Page 77 of B & E Ever After (Fairy Tale Quartet 3)

He pulled to the curb, and I realized we had arrived at my building.

Twisting in his seat to face me, he added, “Because you and I never would’ve crossed paths if you hadn’t gone out to find Daffodils that night or if you hadn’t broken into Lana’s apartment.”

The way that he watched me as if looking inside me told me so many things that he felt. I wasn’t sure how to deal with it. It was all so overwhelming. Did I really hate this guy? Or did I really like him? He could make me waffle between either emotions at the drop of a hat. The whole thing was seriously confusing me.

“Why did you do what you did earlier?” I asked softly, still betrayed by it but willing to talk it out without the anger and explore his possible good attributes. “I thought you were going to help me.”

“I did help you,” he murmured, reaching up to sift the backs of his fingers gently—almost lovingly—across my cheek, “in the only way I knew how. And also…” He cleared his throat, looking distinctly uncomfortable before he dropped his hand from my face and added, “I need your help in return.”

I wrinkled my brow. “How so?”

Turning to face the front windshield, he gripped the steering wheel and confessed, “You can’t share anything I’m about to say with Kaitlynn.” Then he turned toward me. “With anyone.”

I frowned. “Okay,” I said slowly. “So, Kaitlynn’s involved somehow?”

He nodded. “And right now it’s just me theorizing and guessing. None of it might be true, so I don’t want to unnecessarily upset her if I’m wrong, even though I doubt I am.”

“Wrong about what?”

He heaved out a breath. “When Kaitlynn’s father died, I think Lana somehow changed his will so she could steal most of Kaitlynn’s inheritance.”

“Oh, shit,” I breathed. “Are you serious?”

Hayden nodded. He went on to explain a crazy impossible story about Kaitlynn being cheated out of her inheritance, about estate lawyers coming back from the

dead and living in Mexico, and his mother being at the hub of it all.

“I have another meeting set up with Detective Gutierrez at the police department on Friday evening. I’ll present him with all the evidence I have then about Finley being alive and living in Cancun. But I was hoping to have something concrete against Lana as well, proving she was involved in altering Arthur’s will, because she had to have been involved.”

“And what if she wasn’t?” I asked, playing devil’s advocate.

He shook his head. “If she was receiving phone calls from Finley, she can’t be completely innocent. It’s just not possible. But I’m sure I can find evidence one way or another to prove or disprove it. I know Lana; she collects souvenirs, especially from the more cruel things she does. If she was involved in changing that will, I guarantee you she still has the original stashed away somewhere. I just need some time to search her apartment to find it.”

When his gaze lifted meaningfully to me, I realized what he was truly asking. “Or you need an inside woman to play at being the maid and search for you while I’m dusting and vacuuming. Holy shit, you want to bring down your own mother.”

Something that looked vaguely like shame and self-disgust entered his gaze before he rasped, “It’s the only way. She needs to be stopped. For her own good as much as everyone else’s.”

I took in his expression and could almost feel the turmoil he was experiencing. I agreed with him fully; the woman he wanted to expose deserved punishment on all counts—she needed to be stopped—but still. She was his mother. No matter what she’d done to him or anyone else, this couldn't be easy for him.

Nodding slowly to show him I couldn’t judge him for his actions, I said, “She does need to be stopped.”

His gaze filled with a wary hope. “So, you’ll help me?”

I snorted. “Fuck yes. If that bitch gypped Kaitlynn out of her rightful money, I’m in. I am so in.” Besides, she’d threatened my family tonight. No one did that and got away with it.

With a relieved exhale, Hayden nodded. “And if we find the proof we need, it’ll send Lana to jail, freeing both of us and our families from her control, too.”

“Kill three birds with one stone,” I agreed, bobbing my head in agreement. “I like it.” My gaze lifted to him. “So what does she have against you that keeps you under her control?”

“My brother,” he answered immediately, shocking me with how willing he was to share his weakness. “Brick. She manipulates him too, of course, but I don’t think it’s quite as much as she does with me because I make sure to act as the buffer, taking on the lion’s share of her demands so she won’t turn as many on him. If I just disappeared, who knows what she’d do to him. Or Kaitlynn.”

I swallowed, realizing this man had so many unexpected layers that I could probably reveal a new one each day and still learn something surprising about him for the rest of my life. He really did hide his best features from the world. And what remarkable features they were.

“Plus,” he went on, shrugging ruefully. “There’s JFI. From the moment Arthur Judge entered my life, he instilled his love and passion for his company into me. That’s the only place that’s ever, truly felt like my home. And it shouldn’t be in Lana’s hands. Someone who respects the business and wants the best for it should get it. Not her. It’d be better off with Kaitlynn.”

I smiled softly. “Sounds like you wouldn’t mind running the place yourself.”

He sent me a dry glance. “That’s not possible. So I’ll settle for making sure my stepsister gets it.”

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