AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“A soap opera?” I laughed, reaching for my hard cider. It was nearly empty. “Somehow, I doubt Trevor is that interesting.”
“Hey, you never know.” Lucas shrugged and got up. “Want anything from the kitchen? Another drink?”
“Sure, another drink would be nice,” I said. “Thank you.”
He disappeared into the kitchen, and my eyes followed him. His butt was truly amazing. And the fact that he waited on me all the time, always making sure I was okay? That was even better. It was still so hard to get used to. In the past, I was usually the partner who was rushing around, trying to appease.
I scrolled through the PDF that the PI had sent, sighing. A lot of it was boring. Trevor’s speeding tickets. His public intoxication from his college days. Nothing interesting.
Lucas came back with another cider for me, giving me a kiss on the cheek as he dropped it off. Our knees touched as we kept working. The hours seemed to tick by slowly until I hit a page about halfway through the document.
Dane’s name was right next to Trevor’s in this LLC filing.
“Oh, my god,” I said, my heart starting to pound. The words swam across the page, though Dane’s still stood out. “My ex. He was—he is—Trevor’s business partner.”
“Woah, what? What page?” Lucas asked. I told him, and he scrolled. “Your ex’s name is Dane? Did you know he was business partners with Trevor?”
“Obviously not.” I forced myself to calm down as I read through the section.
Dane had drained me of money for his crypto business, but this business was just a deli. I opened a tab and plugged in the deli into Google Maps. It had two stars for its shitty prices and quality, but it somehow hadn’t closed in the competitive neighborhood it was in.
How? The money had to be coming from somewhere, but I doubted that business was clean.
My stomach knotted up as I continued reading, the news getting worse and worse. I wasn’t sure where the investigator had gotten some of these numbers, but Dane’s contribution was very close to the amount of money I’d loaned him. I tracked every dime of it.
I pressed the heels of my hands to my forehead, trying to calm down. Maybe it was nothing. Dane didn’t have the best business sense, so maybe Trevor was leading him astray. But maybe this place, as the PI’s notes suggested, was a front for something, and Dane knew.
Had I nearly gone broke funding a freaking money laundering scheme?
I was so stupid. How did I not see this before?
“I can’t believe this,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. I wished I had paper files so I could toss them across the table. “I can’t believe I gave him all that money for this.”
“Hey now.” Lucas put his hand on my shoulder, his expression still as warm as it was before. His smile had faded to neutral, but the contrast between his expression and the complete tsunami I’d just been drowned with was stark. “He’s not in your life anymore, and you’re making more money than he will in years.”
I scoffed. “That we know of. He could be making bank from this. If this is a money laundering front, it could be attached to an organized crime ring. Maybe that’s the connection between why Trevor paid the security guards to look the other way while they cheated. He wanted to give them something else. Or maybe Trevor was part of the criminal organization?”
“I don’t know,” Lucas said.
Usually, Lucas was more than willing to dole out affection, but now that I was craving his touch, he was just sitting there. I got up and gestured for him to move back a bit. I sat on his lap when I had more space, and he stroked my back.
Tears welled up in my eyes, but I’d sworn to Jamie that I wouldn’t shed another tear over Dane again. I managed to get myself under control.
“His poor fiancé and their baby. A child is involved in this nonsense,” I said.
For some reason, that broke me. Dane was a piece of garbage, so any misfortune that fell on him was fine by me. But I had no idea if this woman knew anything. Or if she even knew I existed. She was going to get hit with this shit a thousand times harder when it came to light.
“You’re a good person for even thinking about them right now.” Lucas gave a half shrug, still rubbing my back.
“Not really.” I sniffed, wiping my eyes. I probably smeared mascara everywhere, but I didn’t give a shit. “I’m just being a better person than Dane, which is a low bar. I don’t understand what’s going on, though, which is the more important thing. Is Dane part of a criminal organization? Is Trevor? What does the casino have to do with it?”
“I don’t know.” Lucas didn’t sound as concerned as I wanted him to be. Which was a little ridiculous. He didn’t know Dane.
You’re so fucking needy,was what Dane and my other exes probably would have said if I asked them for verbal comfort. I doubted they would have even let me sit on their laps like this.
I stayed quiet.
But I was going to lose my mind if I just held it in. I needed release beyond the warmth of his arms.
