He wouldn’t have sacrificed his best friend for whatever goals he had.
Yet, thatisthe man in front of me.
After another few minutes of silence, he clears his throat. “I’m going to assume you weren’t just in the area and wanted to visit.”
I raise one brow and almost laugh. “No.”
“You’ve never been one to beat around the bush, go ahead and ask whatever it is that brought you here.”
There are so many things I want to ask from the part of me who cared about this man like a brother, hoping he’s not being abused in here to the other part that partially does hope someone is teaching him a lesson.
It might be wrong. It might make me a really terrible person, but a part of me just doesn’t care.
He tried to ruin my life and I’m not sure I feel all that bad about his going up in flames.
I think of Tessa, what she would say, how she encouraged me to be honest, but also be the man I am at my core.
“Are you doing all right?” I ask first, remembering that there was a time when Nathaniel was a brother to me and if I start off there, at least there’s room to go.
He laughs once. “Yeah, I’m doing great.”
“Good. I’m glad you’re enjoying your forced vacation.”
Nathaniel sighs slowly. “Is that what you drove out here to find out? If I’m enjoying prison?”
“Not really.”
“I didn’t think so. I’m fine, Killian. I fucked up, I’m in jail and I’ll probably spend a good portion of my life paying for it. But, I’m not getting my ass kicked or anything. I stay to myself. I know how to manage.”
He was also a linebacker in college and can hold his own.
“Okay then.”
His eyes move to the clock and then back to me. “Time is running out for you to get to it.”
Always to the point.
I guess small talk is over and I might as well jump in. “Why did you do it?”
Nathaniel’s thumb bounces against the metal table and I would bet his knee is going in time with it. He does that when his mind is working quickly.
I watch him, waiting for any sign that he’s lying.
“I wish I had some grand reason like a dying family member, but I don’t. I knew James from high school. He was friends with the Gibrelli family’s youngest son. I sold one of James’s properties and he connected us because of how fast I got it done. I didn’t know much about the Gibrellis other than, they were feared throughout the area. They were said to be involved in gambling and drugs. Business, though, was business. I took a few of their properties on, everything was on the up and up, like it always starts. I wasn’t involved in either, so it didn’t really matter what they were doing outside of me listing properties for them.”
“So you were selling properties for a crime ring? Knowingly?”
He exhales heavily. “Rumors aren’t facts, Killian. I heard things, but I never saw anything illegal. When one of theirunderground gambling rings was raided, that’s when things changed.”
“Changed how?” I ask through gritted teeth, already seeing where this is going.
“We had property.”
“And you let them use it.”
Nathaniel nods. “By this point, almost 50 percent of our sales were coming from their associates. They were using us to buy and sell like crazy. The money we were making…”
I remember. It was like one day were doing fine and the next we couldn’t keep a house on the market for more than a day. People were coming to us, signing, listing, selling. I always assumed it was just that Nathaniel and I had built a solid reputation.
