55. He Attended the Club #2
My mouth dropped open. “ This place?” I thought my father owned hotels, apartments, and stocks…and… Well, I didn’t know much about his business. My eyes widened. Did my mother know about this? Or did she ignore it like she did his affairs?
“You seem surprised. You shouldn’t be. Your daddy was a very bad man.
” Liam tipped back the rest of his drink and then waved like he was signaling for another.
“But despite his many flaws, he was a wonderful teacher. Violence is always more satisfying, but I learned early on from watching him that true power comes from knowing how to manipulate people…use them…flatter them to get what I want.”
My mind already overloaded, I rubbed sweaty palms down the legs of my trousers. “Did you work for him?”
Liam shook his head. “We had a mutual acquaintance of sorts.” He smiled. “Marcello Morelli.”
My eyebrows shot up. That was a name I knew. “The drugs guy ?” That was the case Gwen had been working on before she got fired. She’d talked about it with the cop at the police station. Missing witnesses. Missing evidence. Nothing but a big mess.
“Signor Morelli is more than a drugs guy , sweetheart,” Liam said. “He’s the head of a very powerful family. A very dangerous family.”
“The mafia. Yeah, duh.” I rolled my eyes, but then the rest of what Liam said hit me. “Wait… wait .” I held up my palm. “My father was involved with those guys?”
Liam nodded, amusement twitching the corner of his lips.
“And you’re involved with those guys?”
“No.”
“But you said—”
“I run a hedge fund, sweetheart. I can’t very well be a criminal, can I?
That pesky regulator would revoke my trading license.
” He smiled sweetly. “Your daddy, however, was a kingmaker in Morelli’s operations.
He had enviable skills at laundering drug money.
Too bad Morelli started doubting his loyalty, and, well, you know what happened to your daddy after that…
” His smile was chilling when he sliced his finger across his throat.
I blinked at him. Was he suggesting my father didn’t die of a heart attack? That he was murdered? I gulped. “Wh-what did he do to get them offside?” I had to be wrong. There was no investigation. No cops. He just…died. I was overcomplicating it. I had to be.
“The story I heard was that about three years ago, your daddy made a very large sum of money disappear so well that no one could find it. Not even him. Profits from fifteen kilos of cocaine went poof. Do you know the street value of that much coke?” Liam’s pale eyebrow arched, but I shook my head.
As if I had any clue. “About six million, give or take. Gone. In the end, he supposedly covered the loss out of his own pocket, but Morelli took it personally.”
“If you have no connections to them, how do you know all this?”
A slow smile crept across Liam’s face. “Your daddy told me. That’s how desperate he was in the end. He came to me. I’d waited thirteen years for him to beg me for my help… After what he’d done…” Closing his eyes, he sighed. “That was a good day.”
I took a deep breath, but my words still came out uncertain. “And wh–what did he do to make you hate him s–so much?” My gaze locked on the hands I couldn’t stop rubbing on my knees. I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear his answer.
“Ah, storytime!” Liam clapped his hands, and he leaned closer, his voice lowering.
“When I was seventeen, I decided honest jobs no longer held much interest for me. I had a clever little sister languishing on government handouts and whatever pitiful amount our father flung our way when he could be bothered. I much preferred working here. Jobs for important men paid very well indeed.”
“Wha-what kind of jobs?”
“The details are far too salacious for your pretty ears, sweetheart. But let’s say one job I wasn’t involved in didn’t go well.
Drugs went missing. Money went missing. Sound familiar?
For whatever reason, your father blamed me and sent four men after me to collect his debt.
Those buffoons quite enjoyed beating me to within an inch of my life, hoping to break me while your father watched on.
” His smile was chilling. “I was sorry to disappoint them.”
“My father…” What type of monster was he? A sharp exhale shot out of me like I’d been punched in the stomach. “I…” I wanted to throw up.
The waitress dropped a bottle of whiskey and a clean glass on the table. Liam’s hand shook when he reached over to pour himself another drink. “I’ll never forgive myself for letting Gwen see me like that.”
“You went to her?”
He nodded. “She cried and cried when she patched me up as best she could with the first aid kit in the back of that rat-infested fish and chip shop where she worked.” The drink he’d poured was gone in one gulp.
“I shouldn’t have gone. It was a mistake.
I’d only wanted to see her one last time before finally being free of this God-forsaken Earth.
Something lurking in the depths below had other plans, though, I suppose. ”
“And my father?”
“It was quite unfortunate for him that I’m so patient. I vowed I’d get revenge for what Gwen went through. I waited for years, but finally, after he’d burned every last bridge with Morelli, your daddy came crawling to me.”
“And that’s when you had him sign everything over to her?”
Liam nodded. “Morelli never got over the betrayal and put out a hit on your daddy. Rumor had it one particular enforcer took the job. The one nobody fucks with. The Widowmaker.”
My mouth dropped open. “But Gwen said that guy doesn’t exist!”
He rolled his eyes and took a sip of his drink. “I wish that ridiculous name didn’t exist,” he muttered. “Whoever came up with it should be next on his list.”
“Who is he?”
“A ghost. It’s said he just…drifts around…picking up work because he gets off on the kill. Someone told your father he’d made the list, and he panicked. He was all out of options with the Morelli family, and he was a dead man walking unless someone smoothed it over so he’d withdraw the hit.”
I didn’t need three guesses to figure out who. “You.”
Liam grinned. “And it was glorious. I got vengeance for Gwen. The look on your father’s face when I told him who’d be in control of his wealth if he lived.
” His laugh was long and satisfied. “He thought I’d be stupid enough to name myself, and that’s when I knew he was planning to double-cross me.
Your daddy was a snake until the very end. ”
“But Gwen didn’t know.”
“No. We control the money and manage the properties. Eli’s been even more invested in growing the portfolio since your little creature came along. The poetic irony of how it turned out is rather beautiful.”
“Is Ian involved in any of this? You said he’s stirring up the hornet’s nest?”
“It seems your business partner has a similar taste in friends. Mr. Cooper is walking a very tight rope with the same family, and if he’s not careful, that rope will find its way around his neck.
When Gwen mentioned he was a complication, I decided Romeo’s presence was necessary. You can never be too careful.”
I scrubbed my palms down my face. What an absolute mess. “Now what?” I sighed, weary, the last month catching up to me. “How am I supposed to explain all of this to Gwen? You know she’s going to completely freak out.”
“Ah yes, her ethics.” He snorted. “The simple solution is that you don’t tell her.”
“I won’t keep a secret from my wife.”
“That’s a complication.”
No shit. “She’ll quit when she finds out.” At the minimum.
“She’s going to quit anyway.” Liam’s smile was tight. “She’s bored out of her clever mind, and the offer’s coming for her to take back her old job in the Prosecutor’s Office…if she can be patient a little longer.”
“You set that up, too, didn’t you?”
He jerked a nod. “It was the right thing to do.”
“You feel you owe her some kind of debt?”
“You’re far smarter than you pretend to be, sweetheart.
” If I didn’t know better, I’d swear his expression softened, his smile almost genuine.
But the sign of affection vanished as quickly as it came.
His eyes dropped back to his drink, and he waved me off with a flick of his hand. “Now, leave me be.”
Another storytime was over.