Red Handed(66)
“The only way for what?”
“The only way to save your family’s lives.”
She put her hands on his chest, intending to push him away, but instead, her fingers curled into tight fists against the solid warmth. “I don’t believe this. You’re trying to tell me my father wanted to go to prison?” Her voice cracked, all the myriad of emotions whipping through her at once too overwhelming to process. “That he did it to protect us?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
She’d grieved for how she’d left things between them, but this . . . this stabbed at her heart like a knife. Her throat constricted. “The last time he and I spoke, we got into an argument. I had gone behind his back and found a new attorney, one who believed my father had a shot at having his plea deal reversed if he turned over evidence on some of his clients. I thought he’d be happy about it, but he wasn’t. He rebuffed any suggestion of working with the government. I was angry at him for protecting his clients—strangers—over me, and I told him I’d never forgive him.” She’d thought she’d expended every possible tear over her father’s death, but she’d been wrong. “Those were my last words to him.”
Cole let her tears fall, kneading her back and shoulders. “He knew you loved him. Don’t ever doubt that.”
She couldn’t change the past, but she also wouldn’t choose to accept it. Her father deserved justice. She’d always known that. Now Tasha deserved it as well. And the only way to get it was by learning the truth.
She rubbed her eyes and pulled back to look into Cole’s eyes. “Why would he trust you with the information? Why not go to the FBI on his own?”
“Because he was being watched,” he said. “I was your father’s business partner. Silent, yes, but his partner nonetheless. I had access to all the same files as your father.”
“So my father gave you information that supported the inane theory he’d embezzled from his clients and defrauded them with a Ponzi scheme in order to cover it up? That’s ridiculous. Why would he implicate himself in the crimes without using the information he had on this organization as a bargaining chip?”
Cole squeezed her hand. “Your father got involved with a bad group of businessmen. When the stock market crashed in 2007, he lost most of his clients. I had introduced him to several members of Benediction, including Anthony Rinaldi. At the time, I hadn’t known anything about Rinaldi other than he was a wealthy businessman. They brokered a deal, which resulted not only in your father becoming the Rinaldi crime family’s investor, but their money launderer as well.”
She closed her eyes as if she could shield herself from the agonizing truth. In all these years, she’d never once believed her father could have been guilty of the crimes. “He wouldn’t have done that.”
“He did. I wish to God he didn’t. There’s not a day that’s gone by I haven’t regretted playing hardball when my loan came due and for causing your father to use the mafia’s money to pay it off.”
None of them were innocent. They’d all made mistakes. Could she forgive Cole for his?
“He eventually dug himself into a hole from which he couldn’t escape,” Cole continued. “To try and recoup the money he embezzled from the mafia, he built a Ponzi scheme, using new clients’ money to make false returns on Rinaldi’s investments. One day, the numbers didn’t add up, and Rinaldi figured out what your father had done. At that time, your father still owed the mob millions of dollars, so Rinaldi blackmailed him into taking on a Russian crime syndicate as a client. The Russians’ money was used to pay off Rinaldi, and eventually, your father earned enough to pay back the Russians. But at some point, he couldn’t stomach working for them anymore. He wanted to get out without endangering his family, so he hid the Russians’ money and placed it in an offshore trust under your name on the condition you couldn’t touch it until you got married or turned twenty-five. At the same time, I handed over the evidence of embezzlement of all clients but Rinaldi and the Russians to the FBI. The Russians couldn’t touch you if they wanted their money.”
Her father may have committed the crimes, but he’d loved his family and done his best to protect them. It was up to her to do the same. “Now that you know the truth of why I’m here, how do we get Tasha back? The kidnapper—Rinaldi—said he’d kill Tasha if I told anyone or contacted the police. If he discovers—”
A knock interrupted her.