Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Tom turned back to his daughter. “And you commanded him to send an envelope of incriminating evidence to a friend of mine?”
“Well—” she began.
“Why the hell would you do that?” Tom asked irately.
Chloe was losing patience.
She proved this by returning, “So you’d ride to the rescue, Dad.”
“Shit,” Jamie said under his breath, but he sounded amused.
I wasn’t.
I was now not freaking out.
I was just freaking confused.
Chloe threw up both hands. “And you rode to the rescue, didn’t you?”
Tom was shaking his head, his mouth attempting to form words, but apparently, he could get none out.
“Here it is, I don’t like Paloma,” Chloe announced.
I made an actual peep and slid to the edge of my seat because this was now family business, for certain, and I needed to make my escape.
Chloe turned back to me. “Please don’t leave. Obviously, I like you.”
“I think—” I tried.
“Really, please stay,” Chloe urged.
I looked to Tom.
He was staring at his daughter and had rediscovered his voice.
“You sent sad and tragic information to a friend of mine to try to fix her up with me?” Tom asked incredulously, probably hoping she’d say it was all a joke and surprise! You’re on candid camera.
“I was unaware what the information was,” Chloe said. “Rhys simply told me he’d ‘handle things.’”
“And she wasn’t aware that Granddad was a part of it,” Judge added. “Now, it’s more. Now it isn’t about Chloe playing at making a match. Now, it’s clear Vaughan has a message to send. This isn’t about Chloe asking him to do her bidding. This is about Vaughan seeing to a different directive. One, if I had to guess, that was given to him by Corey Szabo.”
“Fucking fuck!” Tom exploded, making me jump by the violence behind it, and he stood.
He then cleared the seating area where we were all sitting around the low, glass coffee table that was covered in precise stacks of hardback books, from fiction to biographies to coffee table tomes, and he started pacing in front of the desk at the end of the room.
I stood too.
“Tom, maybe I should—” I tried again.
That was as far as I got.
Chloe stood as well. “Mika, truly, you—”
Tom stopped pacing and announced, “Chloe, Paloma is out.”
I went stock still.
Though my heart took a giant leap.
“I ended things with her,” Tom continued. “I didn’t tell you because my love life really isn’t your concern.”
“Mon père—” she started.
Tom cut her off.
“Don’t be cute. Don’t be clever. Don’t be glib.” He raked his hand through his hair, and said gently but exasperatedly, “You fucked up this time, honey.”
His daughter stubbornly crossed her arms on her chest.
“You set this in motion,” Tom reminded her. “Now, we have that information, and we have to do something about it. And that something implicates your future husband’s grandfather.”
“I think I might be missing something,” I noted.
Tom looked to me. “I was going to speak to you about it before we went to the club. On Thursday, I got another envelope. I’d already asked for Jamie’s help. When I saw this new information, I had to go to him again. We also had to share fully with Judge and Hale. Jamie got his investigator on it, and she discovered a few things. The information in the second envelope I received was that AJ Oakley, Jamie’s father, Judge’s grandfather, sat on the board of Core Point Athletics during the years they were sponsoring Andrew Winston.”
“Oh shit,” I muttered.
“Yes,” Tom agreed. “Worse, from some of the shorthand on the notes in the envelope you received, we think it was at AJ’s instigation, and through his direct machinations, Core Point moved to quiet those women by paying them off.”
“Well, hell,” I whispered.
“Yes,” Tom repeated. “And AJ did something to hurt somebody Chloe loves.” He jerked his head to Chloe then threw his hand out to indicate the room, primarily Judge as well as Jamie. “Several somebodies in this case.” Tom drew in a big breath. “And Corey Szabo did not stand idly by and allow people he loved to be hurt.”
I sucked my lips in between my teeth.
I did this mostly because I was impressed Corey Szabo felt so deeply, and he made that clear even after he was gone, and further did it in such a badass manner, leaving some talented operative at the beck and call of his loved ones.
I partly did this because I wanted badly to burst out laughing, but I didn’t think that would go over very well at that juncture.
Sadly, Tom read it for what it was.
“You think this is funny?” he asked.
I let my lips go and said, “I’m sorry, Tom. I don’t think it’s funny…as such.”
I totally did.
I knew AJ Oakley.
He’d hit on me, twice.
He was old enough to be my father.
He was putrescent.
He was everything wrong with masculinity, rolled up in a stubby, beer-bellied body and shoved under a cowboy hat.