Page 101 of Crossroads of Love

“He did. I guess I chose my words wrong. The incidents leading up to how the inmate got the gun in the first place didn’t make sense. They brought in investigators to make sure that it wasn’t foul play inside the department.”

“That makes sense. That’s probably protocol, too.”

“Yeah. That’s not what brings you in this morning, though, right?”

“I told her the truth...about Aaron. Everything. Well, almost everything.”

Mike raises a brow. “Almost?”

“I left your name out of it,” I clarify. “She doesn’t know about the legal side of things, just that Aaron was taking bribes. I didn’t want to drag you into it until we had a plan.”

He leans back in his chair, his hands steepled together. “How did she take it?”

I let out a long breath, the memory of Lena’s reaction playing out in my mind. “Not great. I mean, she was shocked, hurt. She loved Aaron once, even after everything. Finding out he was involved in something so dirty...it broke something in her. But she understands I couldn’t keep it from her any longer.”

“And what about you? Did you learn anything else from her?”

I hesitate for a second, then decide to be upfront. I had my concerns about Mike protecting Aaron, but I realized that if Dad thought Mike was dirty, he never would have trusted him with his Will or anything else.

“Yeah. But not about the bribes. She said that she’d caught him cheating before when Jay was really young. She told me she’d caught him misspending their money and lying about it. She caught him in a lot of lies.”

“Jesus.”

“Tell me about it,” I mutter. “I want to protect Lena from the fallout, but I’m not sure how to do that. If this whole thing blows up, I don’t want her getting caught in the crossfire.”

“We need to be smart about this. The more we can distance her from the situation, the better. If anyone asks, she doesn’t know anything. And we keep her name out of any legal proceedings. That’s where I come in. I’ll make sure she’s protected legally, but we have to be careful.”

“I appreciate it, Mike. Really.”

“If you want to share Henry’s files with me, maybe between the two of us we can figure some more out. I might recognize some of the names.”

I take a deep breath. “For sure.”

My phone vibrates, and I look down to see a text from my PI.

Nate:I have a name for your brother’s mistress. Mercedes Silva, she goes by Sadie. Seems they met on a dating app. The child, Stetson, is about two years old and your brother’s name is on the birth certificate. I’ll send over an address and phone number in a bit.

“How much do you know about Hank?” I ask as I look back up at Mike.

“Not much. He really keeps to himself. Why?”

“Dad gave him some of our land. I went out to the old hunting cabin to see if I could find him. I found…something disturbing. It seems that he’s been spying on Lena and Jayla.”

“What?”

“Yeah, there were photos all over a wall of the two of them.”

“Did you contact the sheriff?”

“No, I reached out to a PI friend, though, and he’s doing some digging for me. After meeting Dejan yesterday I’m glad that I didn’t go to him. I don’t think he would have taken it seriously.”

“Shit. We need…”

“I’m staying at the house with them for now. They’ll be safe. I was supposed to go back into the city for a meeting, but I’ll try to get it moved to a Zoom call.”

“That’s good. I have a friend who can keep an eye on the two of them when you’re not around.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

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