Page 22 of Ruthless Redemption

The ground beneath them as a couple might not be crumbling, but it wasn’t fully solid either.

“Careful, old man. You keep throwing that shit in my face and Izzy and I will walk out that door right now. And I get the feeling whatever is in that folder means you need us here. I’m here. I’m working for you. And I’ve been nothing but straight with you. Full pledged member or not, you know you can trust me.”

JD’s face softened for a minute and the men around him stayed silent, but watched their president carefully. They both knew there were rules to this shit and he could only bend them so far. None of which made him feel even remotely better about this situation.

“Let’s just get this on the table and see what you two think. I don’t think you’re going to hate learning what we’ve dug up. And it wasn’t held back from either of you for very long. We moved on this the minute we got it.”

There was something about the way JD’s voice pitched that felt like he was imploring him to go along with this. As if he was asking him yet again to trust him without saying the words.

Houston looked around the room at the various hard faces of old friends and many new ones that he didn’t know all that well. He understood though, how JD had to save face here and he nodded. There was no point in arguing. What was done was done. They could only move forward.

Izzy looked at him and he gave her a look that he hoped indicated it would be okay whatever happened. That she sought his assurance comforted him. It also made him feel like they were a team. Whether he deserved it or not. Well, that was another matter they’d deal with when this nightmare ended.

She opened the folder and began to read. He moved closer and looked over her shoulder. There were financial reports that made absolutely no sense to him. Except for the zeroes. That he got because there was a literal fuck ton of them. As in millions. And they had all of his attention. Whatever this was it had heavy financial implications.

He started to read on when Izzy gasped, dropping the file to the carpet. The business suit panicked and lunged forward and scooped up all the papers.

Izzy turned to him white as a sheet. “Holy mother of God.”

“What?” He still had no idea what the hell was going on.

Chapter Ten

Izzy

This absolutely could not be what I thought it was. Right? My arms and legs were shaking as my brain spun with the implications of this new information.

Could it be true?

“Izzy, look at me. What’s wrong?” Houston cupped my face and tilted my head until we were looking at each other. His beautiful eyes were full of questions that I had no answers to.

“I think she’s in shock.” JD had moved closer and I bristled. I don’t know why, I just did. But Houston must have picked up on it and he moved to block me from the club president.

“Why is she in shock?” he asked without taking his eyes off of mine.

“Because she just realized that she is a very wealthy woman. Well, will be once she signs those papers.”

I heard the words plain as day, but their meaning didn’t sink in. Not with all of those numbers swimming in my head right along side the name of my fiancé.

“Explain.”

“Her father made a deal with Scutari for her that involved almost a billion dollars. The money was transferred to a joint account on the morning of their wedding. Only when she ran away before the ceremony finished, the deal was not finalized. That money has been sitting in limbo in that account ever since. I think it’s a damned miracle they haven’t come after her with everything they had before now. That’s why I let them know you’d be here in Vegas.”

That got my attention as I broke eye contact with Houston and stared at JD. “What? I thought we didn’t want them to know exactly where to look?”

“Had to keep our plans fluid, sweetheart. In this case it meant making sure they knew exactly where to look.”

“What?!” Houston exploded. “Why the fuck would you do that?”

“Because I needed to flush them both out and I knew this would. That’s how a setup works, son.”

I shivered as I thought of all that money. My father had sold me to Marco. No. I shook my head. He’d paid Marco to take me. He’d paid Marco to hurt me…

I had to admit I was shocked with how much he’d paid that idiot to take me. It was an obscene number. And I had no idea why anyone would pay for me in the first place. It made no sense.

“There has to be more to this,” I blurted out. “Why would my father pay someone to take me?”

“Izzy. Don’t—“

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