He reached into his back pocket for his wallet and handed me a twenty.
“Thank you. This is for that case I took. You know, the one where I searched for your cousin?”
He tapped his chin. “Oh, yes! I absolutely remember hiring you to do that.”
“Was I right about Selena?”
He sighed. “Yes. Knowing Blake’s accomplice helped me find those missing pieces to the puzzle. Both of them were arrested earlier this morning.”
“Good,” I said.
He stood and started pacing. “But I feel like such a fool for not even considering her.Sheis smart enough to know about Liechtenstein.Shehad access to anything Blake could’ve ever wanted.”
“That was my thinking as well,” I said in a soft voice.
“And convincing her to string me along and then dump me had to be a bonus for Blake.”
“You know for sure she did that?”
His eyes met mine, one fire and one ice. “The dates don’t lie. He hired someone to do the initial attack, but not long after we started dating, Blake suddenly knew what I was going to do before I did it.”
“I’m sorry, Malone.”
“Could’ve been worse. We could’ve married.”
I winced.
“I guess I didn’t want to believe she’d do that to me. They didn’t interact at all at the gala.” He scratched the back of his head.
“I noticed that, too. When you have that much money on the line, you can rationalize avoiding each other until you’re safely out of the country.”
“I still can’t believe she would do something like that!”
I braced myself. Here was the point where he would turn on me, as people seemed so frequently to do.
Instead, he went back to the love seat and sat down beside me. “You’re a genius, Stark. It was right under our noses, but you are the one who figured it out.”
“Because you don’t want to believe the worst in people.”
He read between the lines I’d just spoken. “I’m not as good as you make me out to be, Stark.”
“That may be true, but I’m far more cynical than you think.”
His phone rang, and he cursed colorfully. “This had best be the last work call I ever have to take while we’re together.”
After mere seconds he turned to me. “Gotta go in.”
“You go.” I checked my watch. “I have to go to the bank before they close at noon.”
“Then we’ll meet back here to celebrate.”
I forced a smile. “Something like that.”
He walked over to kiss me on the cheek and then walked to the door. I trailed behind him. When his hand touched the knob, he stopped. “Oh! I almost forgot. Addie came by before you woke up. She brought something for us.”
“I’m scared to ask,” I said.
“Don’t be,” he said with a smile. “Hold out your hand.”
