard just shrugged again, his face neutral and non-threatening. For some reason, that scared me more than any of the other Delta members I’d met. “Not just Dylan and Beck … anyone at all?”

Frowning, I shook my head again before belatedly noticing how fuzzy it felt. “No, I was with them the whole time. Beck only had the one flash drive, then he gave it to Dylan to take to Catherine. And no one else was in the room with us.”

Richard nodded slowly. “I see. And you saw Dylan hand the flash drive to Catherine, then?”

“No, I...” I scrubbed at my eyes with the heel of my hand. “I was fucking Beck in the bathroom.” I frowned, hearing those words come out of my mouth. What in the world? “Did you...” A sick feeling of dread washed through me as the room began to spin. “Did you drug me?”

Richard shrugged again, a gesture I was fast coming to despise. “Just a little something to loosen your tongue, dear. It won’t have any long term effects, I promise. Now, to be clear, you said Sebastian handed the flash drive to Dylan, but you never actually saw him give it to Catherine?”