Page 232 of Handsome Devil
“You know which one. Think about it.” I really didn’t feel comfortable saying certain things, like Lex’s name, right here, in front of his club brothers.
Jude was silent for a moment as maybe he thought about that. Maybe he’d already thought about it.
“Go on,” he said.
“It also might involve his dad. You know who his dad is, right?”
“Yeah,” Jude said. “I know.”
“This is not good, Jude. I’m scared. I didn’t even want to Google search the man.”
“What happened?”
“Someone sent me a USB stick with an audio recording on it. It was a conversation between me and my husband. Someone recorded it inside his apartment. Where I’m living. How do I know what else they’ve got access to?”
“You know who sent it?”
“I don’t know for sure. That’s the thing. There was no note with it or anything. But someone is out to ruin him. I’m sure of it. This was a threat.”
“Why didn’t you go to Davenport with this? He’s got a security detail, right? Lawyers. Money.”
“Because last time I talked to him, we had a fight and basically separated. He went home to Toronto because I told him we should separate. Our argument is on that recording. I’m not sure how he’ll react to this, or who we can trust. And I just don’t know if he’ll be able to see clearly on this.”
“Why?”
“Because he loves… you know who. I think he’d do anything for him. I don’t think he could see any scenario in which that man would betray him.”
“And you can?”
Fuck. I didn’t know.
I knew someone was out to hurt Dane. And who would stand to gain from ruining Dane better than Lex, the black sheep of the family? Someone who stood to become the only living heir to the family’s fortune, and maybe get cut back in, if Dane was slowly picked apart, discredited, and disowned by the family?
And who else would have the will and the power to do it but a very bad seed—and someone who had connections to the mafia?
“I’m not sure,” I told Jude. “All I know is his dad sounds like a very dangerous man and you’re the only person I know and trust who might be able to look into this for me and get me some answers. I’m not asking you to go to war with anyone for me.” Beside me, Blazer kind of grunted, and I glanced at him uneasily. “I just want to know what we’re up against. What are we dealing with here? And whoever is doing this, I just need to be able to prove it to Dane in a way that he’ll believe it.”
Jude was silent for a moment again. “You love him?”
“Yes, I love him.” I said it because I knew it would make Jude listen. But also, I knew I did. Because listening to that recording of us talking, breaking up, curdled my blood.
It was terrifying, that someone had invaded his privacy like that—our privacy—and sent that recording to me as a threat against him. It was a quiet, cold, calculated threat, and it spoke volumes.
Maybe it had helped me to realize that it was time I stop fighting him and start fighting for him. For us, if there was ever going to be any us.
“Look,” I said, “I need to do anything I can to help protect him, because the way I see it, his family hasn’t been doing so well with that lately. They’ve lost faith in him and it’s hurt him, bad. But I have faith in him.” As I said it, I knew it was true.
“You understand, the man you’re talking about is my family. My brother.”
I sighed. Yes, I knew Lex was Jude’s club brother. And I knew more or less what that meant.
“Jude, come on.” I knew I was reaching way out of my playing field here into a deep, unfathomably dark place. And I was asking Jude to make that reach with me.
“Hold on,” he said abruptly as I heard noise in the background. “For fuck’s sake,” he muttered.
“What?”
“Jesse’s here. With a pitchfork up his ass.”
