Chapter 34 #2
“Well, maybe I’d fucking deserve it!” Owen quivered like a bomb about to go off.
“I’m just as complicit as everyone else, aren’t I?
He’s my little brother, for fuck’s sake.
And I stood by, just like Brendan, while Dad designated Ronan as the one to handle all the worst shit.
” He turned to face me. “You want to know a secret, sweetheart? There’s no such thing as an ethical billionaire.
We’re crooked to the core, all of us, and my family’s the worst of the lot.
For every deal that’s announced in the Journal, there are ten more that should have the SEC on our tails.
And for the last fifteen years, Ronan has been the one sent to keep everyone quiet through any means necessary. You get what I’m saying?”
Liam stilled. “You aren’t supposed to know about all of that.”
Owen rolled his eyes. “Everyone in this family has treated me like I’m missing half my brain since I was discharged, but I’m not stupid. I don’t know exactly what he does for us, but I know he does something. And I know it’s pretty fucking bad. Maybe as bad as murder.”
I fought not to shrink under that black-eyed gaze. From behind his mask, his dark hair wild, Owen really did look like a picture-perfect villain.
And yet, he was all but confessing his crimes.
Or at least his family’s.
He turned, his jaw working. “I could have stepped up. I could have said I’d do it—God knows the military trained me to do it. But I let my little brother become the family’s killer instead.”
“What, so you think because you already had blood on your hands from Afghanistan, you deserved to keep killing? That’s put you through hell for the last ten years,” Liam argued. “Ronan didn’t want that.”
“Better me than everyone else,”
“I don’t think it would have mattered,” I said quietly.
Both men turned to me like they had both just remembered I was there.
“Look, I don’t know you, Owen, or what you’ve been through. But I know Ronan. And he’s done whatever he’s done for one reason only: to prove he was worthy. To earn his place with the rest of you. That wouldn’t have changed even if you’d done it too.”
They were quiet. Neither of them argued.
Finally, Owen slumped into a chair across the room. “He’s smarter than the rest of us combined. Do you know that?”
No one argued with him.
“He could have been the best of us,” he mumbled into his hands. “He could have been anything.”
“He still can be,” I said.
Owen’s hands dropped as he looked at me.
I forced myself to straighten with as much dignity as possible in a hospital gown and grippy socks. “What can I do? Give him an alibi? I was with him the night of the… murder… right?”
It was hard to say it out loud. But if Ronan had to face this, I wouldn’t let him do it alone.
“Were you actually with him between the hours of six and nine the night you met?” Liam’s expression told me he already knew the answer.
I had to shake my head. “But I could—”
“No, you couldn’t,” he cut me off before I could finish my thought.
“For one, we’ll pretend you didn’t even start saying what I assume you were saying.
For two, it wouldn’t work, anyway. Vegas is crawling with cameras in every casino, every streetlight, every corner store, not to mention you had four other women with you all evening until you met Ronan.
It would take approximately three seconds to call you on perjury. ”
“I don’t care—” I tried again. “I could still—”
“Yeah, but Ronan would.” Liam crossed his arms. He was very tall, just like the rest of the Black family.
No wonder he fit in like he was one of them.
“He called me right before they put him in the transport to Vegas and told me point blank: he’d rather go to prison for life than watch you lie to save him. ”
Oh, God. I could just hear his voice, the shake in it, the desperation as he said it.
“He loves you.” Owen’s voice was wooden as he stared at the floor. Or maybe at his hands, which lay open in his lap. “I didn’t think it was possible. Not until I watched him give everything away to come find you.”
Liam cast a sympathetic look at Owen, and for the first time, I realized his head had been hit in more ways than one.
This explained why Ronan had seemed so genuinely surprised by everything growing between us.
When you grow up without love, you can’t recognize it when you see it. You don’t even believe it’s real.
One question, however, was still bothering me. “Did he do it?”
I stared at Liam, daring him not to answer. To his credit, he didn’t. After all, he wasn’t my lawyer.
“We don’t know.” Owen sounded tired.
“Owen!” Liam snapped.
“Again, she can’t testify against him, so what does it matter?” Owen snapped right back. “She deserves to know whatever truth she can have. Because you love him too, don’t you, Laney? Don’t you?”
His questions were wielded like daggers, but I wasn’t scared. Instead, I met his gaze head on and said what I wished I could have gotten out before the police arrived and took Ronan away: “Of course I love him.”
Owen nodded, apparently satisfied. “He won’t tell anyone anything. All he said was that Billy Richards was a threat to the family, and he handled it.”
I frowned. “So, it’s possible.”
Liam looked frustrated. “We’re not going to operate on speculation here. However, Laney, one of the reasons I did come here was to see if you could call Ronan and convince him to tell me the truth, whatever it is. I can’t help him if I don’t know the facts.”
Facts. Right.
I closed my eyes, digesting said facts as I could remember them.
Fact One: My husband might be a murderer.
Fact Two (and most recent): I wasn’t entirely sure that made me love him any less.
Maybe it should have. As I lay there in the hospital, my newly repaired heart beating steadily, I wondered if loving a man shrouded in darkness meant I was just as dark as he was.
After all, we’d found each other in the labyrinth of Vegas, and I’d chosen to stay with him even when I knew it countered all logic.
Or maybe it just meant I understood that people were complicated. That Ronan could have been molded into a monster who killed for his family and also be someone who quoted Catullus and held me when I cried and sacrificed himself willingly for the woman he loved.
That brought me to Fact Three: Ronan Black only did terrible things if he felt they were absolutely necessary. And even then, he was more likely to hurt himself than others.
I opened my eyes. “I’ll talk to him. But only if you bring me to Las Vegas to do it in person.”
The door opened just as Liam was opening his mouth to argue with that idea all over again. Dr. Palmer walked and frowned when he caught sight of my visitors.
“I see we have a little party going on here. Laney, I’m leaving for the night, and I’d just like to extend a kind reminder that you do need your sleep to recover.”
I did feel incredibly tired. And incredibly stubborn.
“Dr. Palmer, when can I leave?”
He looked up in clear surprise. “Ah, likely within twenty-four hours, but I wouldn’t recommend going anywhere but—”
“Can I ride in a car?” I asked, now looking at Owen and Liam.
Liam just shook his head. Owen remained stoic, though I thought I saw the corners of his mouth twitch.
Dr. Palmer just frowned. “Technically, yes. But I certainly wouldn’t recommend any long trips—”
“How long to drive to Vegas?” I asked Owen.
He was already checking his phone. “Seventeen hours. Maybe twenty with stops.”
“Twenty hours—absolutely not,” Dr. Palmer put in. “Laney, you just had surgery. You need rest. You absolutely cannot drive for two days straight.”
“Doctor, I can and I will.” My voice was steady even as fatigue was starting to overtake me. “This is about my husband. I need to get to Las Vegas.”
Dr. Palmer gawked between me and the other two men. “Is she always this stubborn?”
Liam shrugged.
Owen, however, was almost smiling. “She’s definitely a Black.”
“No, I’m a Fisher,” I corrected him blearily.
It was getting harder to keep my eyes open.
“But I married a Black. And I’m not letting him face this alone.
” I looked between Liam and Owen. I really needed to sleep.
“You two can decide which one of you is driving me. Because we’re leaving first thing tomorrow. ”