Page 77 of Beyond Rosy Irish Twilight

My mind was racing a million miles a minute as I tried to process everything he was telling me. He was one of the good guys, but he was doing bad things for the right reasons.

“Why marry me?” He hesitated for a second. “I was in the room that day. I couldn’t hear everything you were saying, but I know enough. Did you call that meeting? Were you planning to use me to get in with my father?”

“No,” he answered fiercely. “I didn’t call that meeting. I’m not going to lie, it was exactly what I needed. But you don’t turn down a meeting from your father. With the snap of his fingers, he could end my organization. He’s fucking powerful, Jade. I went in knowing it could end very badly for me. And his suggestion that I marry you wasn’t exactly something I could say no to either. You heard him say he wanted this marriage as a contract between our organizations.”

“Yeah, I remember that part clearly.”

“He’s planning a takeover. But there’s been a lot of heat on us since we became engaged. I have no doubt as soon as we figure out who’s behind the attacks, he’s going to make his next move. That’s the only reason he hasn’t dragged me over to his estate already.”

I bit my lip as I plopped down in my seat beside the bed again. This was so much to take in, but it all made sense now. Asher not only wasn’t a bad guy, but neither were his closest employees, or whatever they were called. But there were other things to consider for me. My mother was still in that house. I didn’t want her wrapped up in any of this. And then there was Margaret. She had cared for my mother like no one ever could. I also had my own secrets that I’d yet to share with him. I couldn’t hold those back any longer.

“Jade,” he said, grabbing my hand.

“No, it’s…” I fought back the tears as relief flooded me. I didn’t know how to explain to him how I was feeling. Relief was a weak word in comparison. I wasn’t alone, not anymore. Knowing these men were good men, that they were here to help was something I had only ever dreamed would happen.

“Jade, talk to me,” he said desperately.

I sucked in a breath and wiped the tears from my face. I couldn’t believe this. I laughed slightly as I finally opened my eyes and looked at him. “You’re not one of them.”

“No,” he shook his head. “Not even close.”

“My father is a dangerous man. I already knew that. I just didn’t know how deep it went.” I huffed out a laugh as I finally met his eyes. “I knew Patrick was too nice to be a criminal.”

“Just Patrick?” he teased.

I shrugged lightly. “You’re not so bad yourself. You’re like a woman, though. You have constant mood swings.”

“Only because I was trying to protect you,” he said gravely. “I like you a lot, Jade, but if your father realized how much—”

“He would use it against you,” I finished. “That sounds exactly like him.”

“It wasn’t that I didn’t want you or…I’m just trying to keep things straight in my mind. From the very beginning, I could see you’re different. But it was hard for me to seem indifferent to him when I cared about what happened to you.”

Now that his cards were on the table, it was time for me to do the same. It wasn’t easy, but I knew I could trust him. After everything he told me, my father would kill him if he found out what his true intentions were. So, as much as I didn’t want to relive the past, I dove into the story.

“My father told you I betrayed the family, and I did, but not in the way he led you to believe. Three years ago, I came across paperwork my father didn’t intend for me to see. I knew it wasn’t anything good, but I didn’t understand it. It was a bunch of figures that didn’t seem to add up. I knew he was doing something illegal with money, but I’m not the best with financial information. Anyway, I spent the next year gathering information wherever I could and putting together a file for the FBI. I had a contact inside and I was going to hand everything over to him so he could take my father down. But it turned out the man I was in contact with was stringing me along. He wanted to know how much information I could gather because he worked for my father.”

“Shit,” Asher sighed. “It was a setup.”

I nodded. “As soon as I handed over the file, my father stormed into the room.” I swallowed hard as I remembered that day, the terror I felt when I realized my father knew all along. “He was so angry. After the first time I contacted Henry…” I huffed out a laugh. “I’m not even sure that was really his name. He told my father immediately, and my father purposely left a trail of evidence for me to find—all irrelevant. He just wanted to know how far I was willing to go to betray him.”

“What happened?”

The soothing tone in Asher’s voice had me looking away. I wanted his comfort more than anything, but it was hard to talk about. I didn’t want him to look at me differently, like I was damaged. I stood and walked over to the window, staring out at the grounds.

“He had me taken to a cell where I was handcuffed around a pipe. He wanted me to know what I had given up when I betrayed the family.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t have you killed,” Asher muttered.

“He didn’t want anyone to know what I had done. I didn’t understand it at the time, but it makes sense now.” I turned back to face him, feeling more confident. “Imagine what the other members of The Syndicate would have said if they found out his own daughter turned on him.”

“They would have said he was too weak,” Asher said. “They might have considered taking their business elsewhere. It would have ruined him.”

I nodded. “He left me down there for two weeks, keeping me miserable with only two guards that constantly taunted me.” I swallowed hard and looked away again. “One day, this one guard was tired of waiting for my father to give him the go-ahead.”

“The go-ahead for what?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. He told them to make my life miserable. I guess they finally decided taunting me with food and water and making me piss myself wasn’t enough. He started tearing at my clothes, but I fought back as hard as I could.”

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