I made a face. “Forensicaccounting. Loophole.”
He laughed. “Yeah, maybe.”
Silence settled.
“So what happened?” I asked.
“They approached me in my last year of grad school with an offer. They needed a new cleaner, and since we owed them?—”
“Owed?” I couldn’t help my interruption. “You didn’t owe them anything. That’s bullshit.”
A soft smile quirked his right cheek at my outburst. He stroked my hair from crown to ends.
“We murdered one of their own,” he said. “So in their eyes, we did. They said I could either take the job, or they’d take Stone’s life. It was my fault. All of it. So I took the deal.”
A spiky heartburn shredded my chest and I sat up, unable to hold still.
My gaze landed on the window, where the curtains glowed as day replaced dawn.
It was suchbullshit. It wasn’t fucking fair.
And I had no idea how to fix it.
It was too similar to being sick.
Calder’s touch landed on my back, tracing the notches of my spine.
“So I decided I would be the opposite of my father if I couldn’t escape,” he said. “That’s what you saw earlier today.”
I looked over my shoulder, catching his stare.
“Rather than making women disappear, I made their abusers,” he continued. “It started by accident. I was in Toronto, cleaning money, when I noticed a low-level was financially abusing his wife. From there, word got out.”
“How do you make them disappear?” I asked.
“Blackmail. Threats. Occasional violence.”
“So…the same tactics as your father,” I said. “But for good.”
His brow crinkled, as if he hadn’t thought of it. “Yeah, I guess so.”
I fingered the fabric at my side, spinning it around my finger and making little whirlpools in the soft cotton.
“Did I scare you?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, I mean, that’s not what scares me. It should. But…what if you’re like Graham?” I whispered. “He was good in the beginning too.”
Calder barked a laugh. “I chased you through a graveyard on our first date, stalked you, got you involved with the fucking Mafia.Iwasn’t good in the beginning.”
My brow furrowed. “You know what I mean.”
“You have my biggest secret, Shay. If I even step a toe out of line, you could put me away for a long, long time. You have all the power. You always have. You always will.”
“Blackmail? That’s not very romantic.”
He quirked a brow. “Neither is stalking to most people.”
I stifled a smile, looking back down at the blanket.
