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“I—” I tensed when he shoved his phone in front of my face and cautiously looked from it to him. “What?”
“Take it.”
I set down the other half of my burrito as I took his phone. My eyes bounced over the screen, taking in names and numbers. “The hell is this?”
We all had bank accounts with a secondary person on the account. Accounts that weren’t tied to O’Sullivan Financial in any way.
It was just smart.
We were in the mob. People died a lot and we wanted to make sure the money went where it was supposed to.
Conor had one with Beck. Beck had one with me.
I’d had one with Aric and had switched it to Lily after his death. When she left, it had changed over to Beck.
But Beck had a spending problem. A bad one. So, what I was looking at didn’t add up. Because the account on the screen was in his name, with me as the secondary.
And it had over two hundred grand.
I knew he couldn’t hold on to that kind of money.
“It’s all of it,” he said gruffly. “Everything Jess ever paid me.”
I glanced at him then looked at the phone before slowly handing it over. “I don’t understand.”
“I took the money because I knew if I didn’t, Mickey would find out that I was giving product for free. I was already letting her mom take it because I thought it would keep her only coming to me . . . but someone had to pay. But every dollar she has ever paid me is in that account. I used my own money when I turned over my cut to Mickey.”
“And she doesn’t know about that?”
He shook his head roughly.
“Is any of that yours?”
“No, man. That’s ten years of coke.”
I dragged my hands over my face and rested my elbows on my knees. “Why didn’t you tell her?”
“I wanted to. I mean, fuck, I planned to.” He let out a groan and started pacing the length of his room. “I was going to save it until she was older. I thought it would be a way to help her get a start on a life away from her mom, or some shit. And then before that time came, I fell for her. So I thought it would be something I could show her after . . .” A frustrated grunt sounded in his chest and he flung his hands out. “Doesn’t matter. She hated me, so I never told her.”
“Tell her now,” I shouted, dropping my hands to look at him. “Damn it, Beck. You found out about AJ, and you didn’t tell her?”
“You think I didn’t want to?” he asked, turning mid-pace to face me. “But if I did, she wouldn’t take it. Not from me.”
Fuck if he wasn’t right.
She’s too proud. She’d laugh in his face and walk away.
“It’s been fucking with my head for years, how to make sure she gets it. But now . . . there’s you. I never had any reason to tell you about this. Jess wasn’t on your radar. But now that she is, I need you to know this is here. If she’s accepting your help, you can get her to take it.”
I studied him for a second before nodding.
“All I’ve ever wanted was to help her. And she’s right”—he backed up slowly until he hit the wall with a dull thud—“I’ve done nothing but hurt her.”
“I know how you feel.”
He nodded absentmindedly for long moments before a faint laugh came from him. “If we ever get out of this fucked-up life, maybe I’ll find someone. Someone who doesn’t know me as a mobster or drug dealer . . . yeah?”
One of my brows rose. “I don’t know. You’re a scary-looking son of a bitch.”
