Page 62 of Twisted Hearts

19

Shawn

“What?”

All the color leached from Addi’s face. Delivering this news was the last thing I wanted to do, and unfortunately, it wasn’t the worst of what I had to share, although I was still considering holding back the ugliest news I’d learned from Jaxon that day.

Addi needed to know, but it was also my job to protect her, to ensure she could go about her life as much as she possibly could before we ended whatever madness was happening.

This had become about so much more than Daniel being pissed his fiancée ditched him on their wedding day. Just the thoughts of what Jaxon had laid out for me earlier made me want me to murder someone. Daniel. His dad. Hell,herdad. Everyone involved.

“We’d need you to confirm the actual date of that first dinner you had with them when they set this all up, but shortly after he stole ten thousand dollars from Johanssen, he received a million-dollar payout that came from MaryAnne’s account.”

Her head jerked back, and none of that color returned. There was a lot to unpack, a lot of trails we had to chase, but what we knew for sure was that for whatever reason, her dad received a million dollars for her to start dating Daniel, was then put on what looked like some kind of payroll for the Johanssens afterward, oh…and Daniel’s mom?

She was a cousin to the Mafia family in New York City that dealt primarily in human trafficking and drugs, specifically heroin.

“Okay…so…let me get this straight. Mydadgot caught embezzling money from one of his clients and essentially threw me under the bus?”

“That’s the gist of it, yeah.”

I focused on her expressions. The way her nose twitched, her fingers tapping frantically on the kitchen counter, how her foot started to tap the rung of the bar stool at the same pace.

“It doesn’t make sense. And MaryAnne…what does she have to do with this?”

“We have no clue. That’s why I was asking about her.”

Her hand ran through her hair and fell back to the counter. “I don’t… Honestly, she was hardly ever around. She’s pretty. Jet black hair, thin and tall. Well-dressed. To me, she always seemed really distant, and I figured if Matthew treated women the way Daniel did, if he had taught his son how to treat women, then life wasn’t all that great for her. But she never seemed broken…just cold, I guess.”

“When’s the last time you saw her?”

“She came to our rehearsal dinner, but honestly, I was so miserable I blocked out most of the night. I have no idea how long she stayed.”

“All right. If you think of anything, and I mean anything, let me know.”

“I will.” She reached for her water and unscrewed the top. “What else has Jaxon discovered?”

There was no way I was telling her about the Mafia connection, not without further proof it meant anything, and it might not. Maybe MaryAnne was just a sidepiece for the mayor, a beaten, broken, abused woman who did what was required of her and little else to survive. Hell, maybe Matthew had taken the money from her accounts without her knowledge.

Without being able to fully trace the money that seemed to vanish, we had no way of knowing.

“Nothing I know for certain.”

“I want to know.”

“I know.” Because I wanted to know everything too, but that wouldn’t help her. To soften the blow of everything she’d learned, everything she was going to stay in the dark with, I leaned forward and cupped the back of her neck with my palm. She melted and relaxed into my hold almost instantly, and her tongue darted out, swiping along her bottom lip. “And I’ll tell you when it starts making sense, but at this point it’s all guesses on our part. Okay?”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek and took a sip of water, pulling away from me. I let her go even though all I wanted to do was restart the day how we had, get my hands on her, and ignore that damn call from Jaxon, even if what we’d learned was worthwhile.

“All right,” she whispered. “I trust you to keep me informed though.”

“I will.” I grinned. I needed to erase this day and relax. “Anything you want to do for the rest of the day?”

“I need food. Do you think it’s okay to go to the store, or should we order from online?”

Ordering would have been smarter, but if I was there, I figured we’d be okay.

“As long as it’s a quick trip.”

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