Page 83 of The Billionaire's Rival (Bad Boy Billionaires)

He nodded.

Worth frowned. “Why am I the only one who doesn’t know this whole story?”

“Because you weren’t around when Carter first came back, and he doesn’t like to talk about it,” I said.

“Can you at least fill me in now?”

Carter sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“Would you rather I tell it?” Miles asked.

Carter shook his head. “If I’m going to have to fucking confront Matteo, I better at least be able to talk about him.”

The bitterness that had hung over Carter for months after he came home was back, and I hated that.

“Matteo was in my platoon. He was an arrogant shithead, but we hooked up a few times.”

That statement begged for questions, but I knew better than to ask.

“In the midst of a mission that was going to hell, I caught him meeting up with members of the cartel we were supposed to put out of business. I held back, listening, hoping he was setting a trap for them, but knowing in my gut that wasn’t what was happening.”

Worth looked pale. “You were right, weren’t you?”

Carter nodded. “I watched Matteo make a deal with them, but then I fucked up. I reached for my weapon, but I made too much noise. I took off but Matteo brought me down with a bullet to the shoulder.

“The other man ordered him to shoot me in the head, but Matteo said I’d be useful, so they trussed me up, dragged me back to the enemy’s stronghold, and tossed me in a cell. Later that night, Matteo returned. I expected to be tortured, but he let me go, told me to get the hell out. Somehow, I made it back to camp before I collapsed.”

“Fuck, man,” Worth said. “That’s…I knew you’d been through some bad shit and all, but damn. I’m sorry.”

Carter just nodded.

“And now the fucker is right here in New York causing trouble again,” Miles said.

Worth scowled. “Then he’s as good as dead.”

I expected Carter to agree, but he didn’t say anything, didn’t move, didn’t even seem to breathe. There was a lot more to this story than he was telling us.

“Are the men Matteo was working with connected to the ones who want the warehouse?”

“Yes,” Carter said. “That’s probably why Miles’s friend put us onto this situation.”

Miles nodded. “Almost certainly, not that the bastard will give me any details.”

“It’s safer that way.”

“He could have warned us about Matteo.”

Carter huffed. “Yes, he could have.”

None of us suggested that Miles’s friend didn’t know, because this man had an uncanny ability to suss out any and all intel once he involved himself.

“He probably thought it wouldn’t get this far,” Carter said.

“Did he think I’d sacrifice Jay?”

“Jay wasn’t originally on this case.”

I nodded. “True.” The woman who’d been assigned to it was a bitch, not that she necessarily deserved for her life to be in danger, but she’d given the case to Jay just to test him, knowing it was an impossible win, or at least thinking it was. I didn’t think she had any idea about the rest of the bullshit attached to it. “So, what does that mean?”

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