He turned and placed his phone down on the nightstand. “I know they were a major crime organization up until five years ago.”
“You’ve never been associated with any of them?”
“Where is this coming from?” The look he gave me was incredulous.
I shrugged and turned my bedside lamp off, darkening the room.
He turned on his lamp and gave me a suspicious look. “Wainwright’s already filling your head up with tales.”
I shook my head. “No, he didn’t.”
He grabbed my chin and forced me to look into his eyes. “Don’t ever lie to me.”
He dropped his hand, turned his back to me, and clicked off the light. It was the first night since we’d been together he didn’t touch me.
Juliana
“Why are you back?”
Nicholas was at Devlin’s door again, a little more than twenty-four hours from the first time.
“I left my contacts in the guest bathroom.”
I stepped back and let him in. “Hurry up and get them, then you have to go.”
Nicholas zipped past me and went up the stairs. I returned to the kitchen and turned the fire off under my breakfast. I had a rehearsal later in the afternoon, and I usually savored the moment of peace in the garden before heading out.
Devlin left in the morning with a cursory kiss and very few words passed between us. I had tread into a danger zone with my questioning the night before. His reaction could’ve been due to his knowing who they were, but my intuition told me he was hiding something. And if that something connected him to that family, it could be catastrophic for me.
As I sipped my coffee, I realized Nicholas was taking way too long. I made my way up to the guest room but found it and the adjoining bathroom empty.
I walked quickly down the hallway and found him exactly where I’d hoped I wouldn’t. He was in Devlin’s office, leaning down into the open screen of his laptop.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
He glanced up and held a hand out as a sign for me to keep my distance. “Listen, Jules, all you have to do is turn your back for a couple minutes. After everything we’ve all been through with the Morettis, are you really willing to risk everything on love?”
I shook my head vigorously. “You have to leave.”
“If you’re so sure of him, why not let me take a look into his files? If I’m wrong, Robert and I will back off. But if we don’t have solid proof the asshole’s not connected, we’ll do everything possible to protect you.”
He isn’t connected. But he could be.
I was of two minds. My suspicions rose, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle it if he had any connection to the Morettis, Damien, or his nameless son. My stomach did a flip-flop. I hadn’t allowed myself to think of him in so long, yet the disgust and concern for him was still present.
Nicholas pulled a flash drive from the laptop and walked past me. “I got everything I need.”
Nicholas’s skills to breach into highly secured accounts, computers, and a lot of other things frightened me, but what he might discover in that search scared the ever-loving shit out of me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Devlin
Juliana’s dad was in town. I’d learned from one of my men, and I knew I had to find a way to end the tension between us. If I didn’t make peace, they’d start digging into things I couldn’t afford being exhumed. Wainwright was already trying his hardest to get information from all angles.
I was on my way up to his room at a downtown hotel when I got a call from Brody. “That deal you had going with George Shaw for that land…”
“Yeah.”
“Callahan bought it from under you.”
“How is that even possible? No one knows about that deal.”
“I don’t know, boss, but the way he pulled this off, he had to have an inside tip.”
I ended the call and gripped the phone so hard, I was surprised it didn’t crack. “Fuck!”
The only other person in the elevator shifted away from me but didn’t look my way. The fucking elevator moved in slow motion. When I got to Callahan’s floor, I didn’t even need to knock on his door. He opened it as though he’d been waiting on me.
“Feeling a little overwhelmed, son?”
Robert Callahan stood behind his makeshift desk looking as though he’d pulled one over on me. And he had. I’d give him that, but nothing ended that easily with me. I flexed my hand, tempted to smash the smug expression off his face. He made his way toward me—the closer he got, the harder I clenched my teeth.
“How’d you know about Shaw?”
He shrugged. “I was looking to expand into Seattle so I could be near my daughter. Coincidence we were interested in the same property.”