Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 75699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
He’s right. It’s probably not. Unless it was Diego Vega, but I’m still pretty sure Austin doesn’t know anything about that.
“I couldn’t let my daughter get into that.”
“So you arranged to have her out of the house—with me—and your wife and you were also out of the house.”
“That’s correct. Alibis all around.”
“Then why didn’t you go into Raven’s room as soon as you got home? It would’ve made your alibis cleaner.”
“For the same reason you would’ve done the same thing. My wife had to be the one to find him. It couldn’t be me.”
“And you knew she would check on Raven in the morning.”
“Exactly.”
I’m not sure whether to have respect for the man or contempt. Why would he put his wife through finding a dead body in his daughter’s bed when he could have done all of this miles away from here?
That’s pretty cold.
But Austin Bellamy had his reasons, I’m sure. It was in his best interest to have it done at his house. In a way, it made him look even more innocent.
“All right. You should know, though, that my grandfather’s on to you.”
He scoffs. “I’m not afraid of Mario Bianchi.”
“You should be,” I tell him. “I believe you’re a good man. I believe you do bad things sometimes to protect those you love. I get that. But Mario Bianchi? He’s not a good man. Whatever good he had inside him was erased long ago. He knows what happened, and if he wanted to, he could expose you.”
He crosses his arms. “Then you and I need to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“You’re right. We do.” I lean in, lowering my voice. “I plan to take him down, but my plan was always to do that in my own time. I want to protect my mother, my sister, myself. And now Raven. I didn’t know I was going to have to protect you and your wife too.”
He shakes his head. “I can protect my wife just fine. I’ve done it for the last thirty years.”
“I don’t think my grandfather’s any threat to you.” I look into his eyes. “But just be aware that he knows. If the day comes when he needs to use it as leverage or needs a favor from you, he won’t hesitate.”
“I can’t imagine why your grandfather would ever need anything from me.”
“You’d be surprised.”
“That may or may not be, but for now, Vinnie, we had a deal.” He grits his teeth. “Tell me who shot that cop, because I know it wasn’t my son.”
I don’t know Austin Bellamy well yet, but I do know that he will protect his children.
As long as it serves his own interests.
I believe he could have kept Falcon out of prison, which is why I’m not going to level with him now.
I open my mouth to say as much when my phone buzzes.
It’s Raven.
“I’m so sorry, I have to take this.”
I stand and walk out of earshot from Austin.
“Raven?” I say into the phone.
“Vinnie, I know you don’t want to hear from me, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to.”
“Is my mother okay?”
“Yes, she’s fine. Savannah’s in with her. And your grandfather is still here. But your mother has some other visitors.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Declan McAllister, and his daughter.”
Shit. “Raven, you know—”
“That’s not what this is about, Vinnie. I know you’re not going to marry her. Or maybe you will someday. Who knows? My concern isn’t about that. It’s for the little girl. I think her father is… He’s hurting her, Vinnie.”
Fuck. Belinda must be getting desperate if she told Raven—a stranger—what’s going on. “What makes you think that?”
“I offered to take her to get a drink while her father talked to your grandfather and went to see your mother.”
“I don’t want that degenerate anywhere near my mother.”
“Yeah, I can understand that. Anyway, she was so timid, and frankly I was surprised he let her go with Jared and me. But he did, and she didn’t want to go back to him. She wanted to hang out with me for a little while. She didn’t talk much at first, just told me how much she likes playing the piano.”
I sigh. “I know about this, Raven. I’m trying to figure out how to deal with it.”
“You know?”
“Yes. I had lunch with McAllister and his daughter a couple days ago. She slipped me a note asking for help. And then I talked to the nanny later and she told me about her father hurting her.”
“What are you doing about it?”
“I haven’t been able to do anything about it. I’m supposed to be in Colombia right now. And once my mother’s out of danger, I know my grandfather’s going to want me back on that plane.”
“You can’t get on the plane, Vinnie.”
“Raven, I’m not going to have a choice.”
“This is the woman you’re supposed to marry.” Her voice is pleading. “You can’t just let her stay in harm’s way.”