And yeah, I was nervous.

Blair and Jackie had tried to come with me, but I’d been serious when I insisted that from here on out, this was my battle. I wasn’t going to let them risk more than they already had.

I waited in front of Sean Dell’s secretary’s desk; her eyes had widened when I gave her my name and said that I didn’t have an appointment, but wanted to talk to him. I’d come armed with everything we had—every tawdry bit of information we’d amassed on my father’s past sins, the tenuous ties we could use to create questions about his involvement in Afghanistan and everything else. It wasn’t proof, but I’d seen what Sean could do with just the hint of scandal, and I had every bit of faith that he could bring the house down with just these scraps.

His secretary returned, a smile on her face. “He’ll see you now.”

I walked into his office, ready to connect the face with the man, the myth, the legend. When I’d given information to Capital Confessions in the past, I’d kept all of my interaction with him remote so we’d never actually met in person. My first impression was that he—and his office—were messy. It sort of looked like a bomb had gone off in the middle, and while I was by no means neat, I had no idea how he could work like that.

He stood as I walked into the room, a wide smile and a predatory gleam in his eyes.

“Kate Reynolds.”

I nodded. “Sean Dell.”

“It feels like we’ve had this appointment for a long time considering how many times we’ve dealt with each other over email. Not to mention my relationship with your sisters.”

“Sister. We both know this isn’t Blair’s style.”

He chuckled. “True. She’s the classy Reynolds, isn’t she?”

“She is.”

“And Jackie, though not an official Reynolds, is the ballsy one. So which one are you?”

“I’m the one who’s going to give you the story of your life and make your career.”

If he’d rubbed his hands together with glee, he wouldn’t have looked more eager than he did now. I’d second-guessed a lot of my decisions lately, questioned whether I really was doing the smart thing. But this? This felt like serendipity, like this man and I had been brought together for the revenge and justice I’d yearned to mete out for years.

“Your father?”

I nodded.

“This is about that mysterious family feud, isn’t it? You’ve been estranged from your parents for what, three years now?”

“Nearly four.”

He gestured to the empty seat in front of his desk. “Sit.”

I sat.

“Is everything off the record?” he asked.

“It’s whatever you want it to be. But I have a few conditions first.”

“Okay.”

“You keep my sisters out of it. Period. That’s nonnegotiable. You make it seem like I’m completely on my own. None of this touches them. And you keep them out of Capital Confessions.”

“Your sisters are popular hits for the blog. That’s going to be a sticking point for me.”

“You can have the first pictures and exclusive of Jackie’s wedding. She and Will are in agreement with that. After that, though, you back off of them. You’ve had enough of a focus on our family. Besides, with what I’m giving you, you’ll have enough to fill your coffers for a very long time. Right now you’re a big blog with a strong regional following, but no one outside of D.C., Virginia, and Maryland really gives a shit about the social stories you focus on because they don’t care about any of the players. We’re small fish to the rest of the country and world. Wouldn’t you rather focus on the power players? The information I’m about to give you will make Capital Confessions the go-to site on a much larger scale. You won’t need to blog about broken engagements and sex tapes with state senators.”

Will was awesome, but it wasn’t like he was a major political player. Not yet, anyway.

“What else do you want?”

“There’s another person whose identity you have to promise to protect in this. I’m not going to tell you who until you promise, but that is another nonnegotiable for me. The biggest one.”

“You just expect me to blindly agree to something without knowing what it is? Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Then I walk out and give someone else my story. I chose you because Jackie worked for you, because I’ve given you information in the past, because even though you screwed me with Blair, you aren’t afraid to take on Goliath, and quite frankly, that’s more important right now than the fact that you’re kind of a dick. But I can’t do this if I don’t trust you, and if you don’t make these guarantees, this won’t go any further.”

“You sure you’re not overstating how big this is?”

I met his gaze. “I don’t fuck around. I’ve read your posts lately. You’ve been following what’s happened in D.C. and Virginia—my mugging, James Ryan’s murder, the explosion in my apartment building, the shooting two days ago at the Lincoln Memorial. You’re a smart guy; you wouldn’t have gotten where you are if you weren’t. You know there’s something bigger at play here besides a stupid crime wave.”

He hesitated, and I could see him mentally weighing it out, his greed and curiosity warring with each other until he gave me a nod and my heartbeat slowed.

“Fine.”

Thank god.

I’d totally been bluffing. We didn’t have another option; there weren’t any other media sources that I knew well enough to trust. And I hadn’t been lying before—I didn’t necessarily trust him; he wasn’t really an honorable guy. But he was a guy whose behavior and motivations were predictable. If he was anything, he was consistent. The story mattered to him more than anything, and this was a hell of a story.

“Can I record you?” he asked, opening his desk drawer.

“Yes.”

He pulled out a recorder and hit a series of buttons.

“Is your father behind it?”

I took a deep breath and got ready to bring the house down. “Yes.”

“Do you have proof?”

“Sort of.”

His expression was skeptical. “What kind of sort of proof do you have?”

So I started at the beginning and told him all of it—every single piece of information, everything that had happened to Matt and me—making him turn off the recorder when I spoke of Matt still being alive. I held nothing back. His eyes got wider and wider with each detail I gave him, as I tied my father to every single one of his crimes.

It was a crazy story, the kind of story that if anyone else had sat in his office and made the same claims, he likely would have dismissed them as a crackpot. But he knew me and he knew Jackie, and this was one instance when my last name definitely worked in my favor.

“In addition to all of that, I have stuff that’s been collected over the years on some of the less scrupulous sides of his dealings. It’s not as juicy as what I just gave you, and none of it is criminal, but none of it looks very good, either.”

Sean leaned back in his chair, a gleam in his eyes. “That father of yours is a real sonofabitch, isn’t he?”

“That he is.”

“He know you have all of this? That you’re going to ruin him?”

“Maybe. Probably. He’s been one step ahead of us the whole time, so if you’re going to move, you’re going to need to move fast.” I gestured toward the papers and recording. “And find somewhere safe to put that stuff. He isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, and if you don’t leak it quickly, he’ll come after you, too.”

Sean laughed. “Do you know how many death threats I get on a daily basis? How many times I’ve pissed off a heavy hitter? I have this.”

“I know you do. That’s why I came to you. I’m just warning you not to underestimate him. I have several times and I’ve almost died in the process.”

“Copy.”

I hesitated. “Don’t screw me on this, either. I’m not my father’s daughter, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t take a hell of a lot of notes growing up in that house. I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.”