“So that’s why he assigned you to me.”
“In part.”
“Oh.” Her shoulders fell slightly.
Picking up on her unspoken “Don’t worry. He and the others know you’re in the clear as far as the explosion and all that goes.”
She let out a breath. “That’s good, but how?”
“Shit.” Sitting up, Matt adjusted his pillow behind him and leaned his back against the headboard. Running a hand over his handsome face, he shook his head. “I was so focused on…you…I forgot to tell you.”
Scooting up to join him, Kat listened as Matt filled her in on what they’d found out about Todd. Fresh tears formed from both the realization that he’d been in on the scheme to steal the formula and from finding out about his wife’s illness.
“I had no idea.”
“He never said anything?”
She shook her head. “Todd was a very private person. He never really talked about anything in regards to his personal life. None of us did, really.”
With his arm holding her snuggly against him, Matt kissed the top of her head before resting his cheek there. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
“Thanks.” She waited a beat before talking again. “I take it Derek hasn’t found the person who paid him off?”
“Not yet. He did call me while I was on my way back here to say they’d recovered some of the text messages from Todd’s damaged work phone. There were a handful back and forth between him and whoever it was. Unfortunately, they were from a number D traced back to a burner. Records show it bouncing off several different towers in and around Dallas. Whoever it was used a program to ghost it, which means Derek couldn’t pinpoint a specific location from where the texts originated.”
“This is all so crazy.”
Matt’s chest rose and fell with a deep breath. “There’s more.”
Great.
“I, uh…I went to see your father yesterday.”
This bit of news had Kat sitting straight up. “You went to Long Beach?”
“I needed to confront him.”
Kat blinked quickly, both loving and hating the fact that Matt had called her father out.
“So…what happened?”
“We talked.”
“About?”
He gave her a look. “What do you think?”
Okay, so yeah. That was a stupid question. “I meant, what did you say? What did he say?”
“In short, I let him know what he did to us was a total dick move. That I would have done anything to give you a good and happy life.”
Kat’s heart swelled, even as she bit her bottom lip nervously. “And, Dad? What did he say to that?”
“Surprisingly, your father admitted blackmailing you to keep you away from me was a mistake. One he’d never make again. Said he was only trying to give you the best the world had to offer. At the time, he believed that meant financial security.”
“Meaning, I needed to marry rich.”
“Pretty much.”
