Page 56 of The Shadow

“Thank you.”

She lets my hand go and steps around me, but then pauses. “What will you do now? Is there anything I can do to make this all go away for you?”

It’s a nice offer, a very generous one actually, that I think anyone would jump at but I already have a plan in place for that.

“No, thank you.” I smile. “I’ll be alright. I prefer to let karma handle it.”

“Good luck with that,” she says. “I don’t have the patience for karma. Besides,” she leans in closer and whispers, “I want to watch him suffer.”

Chapter 20

Harvey

Isit on the edge of my couch, Aspen pacing nervously back and forth as she chews the corner of her thumbnail, the meeting with Connor leaving her visibly shaken.

“He said he’s in love with me, that this was just a test.” She pauses pacing to look at me, her eyes wide in disbelief. “He mentioned marriage and running off together and babies, Harvey. Babies.”

“Did he seem to suspect you at all or did he believe you when you played along?”

“I think he believed me.” She begins to pace again. “I can’t believe he made me take off my clothes.” She shudders and I stand to approach her, reaching out to pull her back into my arms.

We’ve been at this for the last two hours. Her pacing, explaining every last detail about her conversations with Connor and Lyra, but then questioning everything once she says things aloud and talks through them.

“I’m sorry, baby.” I close my eyes, the rage that has been slowly bubbling inside me against Connor Blake beginning to develop into a full-blown boil. I want to tell her that had I known he demanded she remove her clothes, I would have been through that door with a gun to his head faster than you could blink, but I know that isn’t going to help in this situation. “Do you want take a shower? I can wash his touch away.”

She shakes her head. “I need to think through everything again, make sure I’m not missing something.”

“Hey.” I tip her chin upward, turning her focus back on me. “You did what you needed to do today. You’re running on adrenaline right now and when it wears off, you’re going to crash. So, why don’t we eat something and then rest, okay?”

“You should see the evidence I found on his computers.” She steps away from my grasp. “The financial fraud is nothing compared to the litany of illegal NDAs he had only women sign, the non-competes that are so wildly controlling that it would decimate someone’s career if they signed it. Not to mention the decades of tax evasion and the miles-long trail that led directly to his embezzlement of over one hundred million dollars from Outside Media. The only reason he hasn’t been caught is because he’s a master at manipulating people, making them think that he’s just your average nice guy next door with a charming smile and that ambitious glint in his eyes.”

“That’s how people like him get away with it for so long, money, power and the fucked-up ability to have zero conscience.” I run my hand down her back. “So what happens now that you’ve sent everything to the authorities and Lyra? Have you considered reaching out to Jaxson? Just sending him the information to see what else he can do with it?”

She doesn’t answer, her arms just tighten around me as she buries her face in my chest. I close my eyes and savor it, the feeling that for once in my life this is my happily ever after. “I love you.” I whisper the words and that’s when I hear it, a sniff. I pull her back, my shirt wet with her tears that are running down her cheeks.

“He’s going to try and kill you,” she says through broken tears.

“What?” I step back, my hands falling to her upper arms.

“I thought I knew what the plan was, I thought I was enough steps ahead of him that I could see this through, but all this work and I feel like I’ve failed you. I’ve failed us.”

“Baby.” I walk us to the couch to sit down. “You need to walk me through what the hell is going on here.” She wipes her tears, regaining her composure.

“I thought that once I had all this evidence it would be over. He’s meeting with Lyra later this week which means their divorce settlement is right around the corner. I thought everything would come out and we could just walk away, letting it all implode but—he wants you dead and he’s going to set Lyra up for the fall.”

My head spins as she explains Connor’s plan to have me killed—at least as best she knows it. I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s not the first time I’ve had a target like this on my back, but in the past, that’s all it was, just me. Now, with Aspen to think about, this isn’t going to be a walk away and let the chips fall where they may kind of resolution.

“So that’s why he kept us around,” I think out loud. “Let me guess, the threats are fake?” She nods. “I’m not surprised. Jimmy and I had our doubts from the beginning. Hell, Alex and Luka thought it felt like a setup too but…”

“But what?” She looks up at me with her big brown eyes, wide and filled with fear.

“We couldn’t figure it out.” I laugh, feeling like an idiot but then again, how would we have put all these pieces together on our own? “You figured it out, baby.” I kiss her nose. “You played along with him in that meeting; you managed to get that fucker to trust you and spill his guts to you just like that.”

I can’t keep the fucking smile off my face. I pick her up and spin her around.

“I don’t understand how this is a good thing?” she says, confused. “It just complicated everything by like a million times and I didn’t tell Lyra; she doesn’t know.” Panic seizes her voice.

“Hey, you did the right thing.” I grab her face, forcing her to look at me. “Listen to me, Aspen. You did your part. This… this is my part, my expertise. I don’t want Lyra to know about this threat. I don’t want anyone but you and me to know… Do you understand me?”

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