“Yeah. A few years back. Cassidy was furious with Frank over that.”
“Seems she had every right to be.” She turned back to the page.
A frown rippled her forehead as she kept reading. She gasped. “Bob and Frank have been laundering money for twelve years!”
“Yeah. Told you they went back a long way.”
“Oh, God.” She put the page down on the box. “Oh, God.” Her breathing changed, coming in fast and shallow. “Oh, God, Kayden, I can’t—” Her chin dimpled. “I can’t breathe.”
“Hey.” I reached across and gripped her arm. “Hey. Look at me.”
“I worked under him.” Her voice cracked. “I worked with him every single day for four fucking years, and all this time he was—” She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth.
“Hey, Fire. Come on.” The nickname I’d given her all those years ago still suited her so well. I squeezed her arm. “Look at me.”
She looked at me, eyes bright, jaw tight, fighting hard to keep it together.
“He fooled everyone. He’s probably been corrupt since the day he put on that badge.” I kept my voice steady. “This is not on you.”
“I should’ve seen it, Kayden.” A tear broke loose, and she flicked it away like it pissed her off. “I’m a cop. I’m supposed to see things that aren’t right.”
“You saw it today.” I held her gaze. “You’re a brilliant cop, Sapphire. No one can take that from you. You’re going to take that bastard down.”
She stared at me for a long moment.
Then she picked the page up again and kept reading. When she finished and lowered the page, she turned to me, and she was so gray I thought she was going to be sick.
“You okay?” I asked. Stupid question.
“You knew they were laundering money.” Her glare tore shreds off me. “Didn’t you?”
Shit. “Yes. I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you.”
“Couldn’t,” she snapped. “Or wouldn’t.”
“Couldn’t. Mitch, Declan, Cassidy, and I decided we couldn’t tell anyone ‘til we knew who we could …” I stopped.
She said nothing. Fists clenched. Eyes forward. “Trust. Is that it? You don’t trust me?”
“I do now. But we knew Bob was crooked, how could we know if?—”
“Fucking hell, Kayden. We’ve known each other since we were kids.”
“People change, Sapphire.”
“Yeah, well, I haven’t.” She thumped her clenched fist on her thigh.
“I’m sorry. Please believe me, I would’ve told you, but we made a pact that we wouldn’t tell anyone until we knew where the money came from and who it belonged to.”
“When were you going to tell me? Huh?”
“I needed to talk to my brothers and Cass first. I needed them to know you could be trusted.”
“Well, that’s just great.”
“How was I to know that Bob hadn’t gotten to you, too? You showed up without warning.”
“Bob told me to come here.” She yelled so hard the tendons in her neck bulged. “Bob told me to. That’s the whole bloody point.”