Chapter 70
70
“You’ll stay right here, understand?” Reuben lectured as he parked under Alejandro and Cat’s house.
“Where else would I go?”
Yesterday had been the most amazing day. She’d retreated fully into Little headspace for most of it. It wasn’t until after dinner that he’d sat her on his lap in the living room to explain what had happened to Lou.
She’d cried.
She’d cried because a person she’d thought was a friend had died. And she didn’t know how to process her feelings around that. Reuben had held her tight. When he’d tucked her into bed, he’d made love to her.
It had been so gentle. So sweet.
And exactly what she’d needed.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Faith wasn’t quite sure what was going on. Reuben had only said that he had to go do something with Alejandro. She knew he was protecting her and that there were always going to be things he couldn’t tell her. So she didn’t press him.
He held her good hand all the way up in the elevator. He had a bag with some of her favorite things in case she needed to go to bed.
But he’d promised to come to her after he was finished no matter what time it was.
When they stepped out of the elevator, Cat rushed toward them, coming to a stop at the last second.
“Blossom! Sleepover!”
Faith smiled but squeezed Reuben’s hand.
“If you have a sleepover, I’ll come back here and sleep with you,” he promised.
Cat nodded frantically. “Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Sure, Rainbow-Reuby can do that. But you’re gonna want to stay, Blossom. I’ve set up a slumber room for us. There’s candy and soda and potato chips.” Cat led them into a living area that she’d turned into a fort with lots of blankets and pillows. There were even fairy lights strung around the top of the fort.
Inside the fort were heaps of pillows as well as jars of candy and chocolate.
Faith looked at Cat with a grin. “This is awesome.”
“I. Know. Doomy Gloomy helped.” She gestured over to where there was an older man fussing with the blankets.
He gave Cat a dour look, but when he turned to Faith, his face softened, and he winked at her.
Okay. Maybe he wasn’t as grumpy as he looked.
“Looks like you’re in good hands here, baby,” Reuben told her, kissing the top of her head as Alejandro walked into the room.
Cat threw herself at her husband and they spoke quietly before Alejandro set his wife down.
“Call me if you need me. If you go to sleep, you’ll wake up with me there. Understand?”
“Yes, Daddy. I love you. Be safe.”
“Always, baby. I love you too.”
“They’ll be fine,” Alejandro reassured Reuben as they entered one of his warehouses. Cairn took up position outside the warehouse while the Scot walked in with them.
Reuben sure as hell hoped so. He let out a deep breath as they walked down into the soundproof basement.
There, bound and sitting on a chair, was Venturo’s lawyer.
He looked disheveled and scared. Which was good. He wouldn’t take much to break.
“Hello, Donald,” Alejandro drawled. “Do you know who I am?”
Donald stared at Alejandro, then over at Reuben. “I knew it. I knew it when I agreed to help him. But it was so much money and now I’m gonna die.”
“No one has to die, Donald,” Alejandro said. “Not if you tell the truth. Tell us why Abel Venturo wanted to meet with you. Do you know why he died soon after?”
“It was all because of you.” He looked at Reuben as he said that.
“Me?” Reuben asked.
“He wanted revenge on you. He blamed you for the loss of his empire.”
Him and not Alejandro? Interesting. Then again, Venturo probably saw him as an easier mark for his anger than Alejandro.
And it did all start with him refusing to represent one of Abel Venturo’s sons.
“So, what did he want with you?” Alejandro asked. “And why take so long to get in contact with you? Why not get revenge on Reuben earlier?”
“It was all about the money. Abel didn’t have any, but his mother did. She died about a week before he contacted me. She’d left him a small fortune. Abel knew he wouldn’t get out of jail in time to spend it, so he wanted to do something else with it.”
Fuck. He shared a look with Alejandro.
“And he decided he’d use it as an incentive to make your life miserable.” He nodded at Reuben, who was getting a bad idea about all of this.
“What do you mean?” Reuben asked. “How?”
