Illusion (Billionaire in Disguise 2)

“What?”

“About you and your alibi. I wasn’t going to say anything in front of them—”

“And you shouldn’t say anything now,” I said.

I looked up at the cameras, noticing they were still recording. I unlaced my fingers from Derek’s, pulled him up from the chair, and then ushered him out the door. I wanted to know what his point was. I wanted to hear what he had to say, but there was no reason for us to be doing it in that room where cameras were pointed at us. We had been free to go, so we needed to take that right and get the fuck out of the building.

Eyes were heavy on us as I escorted us down the stairs.

“Can I talk?”

“Hush. You can talk once we get into the car,” I said.

We stepped out of the building as a car drove up to us. I checked to make sure it was the driver I had done my background sweep on, but I felt a twinge of doubt course through my system. Those fucking agents had gotten into my head. They were making me doubt myself and my work.

And I knew the type of work I could do if I wasn’t emotionally compromised.

Like I was now.

“Get in,” I said as I opened the door.

“Then we talk?” Derek asked.

I nodded my head, stepping in after him quickly before the car took off from the curb.

“So, what are you saying about the FBI being right about me?” I asked.

“Sam, don’t do that. Just hear me out,” he said. “I didn’t want to mention it in front of them, but when you rushed off after the second explosion, I wanted to run after you, but I didn’t. The security guards wouldn’t let me.”

“Good. That was their job,” I said.

“But when the ship tipped back the first time, I realized the explosion must’ve been coming from my cabin.”

“What?”

“You said you couldn’t make it past the kitchen, right? But the kitchen wasn’t what was on fire?”

“Correct.”

“And when you found the security guard,” he said, “there was no fire on that end either?”

“Not one bit.”

“My cabin room was just past the kitchen. If you had kept going down that small little hallway, you would’ve hit the door. It’s the only place that makes sense, given what you went through down there. And if they’ve come to that same conclusion, which they probably have, that means the bomb was probably in the luggage we brought on board. For our overnight stay.”

“And the only people who handled it were myself and the team,” I said.

?

??And the team’s alibis have all been accounted for.”

I leaned back into the seat of the car as I tossed my gaze out the window. How could I have been so stupid? Always take someone with you to do shit. That was one of the first rules taught when going through training for private security. I’d gotten comfortable with my blossoming relationship with Derek. I assumed his trust in me would cover me in certain scenarios, which disabled me from seeing scenarios like this one. I was more than emotionally compromised.

I was making stupid decisions because of it.

“You know you’re suggesting that someone on my team is corrupt, right?” I asked.

“I’m aware of that, yes,” Derek said.