Chapter 10

Spencer

As we walk away from the shack, Kurt slaps me on the back. “It’s for the best, Spence. It never would have worked.”

I frown at him as we walk back down towards the car. “Doesn’t make me feel any less like shit.”

Kurt just shrugs. “Better you end it now before you fuck her life up any more than you have already.”

I glare at him. “It wasn’t intentional.”

He chuckles. “It never is with you, bro. Remember that chick you were banging in Puebla just to get inside her house? She thought you’d mated for life too.”

I’m not in the mood for him to remind me of all the times I’ve hooked a woman without wanting to.

“This is different. Audrey and her dad weren’t the job. The fat prick who stole money from a kid’s charity to buy an island was the job.”

He changes his tone, probably because he knows I’m pissed. “Speaking of, you got the bank statements from his house?”

I look sidelong at him. “Emailed them to Mike. He didn’t tell you that?”

He snorts. “He may have. I was a little distracted what with the nationwide manhunt for my big brother.”

I shake off my regret and something suspiciously close to guilt by telling myself Audrey is better off out of this.

But as I get closer to the parking lot it’s getting harder to convince myself I did do the right thing.

By the time we reach the car Kurt brought here a dozen unwanted thoughts are vying for attention.

I yank open the door and climb inside ready with a question before Kurt slides in behind the wheel.

“Did her father do it?”

Kurt shrugs. “Does that matter?”

I scowl at him. “Of course it fucking matters.”

But it shouldn’t matter. And Kurt knows I don’t usually bother to ask for details.

He eyes me, and every word out of his mouth does little to reassure me.

“According to the report, the evidence was circumstantial at best. No charges were laid. But he was running for public office. Already had friends in high places, and a scandal would have wrecked his chances of advancing his career. You know how things work; you join the dots.”

Every muscle in my body tightens because I do know how things work. If they didn’t work this way, we’d be out of business.

“Was she really having an affair?”

Kurt shrugs. “They never proved it one way or another. He worked for them. Accountant, I think. He had the opportunity and was in the house on more than one occasion. The evidence was pretty compelling. A few women came forward saying he was a perv after he was named as a suspect. And his prints on a gun found at the scene that formed the basis of his conviction.”

“It was his gun?”

“He said he’d never seen it before. But like I said. His prints were found on it.”

I squint into the fading light as Kurt carries on. “You should see the news footage from the trial. The guy deserves an Oscar. His performance as a doting father seeking justice for his wife got him the sympathy vote, his approval points jumped, and he was made Deputy Chief six months later.”

I stare out the windshield, trying to think. “Audrey thinks her mom was having an affair. She was probably trying to protect both their reputations by lying,” I mutter.

Kurt seems to think we’re done and turns the ignition on. “Anyway, it makes no difference now. We’ve got enough to work with. You work your magic, get it on tape, get your ass outta Dodge and we can walk away from this with a nice chunk of change. Easy money.”

“Nothing about this has been easy,” I mumble.

He grunts. “This crawled right into our fucking hands, even with the Feds sniffing around, we’d be stupid not to take it.”

I don’t say anything as he drives away from the beat-up car I stole to get Audrey and me away from the city.

When I had no idea her father was a walking bank just waiting to be robbed.

As we reach the freeway, Kurt seems to feel the need to try to reassure me.

“Might not feel like it now, but you dodged a bullet like you did in Puebla, bro. And even if her dad knows she talked to you, he’s not about to do anything to the daughter who saved his ass, is he? No one gets hurt and we get rich.”

I slide my hand to the handhold and grip it so hard my fingers blanch. “Unless he’s violent,” I say.

Kurt blows out a breath. “We’ve got bigger problems than that. I need to look into those agents who busted down her door. And I need your head back in the game and not on a woman who’d never give you the time of day in the real world.”

Something snaps in my chest.

Familiar. Painful. And true.

Because he’s right.

Just like he was right in Puebla when he convinced me to take the job blackmailing Conchita’s husband.

I told her as many lies as it took to convince her not to call her husband when she caught me in his office.

For whatever reason, I broke my own rule.

I told Audrey the truth.

***

Audrey

It’s almost dark by the time I manage to stumble outside of the shack Spencer brought me to.

At the sound of crashing and cursing and a flashlight flickering through the trees, I tense until I hear Beth’s voice.

“And they say I’m the one in the family having a nervous breakdown,” she mutters.

Since no one answers her, I risk peering through the bushes and am enormously relieved to find her on her own.

I step out of the bush and she shines the light in my face. “Auds, thank God,” she says.

Before I can stop her, she’s hugging me tight and the tears I’ve been trying to avoid, start to leak down my face.

“Come on. We need to get back before I’m missed.”

I sniff and use my sleeve to wipe my nose as she leads me back down the track.

She may as well be dragging me toward my execution for how enthused I am at leaving.

The closer we get to the parking lot, the less sure I am I want to go with her.

We don’t talk as we painstakingly make our way back down the track. But when we reach my rental car I stop at stare at her.

“You got it back?”

She nods and unlocks the doors so we can both climb in. “It was Spencer’s idea. Retrieve it and detour here to pick you up.”

At the mention of his name, my eyes start to fill again as fresh waves of humiliation wash through me.

Beth sighs as she starts the car. “You don’t do things by half, do you?”

I know she’s trying to make a joke but I can’t seem to find a smile. “I need a drink.”

She frowns. “I’m not sure we can do that. To be honest I’m not sure if I should be taking you straight to your dad or to a lawyer.”

