“You don’t have to do anything. I want what you’ve already done. I want the Bauer paintings or the money I could make by selling them.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. They were stolen.”
He arches a brow. “Don’t you? Honestly, Ellie, it doesn’t seem like much to ask in exchange for Colton’s future.”
“How much?”
“The paintings? All of them.”
“How much cash?”
“One million in cash, and I’ll leave you and my son to raise my bastard grandchild without my interference. Otherwise, you might find your baby daddy being taken away for murdering his father.”
Levi
Ellie is the last person I expect to see at my house, but when I walk in the door from the gym, there she is, sitting on my porch, wringing her hands as she waits for me.
“Ellie? Is everything okay?”
“I need help.”
I step toward her. “What happened?”
She doesn’t meet my eyes. “Colton’s in trouble.”
I freeze at the sound of his name. “I see. You wouldn’t be here to see me if it weren’t about him. I’m only allowed in your life when you need something from me.”
“I know this isn’t fair.”
Not fair? I’ve felt like someone was slowly sawing me in half since the moment I saw that ring on her finger, and now she’s here because she wants my help. Fair is nowhere in sight. “Colton is always in trouble, Ellie. Don’t you see that yet?” I shrug. “And I’m out. He’s a big boy who makes his own choices.”
She jumps off the porch chair and rushes over to me, grabbing my hand and squeezing it. “This is different. He’s going to clean up. We just need to help him one more time. You know how dangerous his father is. I can’t do this on my own.”
I yank my hand from her grasp. “Fuck that. If you want to spend your life with a man who’s going to constantly need bailing out, that’s on you. But when you’re struggling to pick yourself up again next time or the time after that, just remember that you had a choice and you chose him.”
She steps back and lifts her chin. When she looks into my eyes, the dull blade in my chest twists. “Forget I said anything,” she whispers. “I shouldn’t have come.”
Then she walks to her car, and it takes everything in me not to chase after her.
Ellie
Colton wraps me into a hug the second I walk in the door. He’s in a good mood tonight. I can tell by the way he moves. “What took you so long?”
“I got held up at my listing.” I pull out of his arms before he releases me. I’m weary and not in a snuggling mood.
“Really? How come?”
I close my eyes. I might as well tell him. “Why did you think you could get away with blackmailing your father?”
He blinks then gives a long, resigned sigh. “Because he’s a fucker who needs to pay for what he’s done. I have the dirt on him. I have proof of the money he was laundering through the gallery. Proof of cars he sold on the black market. Of dirty favors you wouldn’t even believe. Why let him ruin Molly’s life when I don’t have to?”
I shake my head. Colton’s always been too proud for his own good. He thinks he can handle every injustice himself, like he’s some superhero. Nelson’s about to prove otherwise. “Why not just go to the cops? Tell them everything he did to her so they can arrest the sick asshole?”
“You don’t think that would disrupt Molly’s life? You think she wants everyone to know that her slimy stepdad touched her? You don’t think my father would fight it with everything he had? He’s one of the most powerful lawyers in this town. Everyone owes him favors, and he always makes things go his way.” He shakes his head. “I couldn’t go to the cops, not when he controls them. I had to deal with this myself. And it was simple. I let him know I’d hand over evidence of his criminal dealings if he didn’t leave town for good.”
I wrap my arms around myself. I don’t like Nelson any more than Colton does, but I maintain a healthy fear of the man. “You didn’t think this through.”
His face twists into a sneer. “I hate that I didn’t protect her from him. Hate that I wasn’t there to see what was happening. I always thought he was weird about her. What grown man worships a little girl like that? I should have seen it. I should have known.”