“And how did you get involved?”
“We had lunch a few days ago at Theo’s and he asked if I wanted to help. You know I don’t have enough to do.”
His wry delivery made me smile, but then the reality hit me. This fucking clunker of a house!
I took a deep breath, desperate to stave off a meltdown, but this week had blown donkey balls. The one thing that should have been my biggest problem—my secret husband—was being decidedly unproblematic. Couldn’t he have just been the biggest thorn in my side, so I could put the rest into perspective?
“Lauren, are you alright?”
I burst into tears. So, no.
“Kotyonok, my kitten, it’s okay.” He pulled me into his arms, and I went easy. There was something incredibly right about his hold and how comfortable I felt there. “We will fix all of this. The plumber will take care of it. I told Gunnar he should have warned you, but he said he would tell you later.”
“This week has truly sucked, Alexei.”
“Because of Brad?”
“Yes, but not because we broke up. That would have happened sooner or later. You know he’s been asking my clients to invest money. Well, I’m pretty sure he’s been scamming them, and probably others.”
“Tell me.”
I filled in the details, while he rubbed my back. Once I had finished my tale of woe, he took a beat, then said, “No one will blame you, Lauren.”
“No? I lost a client while I was on the plane back from Denver. He didn’t even invest, but word is out and he says I have a conflict of interest and that I should have known what Thad was doing. It’s my father all over again.”
When I was twelve, right after my father’s incarceration, I went to a holiday cookout with Gunnar and Sadie at Chase Manor, home of Harper, the Rebels owner. One of the players had invested everything with my father and it was all gone. His wife had kicked him out and he was at risk of losing access to his kids. He got in Sadie’s face, blaming her for our father’s crimes, for everything that had happened to him. And that was just one incident.
There were also nasty, anonymous notes telling my father to burn in hell with his dead wife. Sadie thought she had hidden them from me, but I found them in a drawer in his study. So I knew exactly how betrayed people felt when they were let down like this.
That feeling—that shame—was now lodged in the pit of my stomach.
“I wouldn’t blame them. I have a fiduciary responsibility to my clients, to look out for their financial and professional interests. And now Thad’s not even answering my calls.”
“Why would you want to talk to him?”
I sniffed. “I need to know how he’s going to make it right with anyone who invested in his schemes. I have no idea how bad it is, only the corner of my world that it’s touched. And now I can’t even take a fucking shower!”
“That is easily fixed. I have hooked up a hose in the backyard.”
I stared at him.
“Too soon?” He smiled, and a chip of ice around my heart broke away like an iceberg detaching from a glacier. Not usually good for the environment, but in this moment, good for me. “Go pack a change of clothes. You will come to my house, take a shower, eat, and remove yourself from this chaos.”
“And into the fire I go.”
“I will take care of my father. He will not bother you.”
I shook my head. “God, no, I don’t mean your dad. I meant you. The burning problem of the day.”
“That is old news. I will be a complete gentleman. You have nothing to worry about on that score.”
More’s the pity.
Chapter Forty
Alexei
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