Panic converges on me as I grasp what she’s saying. “Dad’s here? In Miami?”

She grimaces. “He arrived just after I left. If Spencer hadn’t called when he did, I don’t think I could have come to get you. The only reason I could is because Gary agreed to cover for me just in case.”

I rub at my eyes in an attempt to trick them into not shedding any more tears. “You called Gary for me?”

She glances at me and gives me a wry smile. “Not just for you. Because he’s the only cop I can trust. And because I saw those agents. I know you don’t think so, but Spencer was right to leave you.”

I’m not so sure I agree with her. “I should have known better. He’s just the latest in a long line of men using me to get close to my father.”

She frowns as she looks straight ahead. “Get close to? Why would a criminal want to get close to him? I thought he’d just panicked when he figured out who you are.”

I shake my head. “It’s complicated.”

Her face twists into a scowl. “I don’t want to play devil’s advocate here, but he did call me and tell me to come to get you. And he seemed genuinely concerned for your safety back at the resort. Those aren’t the actions of someone who just hit it and quit it.”

I snort. “Are you saying I’m being too harsh? He used me, Beth. Plain and simple.”

Her brow furrows. “Used you for what? Sex? He didn’t exactly explain and neither have you.”

I shake my head. “I can’t explain.”

She’s silent for a moment as we ascend a hill and the city lights appear in the distance.

“All I know is your family is in the middle of a media shit storm again because I nagged you to come here with me.”

I wince and shrink back against the car seat. “It’s not your fault. It’s probably not even Spencer’s,” I grudgingly admit. “Everything I did, I did because I wanted to.”

Beth blows out a breath. “There must be a part of you that is sick to death of being under your father’s thumb? First chance you got; you were like a kid in a candy store. Only it wasn’t candy you grabbed with both hands; it was a man you knew your father would hate.”

I’m not sure I agree with the comparison but I’m too shattered to disagree. “I didn’t know he was a criminal until after the FBI agents told me this morning,” I mumble.

Her disbelief is audible. “FBI agents don’t break down doors and then just vanish. They sure as shit don’t do that to the daughter of the Interim Chief unless they have good reason to.”

When I don’t say anything, she slams her palm down on the steering wheel. “Damn it, Audrey. The least you can do is tell me the truth.”

I flinch and she seems to take my silence as reluctance. “I’m not an idiot, and you know I’ll never judge you, please tell me what’s happening?”

At the worry in her voice, dread spills through me as I try to think about the implications of telling my cousin everything I confessed to Spencer.

As far as she and everyone else in my family knows, my mother had a torrid affair that ended in a brutal murder.

I’m not sure if I’m ready to be the person to place doubt on my father’s innocence.

At least I can count on Spencer for that much. He won’t have anything to gain by revealing anything I told him publicly.

Even if he did, I’d just deny it.

The seconds stretch on as Beth waits for me to reply. Finally, when I can’t see any way to avoid it, I look at her. “Why didn’t your mother come to the trial?”

She shrugs. “I can’t remember. Maybe it was too hard? I can’t imagine what it would like hearing your sister’s name being dragged through the mud. And that’s exactly why I came here. We need to do everything we can to resolve this before you wind up on the stand again.”

I flinch. Every moment from the past weekend replays, mingling with memories of the last weekend I saw my mom. “I need to know why your mother didn’t come.”

Beth cocks her head. “I’ve tried to talk to you about your mom and my mom plenty of times and you didn’t want to. What’s changed?”

I can’t say what I really want to say, not until I know she has doubts, so I ask her something I never had the courage to before. “Did she think my mother was having an affair?”

Beth drags a hand through her hair and shakes her head. “Your mom was the most placid woman on the planet. There’s no way she had the guts to cheat.”

I slump in my seat. “She wasn’t placid. She was terrified of him,” I say.

Beth sits up a little straighter. “Please tell me you don’t mean he was hurting her?”

I shake my head. “He didn’t need to. I overheard them arguing a few times. He used to tell her if she ever left him, he’d make sure she never saw me again.”

“Holy shit, Audrey! Why didn’t you tell anyone? Mom would have helped.”

I choke out a laugh. “How? Call the police? It wouldn’t have worked. Everyone was too afraid of him.”

Beth curses under her breath. “Oh, Auds. You did give him a false alibi. I knew that was off. You never spent any time with him.”

I’m so ashamed, I can’t even answer, so I just look out the window at the streetlight casting everything in an odd shade of yellow.

Beth is growing increasingly agitated. “That’s why you went bonkers in college? Why you hooked up with that loser?”

No longer able to stop myself, I release the words as though lifting a giant weight off my chest. “Yes,” I say.

“And this is what you told Spencer? But why would he care?”

I chew my lip as numbness creeps through my body. “He’s going to blackmail him. That’s what he does for a living.”

Beth’s mouth opens, and an odd strangling noise escapes before she shakes her head. “Blackmail isn’t enough for what he’s done to you.”

I’m so overwhelmed, so utterly spent I just listen as she talks. “You’ve lived in the shadow of this your whole life, Auds. Your mom was a victim, but you don’t have to be.”

When she shifts closer and grabs my shoulders there’s nothing but love in her words. “You don’t need to live in fear anymore. He can’t control you unless you allow him to.”

I release a shaky breath and somehow manage to find a semblance of a smile. “I can’t even hold a job because of him, how am I’m supposed to get out of his control?” I ask.

Beth chews on her lip. “I don’t know yet. But I promise you, we will find a way.”