Toward her father’s office.
Toward the man who’d so easily been willing to let her die.
Her footfalls slowed as she approached her father’s office door. It was shut, of course. He rarely left it open.
Evie considered knocking but decided against it. He didn’t deserve the courtesy a knock would provide. After all, he’d afforded her far, far less.
Lifting her chin, she pushed back her shoulders and filled her lungs with a long, cleansing breath. She turned the knob on a slow exhale before pushing the door wide open.
Not bothering to look up from the papers in his hands, her father stated gruffly, “I thought I said there were to be no interruptions.”
“You also said you didn’t have a daughter.” Evie shut the door behind her. “And yet, here I am.”
His head shot up, his widened gaze giving away the man’s obvious shock.
“E-Evelynn?”
She walked steadily toward the man who’d so grossly betrayed her. “Surprised to see me, Father?”
“You’re…”
“Still alive?” Her lips curled into a smirk. “Very much so, no thanks to you.”
According to the NDA she’d signed, discussing her kidnapping and subsequent rescue with anyone who wasn’t already privy to the “incident” was strictly prohibited and punishable by the law.
The U.S. government may not be aware of her father’s involvement—or rather, non-involvement—but he was very much aware of the danger she’d been in.
And the death sentence he’d personally delivered.
“I thought?—”
“I was dead. Yeah, I get that.” She casually plopped down in one of the two chairs facing her father’s desk. “But as you can see, I’m not.”
“I don’t…” He shook his silver head. “I mean, I’m…”
“Speechless?” She settled back into her chair. “That’s okay. I’ll start. Which part would you like to hear first? Where the Taliban extremists barged into my classroom and forcibly took me and four young girls hostage? Or would you prefer to startwith the cave we were imprisoned in for days with hardly any food or water?” The more she spoke, the louder her voice became. “Or maybe you’d like me to tell you about the time one of them beat me within a hair’s breadth of unconsciousness because he believed you when you told him you didn’t have a daughter!”
“Evelynn, please. I know what you must think, but?—”
“What I think?” Her humorless laugh echoed off the room’s stately wood-paneled walls. “What Ithinkis that you’re sitting there, going on about your day as if none of what I went through ever happened. As if you didn’t receive a call weeks ago with a demand for money in exchange for my life and the lives of those four precious little girls.”
She stood, placing her hands on his desk and locking her elbows as she leaned in closer. Rather than yell, Evie kept a tight leash on her overzealous vocal chords, dropping her tone to a deeper, deadlier level.
“And I think”—she continued—“your clients would be very interested in hearing about how the man to whom they’ve entrusted their entire life savings could be such a cold-hearted, uncaringbastardas to let your only child, along with four sweet, innocent little girls, die at the hands of those monsters.That’swhat I think.”
The bluff was just that.
A bluff.
If she blew the whistle on her father’s horrific act, he’d be eviscerated by the court of public opinion. His so-called friends would just as soon disavow him rather than be saddled with a scandal none of them could afford. Many of his clients would leave his firm to avoid being associated with such a public pariah.
As for his staff, that was tricky. Her father may be a ruthless son of a bitch, but he paid his staff well, and they knew it. Theyearned every penny, mind you. But they knew which side their bread was buttered.
And good luck finding a job when you worked for the guy who could’ve easily paid the ransom and been done but instead was willing to let his only daughter die.
But…thanks to the NDA, her threats were as empty as her father’s love for her.
“How dare you.” Her father stood as well. “You barge in here, unannounced, I might add, and you?—”