Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
“But he was your ex. Jean Claude has no loyalty to you and no soft spot for anyone.” I stroke her hair from her eyes. “Get warm in the vehicle. We’ll be right there.” I set her away from me and start to turn. She catches my arm.
“I hate that you’re involved and yet so damn relieved that you’re here.”
The emotion in her voice undoes me. “I got you, Abbie, baby,” I promise, kissing her again. “All the way. Every day.” I turn her to the backseat, eager to just get this done and over with. “I’ll be right there.” Obedient for once, she does as I say and climbs inside.
I quickly shut the door behind her, my attention already turning to Reid, who motions me to the back of the SUV where he asks the same question he asked right before Abbie had walked in. “How much trouble is this for you and us?”
I scrub my jaw. “He threatened me and now he’s dead, but the only person who heard that threat was Abbie.”
“Threatened you how?”
“With a coded piece of my past better left in my past, that he wouldn’t know about if dad hadn’t told him.”
“In other words, dad’s really fucking involved in all of this.”
“Is that a surprise?” I ask. “Isn’t he behind most of the shit we deal with these days?”
“Was Abbie there during the exchange with Kenneth?”
“Yes and that was intentional. Dad knows this isn’t something I want Abbie to hear from someone else.”
Reid doesn’t ask for details. He’s focused on actions. “How did you handle the threat, Gabe? Because we both know you tried to talk me out of coming back. We both know you wanted me to stay away from this for a reason.”
“I damn sure wasn’t giving Kenneth the chance to ruin us. I started the process to destroy him, but there’s no way that ties back to me or us. I made sure of it.”
His cellphone rings and he grabs it from his pocket, eyes the number and then me. “Walker.” He answers the call and when I would listen in, I hear the back door of the SUV open.
“Gabe!” Abbie calls out. “Gabe!”
At the urgency in her voice, I rotate to walk toward her, only to have her rush at me. “It’s on the news,” she says. “I just saw it on my phone. No details but his death is public now.”
Reid rounds the vehicle and joins us. “I have the details. I just talked to Blake Walker. Kenneth took a bullet between the eyes. It was an assassination, a professional hit.”
Abbie grabs my arms, twisting my jacket in her fingers. “That means your camera footage won’t save you.”
“She right,” Reid agrees. “The police will be looking for the person, or persons, who hired the killer. And you’ll both be on the suspect list. Blake is already working to pull together the electronic data to clear your names. ”
“Electronic data?” Abbie asks.
“Yes,” Reid says. “Emails, phone records, and financial records for starters.”
Abbie’s knees go weak and I catch her waist, holding her up. “I need to talk to you alone,” she whispers. “Now.”
Chapter fifty-one
Gabe
Abbie’s panic is palpable and with about ten alarms going off in my head, I pull her to the passenger door of the SUV, out of Reid’s earshot. “Talk to me,” I say, hands settling on her waist, just in case she decides that whatever this is, is yet another reason to bolt.
“That’s just it,” she says. “I can’t. That’s what I want to say to you. If Reese is going to represent me, I need to talk to him in private or he can’t be my attorney.”
“You have every right to speak to him alone, but I don’t like how this vibes right now, Abbie. This is my brother-in-law, my pregnant sister’s husband, you’re about to have as your attorney. What am I pulling him into? What haven’t you told me?”
“I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you think,” she says. “But—it’s complicated.” She holds up a hand. “I can’t talk about this. What you don’t know, can’t hurt you. If I tell you everything, and you’re questioned or put under oath—”
“Hire me,” I say, because I don’t know what she did, but I need to know before we get to the courthouse. “If I’m one of your attorneys, what you tell me is privileged.”
“You aren’t my attorney, Gabe. We have no official contract.”
I reach in my pocket, pull out my money clip, and hand her a dollar. “Pay me and tell me I’m hired.”
“Gabe—”
“Do it, Abbie,” I bite out, feeling the pressure of Reese’s courtroom schedule.
“You’re so damn stubborn,” she hisses but she shoves the money in my hands. “You’re hired.”
“Tell me,” I order, pocketing the dollar.
“I’m afraid I caused this.”
“What does that mean?”
“I found some incriminating documents a few years back, proof that Kenneth stole from Jean Claude. When he came at you, I hit a limit. I didn’t want you to suffer for me. I had Jean Claude’s business card in my wallet. I thought if he went at Kenneth, broke off their financial arrangement even, that Kenneth would have his hands full. He’d back off. They’d leave us alone.”