Chapter Thirty-Nine
LILY
“Where do you want me to start?” she drawled, her eyes heavy on me, something inside them hungry and vicious.
“That one couldn't stay pregnant. Lost a couple, and Trey was getting frustrated.
We'd been fucking for a while, and obviously, he knew what my businesses was since he took point for Maxwell after he came on board.”
Turning her face to angle me out of the conversation, she looked at Knox and said in a low voice, “He was having second thoughts. He didn't want to divorce her. She was convenient.”
I bit my bottom lip to keep my mouth shut. It's not like I couldn't hear her. I was sitting right next to Knox.
“I realized that when I went through his files,” Knox said.
It took everything I had to stay silent. What did that mean? Why was I convenient? Because I was cheaper than a housekeeper? Knox's next words were a slap to my face.
“He had everything in her name. If Trey ever ran into trouble, the authorities would have looked at Lily as the ring leader, not Trey.”
“Bingo.” LeAnne stabbed her cigarette in the air at Knox, a smirk on her pink lips. “That, and like most men, he didn't know how to admit he'd made a mistake. But he didn't want his boy—”
A meaningful glance in my direction before she shifted her eyes back to Knox, “Tainted. You know what I mean. He wanted his kids to look like him. He didn't want a mutt.”
Tainted? That bitch. A wave of vicious fury hit me, leaving my heart racing and my gut twisted. Tainted?
I beat back the roil of emotions as Knox jerked forward, his body vibrating with rage. My hand tightened on his, holding him in place, his anger somehow dulling my own.
Trey had been an asshole. This woman was worse. But Knox would regret losing his temper. We needed LeAnne Gates if I wanted to find out what had happened with Adam.
I leaned into Knox's side and whispered, “Don't. It's okay, don't.”
He sat back, his anger leashed but not weakened. His tone deadly, eyes black with fury, he said to LeAnne, “Watch. Your. Mouth.”
LeAnne gave a negligent shrug of her shoulder and ground out her cigarette, lighting another. “You wanted to know. You want to be mad at somebody, be mad at her dead husband. His words. Anyway, they had some incompatibility or something. I don't remember.”
My head spun. “Rh incompatibility,” I murmured.
LeAnne snapped her fingers. “That's it.”
“Rh incompatibility is treatable,” I protested. “My doctor should have checked. They could have fixed it.”
LeAnne shrugged, unbothered by the idea that she'd just turned my life upside down.
“Trey decided not to tell you, make it seem like you just couldn't stay pregnant. But then he had the idea to get a baby the old-fashioned way.” She cackled, the sound grating every nerve. “You know, our old-fashioned way.”
Knox let go of my hand and wrapped his arm around me, the heat of his body anchoring me.
“I know you're not the mother,” he said to LeAnne, “so where'd you get the girl? Where is she?”
LeAnne's odd lavender eyes went dark. “You won't find the girl. I can promise you that.”
“If you were sleeping with Trey,” I croaked, “what did you—how did you—”
LeAnne's laugh dripped with pity. “I can see why he went looking elsewhere.
When I was done working for Maxwell in a direct capacity, I started organizing things for him.
Finding girls, matching them with the right guy, all that.
I had a girl, not that reliable, but she made pretty babies.
Blonde and blue-eyed like Trey. She was adventurous, didn't care what I asked her to do as long as there was money or a fix at the end of it.”
“She was a junkie?” Knox asked sharply.
“I kept her clean when she was pregnant.
When Trey was in town, I'd have her here, and the three of us would fuck.
It didn't take long for her to get knocked up. I usually kept an eye on her when she was working for me, but as a favor to Trey, I had her here. The whole time. Fuck, that girl was a pain in my ass. But Trey cut me in on extra, on top of my usual, and she gave him a healthy baby boy. He got his blonde-haired, blue-eyed kid, and a way to keep her from asking for a divorce.”
Her words sank in slowly, working their way through layers of shock. Trey and LeAnne. His lies about my fertility. The distracting thought of LeAnne, Trey, and an unknown girl in a threesome. Yuck.
