Burn (Virtues & Lies 1)

“It’s never too late, remember? You told me that.” Straightening, I round the table and sit beside him. I can feel my dad watching us, and when my eyes meet his, I find him studying us. “It’s not too late, right?”

“It’s the only way to weed out the people behind all this.” Dad replies, his hand resting on Leo’s shoulder like he’s giving him support.

“Behind what?”

“All this.” Pointing around the room at all the boards filled with scribbles and papers, he shrugs. “Not everyone in this world is good, some people are corrupt. They think of themselves above everybody else. It’s my job to stop them.”

“What does that have to do with us?” Sliding closer to Leo, I cover his hand with mine.

When his eyes find mine, he says, “My dad is helping those people, and they’re enabling all the shit you can think of.”

“Like?”

Sitting down, Dad laces his hands on the table in front of him. For the first time ever, I notice the depth of his frown lines in comparison to his smile ones, the way his bright brown eyes are framed by tired lines, it makes me wonder how I failed to see all these things for so long.

“Leo came up with a clever way of moving money, it helps people that need it and at the same time it pays back. These corrupt people, they accept money from drug lords, sex and weapon traffickers and they put it into places that will up the demand for what they supply. Do you understand?”

My knotted stomach turns as bile rises up my throat. This is beyond me, I know of all these things, the events we go to…the charities we support…

“The only way to slow them down is to block the flow of their funds.”

“So you see, I have to do this. I have to burn my father’s house down.” Turning his hand up, he looks to me, stroking the back of mine with his thumb. “I have no choice.”

“It’s your house too.”

“No, Cass, it’s not.” Shaking his head, he murmurs, and I swear he wants to say more, but he smiles softly instead.

“How are you planning on shutting them down?”

“You leave trails for the right people to find.” The way he says it is enough for me to know that I’m not going to like this plan. “We leaked some files.”

“You did what?” I’m standing before I can stop myself and pacing up and down the width of the double doors that lead to the garden. Fussing with the hem of my short, black summer dress, I curl my toes in my Converse as I come to a stop between them.

I can’t get my head around this. “Are you out of your fucking minds? That’s career suicide!”

“It’s a risk, but it’s worth taking. Plus, I have a back-up plan. Christopher and I have gone over everything and made sure it’s as tight as it can get in the eyes of the law.”

“As great as he with the law, he can’t change the fact that money laundering is a crime. Regardless of who you do it for. You could have your trading licence revoked. Fuck, you could go to prison! Why are you not worried, Leo? And more importantly, why did you let him do it?” Looking between them, I feel ready to bang their heads together. They’re so unfazed it’s ridiculous.

They’re exchanging these looks like I’m the one that’s out of my fucking mind—which I am, because the guy I’m fucking stupidly in love with is telling me he’s selling himself down the river. Good cause or not, I’d rather have him.

“Why are you looking at me like that? I’m not the crazy one here!”

“Jesus, will you sit down and let us explain?” Standing from his chair, Dad slides his closer to me as he sits on the edge of the desk.

He waits until I sit down—even though I’m fidgeting like I’ve had a tonne of caffeine—to talk.

“There’s nothing to suggest that Leo knew anything about it, as far as anyone can tell he left to start his own fund. Jack will be moved up and it’ll look like someone moving on. What happened after he left, is nothing to do with him. There’s always going to be suspicion, but the best thing to do is ignore it and carry on.”

“What if it goes wrong?”

“It won’t.” My dad sounds so certain that I have no choice but to accept it, even if my gut feeling tells me otherwise. “There’s going to be a lot of attention on him, so the best thing is to keep your distance for a while…”

“No.” That’s not happening! Taking Leo’s hand, I thread it with mine on my lap. “You’re not throwing him to the wolves alone.”

“You don’t understand, Cass—”

“Yes, I do. And I’ve seen how these things go, if you’re alone, they’ll bury you. I’m not letting that happen. I want to keep you.” Tears warm my eyes as chills roll through me, because he could tell me he doesn’t want me anymore. I walked away from him.