“This is what I was afraid of,” my mother whispers.
An indignant scoff bursts out of me. “You were afraid I’d be in a car accident?”
Her eyes grow flinty, her jaw tight. “I was afraid that you’d burn alongside them.”
Using a metaphor that draws from what really happened to their mother has me seeing red. I briefly check on Jax and Ryker, who both dip their chins to assure me they’re okay, so I set my mother straight. “Don’t you dare say one word about this family or these men or their mother, who loved them well. Have you no decency? Maddox is fighting for his life because he was protecting me from something I did—”
“Tessa,” Ryker chides. “Enough.”
He doesn’t want me to share that I’m the killer. That his brother is in surgery because he covered for me. And yet still, even with that knowledge, he stands protectively by my side. As does Jax.
“I think a lot about your idea of family is going to change, baby.”Maddox said that so casually on July Fourth, but it’s true.
I’ve never had anyone stand beside me like this, when they have every right to abandon me. Most people walk away, even when I fight for them.
Violet’s eyebrows pinch. “Something you did?”
She sounds genuinely perplexed, and maybe she doesn’t understand why Maddox would be defending me tonight regarding what happened two and a half years ago, but I’m not buying her complete innocence.
“I’m not disoriented enough to forget what I learned before …” I trail off, summoning the ire I need to stay focused. “You all knew about the money.”
“Mom and Dad didn’t,” Eden jumps in. “What doyouknow about the money?”
Maybe I am experiencing disorientation because I can’t follow this conversation, but I do my best to keep up. “I know Hunter, Derek, and your husband have been laundering money in the Bahamas for Shane Graham.”
“Okay.” Eden flings her arms out and shakes her head. “If you knew that, why didn’t you take care of it yourself?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I growl, and Ryker clamps his hand on my bicep, urging me to stay calm, so I steady my tone. “Take care of what?”
“I don’t know who Shane is.” She waves me off, as if I’m the one talking in circles. “He must be the guy you wronged.”
“From when you were a teenager?” my father breaks in, more puzzled than anyone.
“That’s the one,” I confirm.
Eden flits her attention between the two of us, her brows crouched low until she resumes her explanation. “This issue was far more recent. Hunter told us you’d gotten into some trouble and had a debt you didn’t repay. In order to keep you safe, he had to do some guy a favor. He took Derek and John with him on his Bahamas trips, just so he wasn’t alone, but they never touched the money. Still, they put themselves on the line—foryou. Hunter was almost done. That’s why he waited to fight for you, for this to be over. He figured that’s why you came back to work here. He didn’t want you to ask the Noires for help and be more indebted, so he handled it for you.”
There are too many loose ends not adding up. Hunter knew I’d killed Niko? Did he know what had happened to Violet?
My head is throbbing. I rub my temples, trying to ease the pain. “What did Hunter say I did?”
Eden shrugs, though her confidence in their perspective wanes. “John and Derek thought it was best not to ask too many questions.”
Jax wraps his arm around my shoulders, but it’s Ryker who dismisses them.
“That’s enough. We’ll sort it out when Tessa is feeling better. My brother or I will be down to your suite to get more information.”
“I didn’t know it was connected,” Violet mumbles.
It’s that hushed admission that answers none of my questions, but makes everything clear.
“Connected to what?” my father asks.
I don’t answer him. I pin my gaze to Violet’s, my rage trickling out like the fog from dry ice—touch the source and get burned. “But when I asked if you knew anything about money last night, you knew there was something regarding money connected to me. And you acted like you didn’t know anything.”
My mother’s hand is pressed against her heart, disillusionment creasing her forehead. “What’s she talking about, Violet? How are you involved in this?”
Violet blanches, glancing between my mother and me, before she finally expels an excuse. “I couldn’t understand how the two things intersected. It didn’t make sense. I got nervous, wondering if Derek, John, and Hunter all knew.”
