Page 106 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bride

She could hurt me worse than Marty ever did, and for that one moment, I believed her capable of it.

This woman is far too good for me, but I’m too selfish to let her go now that I have her in my arms, trailing her soft fingers over my scarred skin so reverently.

Gazing up at me, she searches my eyes for an answer I don’t have. “What do we do now?”

I release a long, heavy sigh that doesn’t even touch the level of uncertainty consuming me and go over the question again, the same one I’ve been asking myself for the last hour while I sat in that chair and waited for her to wake up. “I don’t know. I would say we try to get a hold of Ronald’s secretary and his wife to see if he left anything for us anywhere. Try to determine if he ever got a hold of any of the law enforcement contacts he had mentioned.”

“You and I both know he never did, right? Or if he did, Marty found a way to stop it.”

That’s what I’m afraid of.

And if she thinks the same, then it’s probably true.

Uncle Marty was too smug, too cavalier today. He knew I wasn’t going to have shit to back up anything I said—because he madesureit didn’t exist.

Lyla shifts slightly, pushing herself up. “What if there’s other evidence?”

“What do you mean?”

I brush a strand of hair behind her ear, and she tilts her head into the touch.

At this moment, I’d give anything to be able to kiss her senseless. To wash away the trauma of the day on a wave of ecstasy that would bring both of us to a place where we could just beuswithout the endless complications and painful truths.

But that’s impossible.

Still, Lyla looks at me with so much hope. “Well, you said there were payoffs made, right? Other victims. What if you could locate that paper trail or some other sort of written documents?”

I shake my head. “They were too careful to keep that stuff. Ronald said he was supposed to destroy it, and I know Marty did when he realized what Ronald was up to.”

“Yeah, but how do youknow?” The gold in her eyes sparkles. “How do you know Ronald didn’t hide a copy somewhere for us? You said he already suspected Marty was onto him when you two spoke on the phone, right?”

I nod slowly, trying to follow her reasoning. “Yeah.”

“So maybe he hid it. Maybe he put it somewhere onlyyouwould find it because he knew he wouldn’t be able to get to the FBI and there was no way to get back in touch with you on the mountain once you came back to the cabin…”

“That’s a huge maybe, Lyla.”

She shifts, pushing herself up farther, the fatigue written all over her face and in her eyes, the same bone-deep exhaustion I feel after today’s meeting. “But how do we know unless youlook?”

I run a hand over my beard, contemplating the millions of possible places he could have left something. “I wouldn’t know where to begin, Lyla. I haven’t been here in fifteen years. I don’t even know where Ronald lives anymore.”

There’s so much I’m in the dark about. So much has changed since I’ve been gone. Running didn’t solve anything. All it did was put me at a tremendous disadvantage in trying to return and do what I should have from the beginning.

Lyla places her hand over my heart. “I don’t think he would’ve put it somewhere that’s important tohim. He would’ve put it somewhere you would look, someplace that was important toyou,before you left.”

For most people, dozens of locations would come to mind immediately. But for me, those dark memories connected with my life here cloud my ability to think of a single place I would everwantto go back to, let alone one Ronald would have known about.

Still, what she suggests makes sense as something he might have done as a last-ditch effort to salvage our plan. “I guess it’s possible. Maybe.”

“If he managed to hide the evidence for us, where would he have put it?”

I stare at the ceiling, trying to put myself in Ronald’s shoes if I knew Marty was coming for me. “Somewhere I’d have to have access to.”

She grasps my beard and tugs on it gently until I dip my head and lock eyes with her again. “The house.”

Of anywhere in this city, it’s the last place I want to go—where the worst memories and most dangerous demons still reside.

I swallow through my suddenly dry throat. “Marty lives there.”

---