Page 59 of Jack of Hearts
She closed the laptop. “I honestly don’t know if I can trust you. I want to. My heart tells me that I can, but I don’t understand why you hang out with Ramon. I think he sells drugs. My uncle, too. Is it really because you and Ramon are just friends?” She drew circles on the comforter. “Because I have to tell you that I have trouble believing that.”
He scooted around to face her. “Look at me, Madison.” He waited for her to lift her eyes to his. “I told you the truth when I said I don’t use drugs. I don’t sell drugs. I’ve never even smoked a joint because if my brothers had caught me doing anything like that, they would have beaten my butt raw.”
“Yet, you’re friends with a drug dealer?”
“Not really. The more I was around him, the less I liked him. Since I’ve learned how he treats you, I’ve pretty much avoided him.” His lies to her were coming home to roost. It would be over soon, and he’d be able to tell her everything. He couldn’t wait for that day to come.
“Okay, I’m going to trust you, but if you go straight to Ramon—”
“I won’t. I swear it on the lives of my brothers.” He hadn’t been sure he’d ever see that kind of trust shining in her eyes. It made him want to promise that he’d never hurt her, but that was going to happen as soon as he made his confession. Aware that he was walking a fine line between what he had to do for the job and being as honest with her as he could for now, he stayed silent.
“I know how much you love your brothers, so that’s good enough for me.” She let out a sigh. “I think Nelson’s spying for Ramon and my uncle.”
Smart girl. “That’s one possibility. Is there a reason you think that?”
“Yeah. Here’s my problem. My uncle loaned me the money for my share of the bookstore. Now he’s holding it over my head.”
“How?” That problem was going to be solved soon, but he couldn’t tell her that either.
“He wants me to launder money through the bookstore. I don’t even know how that works. What really upsets me is that he doesn’t seem to care about the risk to Lauren and me. We could go to prison, Alex.”
“No, baby. Not ever going to happen.” He pulled her to him.
“You can’t know that.”
Dammit. He did know it. “You said you trusted me. Do you mean it?” At her nod, he said, “Here’s what we’re going to do. Tell Lauren that you caught Nelson snooping, but you don’t know why. That gives you a good reason to ban him from staying over. If she wants to see him away from the bookstore, that’s her business.” Not that she would be seeing him for long. He’d go down with the Alonzos.
“Good. I was going to talk to her today, anyway. And I already told Ramon I wasn’t going to let him use the bookstore to wash his dirty money.” She frowned. “Do they really wash the money?”
“I think if it’s new bills they do.” He had to be careful not to be too knowledgeable about all this. “Listen, you really need to stand firm with your uncle on that.”
“I know. It’s just that ... he’s always been intimidating, but I can’t let him force me into risking everything. Ramon didn’t take me seriously when I told him it wasn’t going to happen.”
“Then he’s stupid. I sure wouldn’t mess with you, Grasshopper.” That earned him a smile, which went straight to his heart. He wanted to strip her of those sexy little boxers and pass the morning making love to her, but he needed to talk to her about her father. He hated to pile more on her, but since they were already having a heavy discussion, maybe now was better.
“I’m going to make us a pot of coffee,” he said, pulling on his jeans. “There’s something else we need to talk about.” He leaned down, giving her a kiss, and when she slipped her hand around his neck, her fingers warm on his skin, he almost said to hell with talking.
She pushed him away. “Hurry back.”
While he waited for the pot to brew, his phone buzzed, Court’s name coming up. “Where are you?”
“Madison’s.” Alex peeked around the corner to make sure no one was in the hallway. “She thinks Lopez is spying for the Alonzos. She also said that her uncle wants her to launder money through the bookstore.”
“Not surprised. If nothing else, we now know that if she’s confiding in you, then she’s not involved with them.”
“I’ve always known it.” Almost always, anyway. Maybe he wasn’t sure in the beginning, but it hadn’t taken him long to realize it.
“I’m glad you were right, little brother. Have you talked to her about her father?”
“About to do that.”
“Good. I called to tell you Nate wants you to get her to let us into her father’s study. See if we can turn anything up.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” After hanging up, he headed back to Madison’s room, eyeing Lauren’s closed door. Was Lopez in there? He didn’t like not knowing.
Shutting the door behind him, he held out a cup. “Here you go.”
She took the cup from him. “Thank you, kind sir.”
