“You never get tired of saying that, do you?” Shane took a threatening step forward. “That thing where you shift the blame and pretend you’re not at fault.”
“I’m being blackmailed,” Frank said.
That didn’t make any sense. Before he’d been exposed, sure. He’d been a potential target for anyone looking to benefit from people’s fake backgrounds. “Everyone knows your worst secret. What can—”
“No.” Shane shook his head. “We don’t, do we?”
The blows kept coming. Makena could barely find her breath. “What did you do?”
Frank waved his hands in front of him. The haze covering his gaze suggested a battle waged inside him. He tried to spit out a sentence a few times before getting it out. “I hid the secret.”
She knew that. Everyone knew that. The whole point was that his story only worked so long as people didn’t know the truth. “And?”
“You weren’t the first person to figure it out.”
The words sliced into her. They sounded so ominous, and he stopped giving eye contact. The guilt practically radiated off him.
She hated to ask, but she had to know. “Who did?”
“He’s dead. That doesn’t matter right now.” Frank visibly shook. “The attack at your house, the one on the bridge, those were me. Well, I caused them by passing on information.”
Shane no longer hid the gun. It was up, and the fury pulling at his mouth and carving deep lines into his forehead suggested he planned on using it, and soon. “I’m going to kill you.”
Frank held up both hands. “I’m...no...I’m...trying to help.”
The stuttering matched the rest of his affect. The jumpiness and darting gaze made her want to sit him down and tell him to write it all out. Once and for all, let him unburden himself and then see what happened next.
“Tell me everything you know and how you found out.” Shane stood there as if daring Frank to say no.
After a brief moment of screeching silence, he nodded. “I got a contact a few days after I joined the loop.”
So he had known about it for a long time and had been a participant. She’d never been moved to violence before the past few days. Now all she wanted to do was hit people until they told the truth.
“When?” Shane asked.
Frank’s gaze shot to her, then back to Shane. “Months ago.”
It took all her willpower not to lunge at him. So much pain and needless waste of life, and all because a bunch of men didn’t like that their lies had been uncovered. The whole situation made her feel sick and achy.
She knew Connor and Cam were following along, listening through the device attached to Shane’s shirt. They were taking it all down and would investigate. They’d ferret out the truth and make Frank and the others pay. But right now, in this second, it didn’t feel like enough vengeance.
Shane somehow kept it together and continued asking questions. “Who contacted you?”
“That’s it, I’m not sure.”
“Guess,” Shane shot back before Frank could finish his comment.
“I think we both know.”
“There are a lot of suspects.”
“But only one guy in charge.” Some of Frank’s panic subsided, as if talking lifted some of his guilt. “I’m sure it’s—”
His words cut off as his body collapsed in a heap. One minute he was standing, and the next his body turned boneless and fell down, knocking against the boat and slipping into the water.
“Get down.” Shane called out the order as he slammed her against the dock with his body covering hers. He reached over and grabbed for Frank’s arm, but his body was already sliding under the surface.
She lifted her arms off her head and tried to focus on the voices. The quiet of the night hadn’t broken, but she heard yelling. Familiar voices. She leaned in and heard the yelling in Shane’s ear. Then came the footsteps. Pounding down the dock. Shane spun around, putting his body in front of hers as he sat up and aimed.
Connor stopped in midrun. “It’s me. Don’t shoot.”
“Get down.” She tried to repeat Connor’s order, but her voice barely rose above a whisper.
He must have heard, because he dropped, crawling the last few feet to where they sat, stunned. “Either of you hit?” Connor looked from Makena to Shane.
“What happened?” She still didn’t know. She hadn’t heard the bang she’d come to expect in a shooting...and how sick was it that she had any expectations?
The gentle thud of the water against the boats turned into whoosh. Cam popped up, fully outfitted with scuba gear. Next her brother would pop out somewhere.