He gives me a look that very plainly saysduh, and I can’t help but wonder exactly how bad my father is. How many illegal activities is he a part of? How much timeshouldhe be doing in prison?
And who has he set up to take the fall for all of this?
I don’t know the answer to any of it, and he’s not in the mood to share. In fact, I’m not sure why he invited me over here at all.
“Do you know how the feds found out?” I ask.
“They’ve been after me a while, but I always covered my tracks. It sounds like they’ve been tracking a number of my clients, not the least of which was your boyfriend.”
So he’s saying it was at least partly Maverick’s fault his place was busted.
Great.
Add it to the list of reasons why Maverick and I were just never meant to be.
“I guess that’s what happens when you lure in celebrities,” I say, not bothering to mask my irritation. “So who else was there?”
He shakes his head. He’s not going to give me a single piece of information.
“Why’d you tell me to come here if you weren’t planning to give me anything to work with?” I finally ask.
He turns from the window and toward me. “I invited you here to ensure your silence, Everleigh.”
“You asked me to promise you over the phone, and I did. It was enough to break what might be the most important relationship of my life, but that wasn’t good enough for you?” I ask softly.
His eyes don’t soften as they should at my words. If anything, they harden. “Toughen up. You’re a Bradley, and Bradleys always come first.”
I stare at him for a beat, and then the question blurts out of my mouth before I can stop it. “Who’s going to take the fall for your crimes?”
His mouth twitches for just a second before he schools his features and turns back toward the windows. A phone starts to ring with a shrill, loud ring, and that must be the call he was waiting on. “I need you to excuse me. This is a private call.” He nods toward the door as he picks up the call, and he leaves me wondering why in the hell I possibly chose his side over Maverick’s.
I try Madden’s number as I pull away from the hotel to head back to the Complex. He may be at practice, or I may have caught him at just the right time.
“Ev?” he answers.
I burst into tears.
“Ev, what is it? Is it Mom?” he asks.
Every conversation with any of my siblings will start that way, I fear. From now until it happens.
I force myself to pull it together since I’m driving. “No, it’s not Mom. It’s Dad.” My voice trembles. “I just saw him, and we had this weird meeting where he was being all sketchy and talking about accounts in the Caymans. He’s up to something, Madden.”
“Of course he is. He’salwaysup to something, and it’s high time we all learned that.”
“He just told me to toughen up because I’m a Bradley, and Bradleys come first,” I say. “And then I asked him who’s going to take the fall for his crimes, and he didn’t answer.”
He sighs. “One of the seven of us, no doubt. How many times has he asked us to sign shit when we had no idea what it was? He’s hiding stuff, Ev. He’s working hard to keep hisassets away from anyone who might try to seize them, but it might be too late.”
“So what do we do?” I ask. Ibeg. There has to be something that can be done here. I just let go of possibly the best thing that ever happened to me because of our father. I need to dosomethingto justify that. To prove I made the right choice.
“Sit back and watch the fireworks, I guess. And trust me, therewillbe fireworks.”
I blow out a breath as I sink back into the driver’s seat and hope that when they detonate, the seven Bradley siblings are able to escape without getting burned.
Or the rest of them, anyway, since I’m already a little too close to the sparks.
CHAPTER 37: Maverick Jennings