“He had a cousin who lived in Chicago. Bad guy, spent most of his life in jail before cancer got him. But he had two kids. Both bad eggs. Especially the boy, he’s been in and out of jail. Abel wanted me to tell them that he had a task for them. The winner got his fortune.”
“What exactly was the task?” Reuben asked.
“The first one to take away someone you loved would win the fortune.” He nodded to Reuben.
Motherfucking bastard.
“Lou,” Alejandro said.
“What?” Donald asked.
“The niece? She’s got dark hair?” Reuben asked, understanding what Alejandro was thinking. “Slim build?”
“Ahh, yes. Her name is Louanne Rivers. And her brother is Darcy Rivers.”
“She just washed up in the river after trying to kill Reuben’s woman,” Alejandro said.
Donald sucked in a breath. “It wouldn’t surprise me if her brother murdered her. From what I observed, there was no love lost between them. I think it’s likely that the pair of them arranged Abel’s death. As soon as he died, I went underground to avoid them getting to me. Until you found me.”
“If you’ve got access to the money why didn’t you take it and run after Abel died?” Alejandro asked.
“Because I didn’t want to die. Abel had someone on the outside watching me. He said that if I messed this up, that he’d kill me and all of my family. This guy sent me photos of my grandkids. They live in Boston. I couldn’t let him hurt them.”
“And you have no idea who he is?” Alejandro asked.
“None.”
They questioned him some more, but he didn’t have much else to add. Other than the fact that Darcy Rivers had contacted him, wanting to meet with him. That’s when the lawyer had slipped up and The Hunter caught him.
So, Darcy could know that something had happened to the lawyer.
Reuben needed to get back to Faith. It was becoming an urge he couldn’t ignore. He hated being away from her now.
They got into Alejandro’s car and he checked the tracker on his phone, breathing out a sigh of relief when he saw she was still at Alejandro’s house.
“We need to find Darcy. Fast,” Reuben said to Alejandro.
They had some information on him now and Alejandro nodded. “The Hunter said he’s busy for the next month. Ortega might be able to help. He’s been busy the last few weeks, but I’ll try him again.”
Alejandro’s half brother did whatever he liked. But he was a person you wanted on your side.
“Any idea who this guy could be that was threatening the lawyer?”
“None,” Alejandro replied with a frown. “But I guess he’s only a problem if he cares about what happens to Darcy and Louanne. And Venturo didn’t have any friends left that I know of. It’s likely he was a hired killer or something. So I doubt he cares.”
“True.”
“This is my fault,” Alejandro said.
“How do you figure that?” Reuben asked.
“I should have taken care of Abel for good.”
“No. We both made that decision. We thought his life would be more miserable behind bars with no one and nothing to his name. This is on both of us.”
Alejandro’s phone rang, and he answered it, scowling. “What do you mean cops raided the house? How? Did they have a warrant? Fucking hell. Fuck. Yes! We’ll go straight to the police station.”
Fury engulfed Alejandro’s face as he turned to Reuben. “We need to get rid of this police chief.”
“What’s happened?”
“Some cops turned up at the house.”
“Did they have a warrant? Are the girls okay?”
“They had some trumped-up fucking charges against Rafael.”
Fuck.
“Which means they could search any area under his control for their own safety,” Reuben muttered.
“I don’t think they searched far. But Cat lost her temper as they were arresting him.”
Fuck. Fuck.
“She’s been arrested as well. We need to get to the police station. Now.”
“Faith?” Reuben asked.
“She’s back at the house with Bernard and several of my men. She’s safe.”
He drew out his phone.
“R-reuben?” she said as she answered his call.
He hated the fear in her voice. She should have been safe, having fun with Cat in their pillow fort. Not dealing with this.
“I’m here, baby. Listen to me. I have to go to the police station to deal with what’s happened. I want you to stay with Bernard.”
“But I can help?—”
“No, Faith,” he said firmly. “Stay there.”
“But you don’t understand?—”
“I have to go, baby. Stay there. I love you.”