Page 4 of Bitter Secrets

“I’m not going to let you do that,” she said tersely. “You’re going to drop it.”

A charged silence greeted her declaration. No one told Lyle Caruso what he could or couldn’t do, but she couldn’t let him do this. Roth had already proved how far he would go to protect his secret, and there was no way in hell she would allow her brother-in-law to put himself in the line of fire for her.

“And why would I do that?”

Obstinate man. How could she protect him if he wouldn’t drop his vendetta against Roth?

“Don’t act like you’re squeaky clean,” she said impatiently. “Colette and Ariana aren’t saints, either. You’re all in the same cutthroat business as him. You can’t operate at that level and not get your hands dirty. If I hired someone to look intoyou, are you telling me they wouldn’t find something you’d pay to keep quiet?”

The buzzing silence on the other end gave her a surge of adrenaline. She stabbed blindly and hit.

“Is there anything you want to confess, Lyle?”

“This isn’t about me; it’s about him.”

His tone warned her she was on thin ice, but she wasn’t going to back off when she had him off-kilter and on the defensive for the first time in the conversation.

“Does Colette know?”

“What are you accusing me of?”

There was definitely something there, but he was right. This was about Roth, not him. She accomplished her goal. Time to change tactics.

“I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m pointing out we all have something to hide, things we aren’t proud of, that we’d like to keep private.”

“He nearly killed Thea.”

It went against everything she believed in to downplay Roth’s actions, but what choice did she have? “How far would you go to stop someone from revealing a secret that had been used to control you for years?”

“I can’t believe you’re defending him.”

“I’m not! It’s just…” She grasped at straws, thinking in the same convoluted way an attorney would to defend a guilty client. “Dad wasn’t satisfied when he destroyed Roth’s companies in the States. He also derailed any progress he made in Europe. Roth succeeded despite all these roadblocks, but Dad went on to blackmail and then double-cross him.”

“For you,” he pointed out.

Her hand passed over her aching chest. She didn’t know how to feel about that. “I didn’t know Dad blackmailed him, and if I had, I wouldn’t have agreed to it.”

“Why not? You wanted out of the marriage.”

“Not enough to use something like that against him.” She shook her head and genuine bewilderment colored her tone as she said, “I’ve never seen him react to anything like that. Even when his companies crumbled and his contacts and partners turned their backs on him, he didn’t rage. He took it stoically. I’ve never seen him…”

She swallowed the scream that started to edge up again and ran a hand through her tangled hair as she tried to state her case succinctly, hyperaware that she wasn’t just fighting for her life, but her family’s as well.

“Roth paid his dues. He kept up his end of the agreement he made with Dad. Dad’s the one who betrayed his trust.” The pain she’d bottled up came through. It didn’t matter what the source was, just that it was genuine. “After what Dad put him through, I’d say he’s entitled to his secrets.”

She paused to give Lyle the opportunity to argue or agree, but he was mute. She wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing, but she decided to add something that may put him at ease.

“Whatever his secret is, it affects him alone. It won’t blow back on us,” she said.

“And you believe that?”

“Yes.” Roth wouldn’t allow anyone else to capitalize on the secret her father had uncovered.

“And if you’re wrong?”

“Then I’m wrong. I’m willing to take the risk.”

“It took you years to put yourself back together again.”

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