Page 62 of Beautiful Betrayal

“Ri’s been in bed with Rosemond, the mob affiliate I told you about since he left college. That’s how he’s won about every accomplishment he’s had. If someone says no, he pays Rosemond and he breaks out the proverbial baseball bat. I can’tprove it yet, but based on the cash withdrawals Ri is making that never show up anywhere else, I think he’s being blackmailed, most likely by Rosemond. That’s how he works. He does your dirty work and turns it around on you.”

“And you know what you know how?”

“Data doesn’t go away. When you think you’ve wiped it, it’s not gone. The right person, and that’s me, can find it. I did. Give me time, which Mia created today, and I’ll put all the pieces together. Right now though, there’s heat on you. You have to make a decision. Use what I found to back him off and create a standoff, or wait and risk the DA coming at you before we act.”

“He’s already involved the DA. Davis has a source that confirmed that with details of pending charges.”

“And I have a source that confirmed that to be true but it’s not where I can get to it. Not yet.”

“Then we don’t know what bullshit Ri gave them already and Ri can’t just pull back from the DA and say he was joking to save his ass. We have to prove that I’m innocent.”

“Agreed,” Blake says, “but you could stop him from delivering any further blows by going at him.”

“We could also shove the traitors in my operation into a hole and we won’t find them until they’re in trouble again.”

“But we stop them and Ri from handing over damning information to the DA or planting fake information the DA finds in a raid. Right now, there is nothing in the DA’s system on you.”

“Per an insider at the DA’s office, I assume?”

“Per their computer system that I hacked.”

I arch a brow. “You hacked the DA?”

“Yes, I’ve also worked for the DA and hacked for the DA.” He moves on. “Look, here’s my concern. Rosemond. He’s my concern. If he’s blackmailing Ri, Ri could be trying to connect him to you and get rid of both of you at once. If he’s not trying toget rid of Rosemond and you take down Ri, as I’ve said, you’ve hurt his money and you become a target.”

“Mia becomes a target.”

“Exactly. Mia and your company, because those things are what matter to you, in different ways, of course. We need to turn Rosemond on Ri, and get Ri focused on protecting himself from Rosemond.”

“Which he could do by turning the heat on him and me with the DA. That doesn’t work.”

“It works if we have the proof we need to prove he set you up first.”

His phone rings and he pulls it from his pocket. “Sorry, man. This is one of my men on assignment overseas. I have to take it.”

I nod and he answers his call. My mind goes to my father and I try to think about what he’d do right now, even what advice he’d give me which transports me back to the last piece of advice he ever gave me. Back to the day he died and that golf course in the Hamptons:

“You’re shooting like hell, son. I’d ask why but we both know why. You haven’t been good since she left. You damn sure haven’t been able to be here, in the Hampton’s since she left.”

“I’ve made more money for me and the company in the past six months than I have in my entire career.”

“I don’t give a flip about the money,” he says, turning to face me, his hands settling on his hips. “I care about you and her. She loves you. You love her. Go get her.”

“She’s with Ri now.”

“She’sworkingfor Ri. There’s a difference between fucking him and working for him.”

“Oh come on, pops. She thinks I fucked Becky. She’s fucking Ri.”

“Have you asked her?”

“She won’t even talk to me.” I pull the ring out of my pocket, where I’ve held it every day for six months. “She sent it back.”

“Well, you damn sure know she didn’t want your money.”

“I already knew that.”

He throws his golf bag in the rear of the cart and I do the same. “Make her listen.”

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