“Sure you can. I’ll pay off your mortgage and pay your bills. In fact, you could just sell your house if you want and move in with me.”
I barked out a laugh so hard I had to clutch at my side as it felt like daggers were stabbing me. “Fuck.”
Nate looked at me with concern. “You okay?”
I nodded and felt him relax under me.
“What was so funny anyway?” The perplexed look on his face made me snort.
“Well, everything we just went through aside, it’s kind of soon, isn’t it?”
I paused, another question demanding to be asked. “Okay, I need to know. What the fuck is with your house?”
Nate cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” I said, drawing out the word, “it’s like a fucking mansion. Is that really your house? Why? How?”
Embarrassed, I glanced away. “I mean. I did look you up a little, after I saw you with our witness. Sorry,” I mumbled. “And I saw some of the things about your parents and how you inherited some money from them. But like, that seems likea lot.”
He let out a chuckle, and his cheeks actually turned pink with embarrassment. “Yeah, that’s my house,” he said with a shrug. “I mean, I don’t know why I didn’t say anything. I guess I don’t really think about it.”
“I guess I didn’t realize you were secretly rich, even with theclothes and the car.” I let out a chuckle as my arms encircled his neck.
“Aiden… I… I didn’t think itwasa secret.”
My jaw practically dropped to the floor. “Wait. What?”
“I told you, I own properties, rehab them, repurpose them, and sell them.”
“Riiiight. Like a flipper.” I was so confused. I’d watched house flipping shows, so I knew there was money to be made, but it wasn’tmansionkind of money.
Nate shook his head. “Shit. Yes, but no. I guess we never really got into it and talked about it. At the time, it was easier the less you really knew about me. Though, people do know my name in the business world, and know what my name means.”
He shot me an apologetic smile.
“So I do residential and commercial properties. There are a multitude of corporations that I operate under—we won’t get to that,” he said with alookthat had me biting my tongue. “But I inherited my parents’ development company when they died.”
“Right. Yeah, like I said. I saw that you inherited that and some money from them. But I didn’t see anything that talked about actual figures.” I let out a sigh. “I guess, once I started looking, I realized I didn’t really want to know too much. It wasn’t giving me information that I thought I was looking for, more like stuff I’d rather know by getting to know you.”
Nate’s face went blank and his eyes glazed over in a way that made me want to throw up. He was shutting down, letting the mask slip back into place.
I reached out and cupped his face in my hands, but I didn’t say anything. He just needed to know I was there with him, to ground him, the way his hands rubbing small circles on my back grounded me.
He blew out a breath and then took a deep one. “When theydied, the company was worth just under a billion dollars, and now, just that company is worth double.”
My body went still, eyes wide, lungs frozen, and I stared at him.
To be honest, what he said broke my brain. It was incomprehensible to me and I realized then that was a sort of wealth he’d always known. In fact, it was probably what had kept him out of prison.
“Holy shit,” I muttered.
I let out a hysterical laugh that had him side-eyeing me. “I guess I know how you stayed off the cops’ radar for so long.”
He gave me a rueful smile but didn’t say anything.
“And you haveothercompanies, too.”
He started to say something, and I moved my hands from his cheeks to his mouth, shaking my head. “I don’t want to know.”