Finally, it registered. “Trey wanted a baby to keep me from leaving?”
“Mostly, yeah. All men want a son, I guess. If our business is any clue, all men want a son.” She rolled her eyes. “But he knew you were going to walk. He didn't give a shit, except he couldn't have lawyers poking around in his finances.”
Trey had known I was thinking about a divorce. He'd had Adam to stop me from leaving, knowing the only thing that would keep me at his side was a child, the child I thought I couldn't have myself.
All those months grieving the child I'd never carry, and it was a lie. How had I been so na?ve? I guess I should count myself lucky he kept me with him by giving me Adam. He could have gone to the Russian mob and asked Tsepov to take care of his problem.
A faithful wife at home made for good cover, I guess, especially if you put everything in her name. I'd been so wrapped up in Adam I never paid attention to the rest. I was an idiot.
Knox asked the only question left. The only one I cared about. “And the girl? The girl Trey got pregnant?”
LeAnne Gates took a long drag on her cigarette and ground out what was left in the crystal ashtray in front of her. Huffing out the smoke she said flatly, “Dead. Almost two years ago. Got another payday out of her, but she couldn't stay clean after that. OD'd.”
My chest hurt at the disinterest in her voice. She'd worked with this girl, had sex with her, delivered her to my husband to impregnate, taken her child for money, yet she spoke of her death as if it was little more than an inconvenience.
Cooper was wrong. Poison was too gentle a word for LeAnne Gates.
“Where's the contract?” Knox asked.
“What do you need the contract for? Everything is legal. The birth certificate on file has her name on it with Trey as the father.”
“Just in case,” Knox answered in a deceptively easy tone. “Just in case the girl isn't dead. Just in case you're full of shit and she comes knocking on our door. Just in case, and none of your fucking business. How much do you want for it?”
Knox leaned forward, ready to play hardball. My stomach clenched, my head spun, too much stress and all that cigarette smoke pushing me to the edge of nausea again. I jerked to my feet, legs shaky. I needed sugar and bubbles. And to get the hell out of this house.
“Do you have a ginger ale or a soda or something?”
An annoyed look from those lavender eyes. LeAnne gestured behind me at the bar cart in the corner. I lurched in that direction, giving LeAnne and Knox my back. Looking again, I saw a mini-fridge built into the bottom of the cart. I opened it and pulled out an ice-cold ginger ale.
She and Knox were negotiating in low voices, Knox in a glacial tone I'd never heard from him before. She demanded a million dollars. I caught Knox's disbelieving laugh.
If we got a copy of that contract, if I could leave this house knowing that Adam was really and truly mine, I'd pay every last penny I had.
Anything. I took a long sip of the ginger ale, lingering on the far end of the room where the smoke was less concentrated.
Where I didn't have to see LeAnne's sneering smile.
My eyes trailed around the room, taking in a bookshelf, a plastic plant on a fake marble stand, and a curio cabinet with a mirrored back, its frame made of glaringly shiny brass. I wandered closer, curious to see what kind of things a woman like LeAnne Gates collected.
My eyes caught on a familiar sight and I froze.
It couldn't be, could it? How—?
I didn't have to ask.
Trey.
My goddamned lying bastard of a husband.
Sitting on the top shelf of the curio cabinet, beneath a bright accent light, was a small blue snuff box, diamonds glittering on the lid.
Holy crap.
I turned to get Knox's attention, then thought better of it and started across the room to take my seat beside him. There was a reason Cooper had told me to keep my mouth shut. Intrigue is not my specialty.
Throw me a five-year-old and I'm a pro. Negotiating with a procuress for an illegal contract for a child that was a result of the threesome she'd had with my husband and a drug addict? I could leave that in Knox's lap.
I was crossing the room when Knox's phone rang. He glanced at it and silenced the call. Two seconds later, it rang again. Giving it a long, measuring look, he stood and left the room to answer. A second later his body locked tight.
That couldn't be good.