Page 2 of Sins of Innocence

I don't have a death wish.

"I know."

"You do?" I ask, my voice embarrassingly high. "How?"

His expression hardens ever so slightly. "One of the agents is an old friend. He gave me a heads up that my family might have a problem."

FML. "There's no problem. Not from me anyway. I don't know anything," I rush to assure Kenneth.

"What did they tell you Troy did for me?" Kenneth asks.

I blink. To tell the truth, or make up a lie? If his friend told him I refused to help with their inquiries maybe he told Kenneth what else was said.

Can you say corrupt Fed? There's my inner snark queen. Right when I don't need her.

Deciding honesty is my best tactic right now, I admit, "They said he was involved with organized crime."

Which is something I've tried to wrap my head around for the past few days and still can't quite take in. My Troy? The father of my three daughters, one of them unborn?

Vain? Yes. High handed with seriously traditional views of family? Yes and yes. A criminal? No.

How could he be?

"But they didn't tell you his job," Kenneth guesses…or knows.

"No." I take in a shaky breath. "Troy was a businessman."

Though I don't really know what that entailed. He never gave me details of his job. He said he couldn't because of the NDA he signed when he started working for Shaughnessy Corporation.

What I do know is that his job was legitimate on some level at least because he had life insurance through his employer and it paid out after his death. If it hadn't, me and the girls would be way worse off than we are.

"Not so much. He worked security for my family," Kenneth says with so much assurance, I can't disbelieve him.

"But…" How did he afford all the little extras in life he was so fond of working security?

"I'm sorry, Áine, but your husband lied to you."

"No." I shake my head even as my sinking heart tells me the intimidating man sitting across from me is telling me the truth.

Kenneth takes a sip of his latte. "He loved expensive suits."

I don't answer.

"He liked luxury cars."

I still don't answer.

"He spent money faster than he earned it."

My cheeks burn. I can't deny Kenneth's words. Any of them. The girls and I had to move in with my mom after selling our home to pay off my husband's massive debts that I knew nothing about.

Like I knew nothing about Troy's life as a mobster.

Oh, lord. I'm going to be sick.

"Your husband couldn't afford his expensive tastes on a soldier's wages."

A soldier? What does that even mean? Do soldiers leave the house in a knockoff designer suit every morning?