“I don’t fully understand...dirty money?”

“Criminals run money from drugs they sell, or guns, you know the drill. Marcus takes that money, which is classed as dirty and he runs it through his company, and he makes it look clean. It’s basically a way of making their actions untraceable.”

“He’s helping bad men, basically?”

“Yeah, he has his fingers in a lot of pies. He’s a smart man and he doesn’t like people coming and messing with his business. He’s remained clean this long, and when people, like me or another man called Lucas, come in and start messing around, he doesn’t take to it well.”

Everything in my world comes to a screeching halt and my breath catches in my chest, refusing to exit my body. Pain radiates through me like a giant kick to the stomach.

“And you?” I croak.

“I’m involved, too. I can’t tell you how, and I won’t. Marcus and I don’t see eye to eye, because we both believe this is our side of the state. Before you get upset, Katia, remember that it’s not what a man does that makes him.”

I shake my head, glaring at him. “What would you know about being a decent man?”

His eyes soften. “I never knew about you, Katia. Do you think for a second if I did, that I would have just laid down and let her leave?”

“She has a name!” I scream.

He flinches, but his eyes remain soft.

“What about Ford, huh?” I yell. “He’s older than me, Pierre.”

He closes his eyes, exhaling loudly. “I met Ford, Landon and Wyatt’s mom before I met yours. I didn’t fall in love with her in the same way, but she was a good woman. She got pregnant with Ford before I met your momma and I didn’t know about him until two years after your momma left me. I was alone, and I’d lost the woman I loved. I found out about Ford and I got back together with Sherry. She had Landon and Wyatt, and our marriage wasn’t great. She died of cancer three years ago, leaving the boys alone.”

Oh.

I blink, sad for them. They lost their mom? How awful.

“I’m sorry,” I say softly.

He nods.

“I’m not a heartless man, Katia. I love my children, and I want to be in your life.”

“I can’t . . . I just can’t . . . I can’t process this right now. Can you accept that?”

He nods again. “Yes.”

I stand. “I need air. Thank you for talking to me.”

“I’m here, Katia,” he murmurs watching me go to the door. “Always.”

CHAPTER 28

NOW

Marcus

Where the fuck is she? It’s been six hours and I haven’t heard from her. Fuck, what the hell am I doing? I’m stuck in a God damned emotional spiral I can’t get out of. I want her. I don’t. This isn’t how this was meant to go. It was meant to remain emotion-free and smooth, and at the end of the two years, it was meant to end. Not this. None of these feelings.

My phone rings, causing my body to flinch. I’ve been pacing my office for the last two hours, waiting for her to call. She hasn’t. At the sound of my phone ringing, I lunge at it, reaching down and snatching it up without looking at the display. “Katia?” I yell, hating how fucking frantic I sound. I shouldn’t care. Not at all.

“It’s not Katia, it’s Pierre.”

“What the fuck do you want?” I bark.

He sighs. “Marcus, you and I are never going to be close but you’re married to my daughter and she came to see me today, asking about you. I told her the truth, which means she knows what you do. I’m not going to judge anything, Marcus, but I’m her father, and I wanted you to know because she’s hurting. This is me, giving you a heads up.”

Fuck me.

He’s helping her.

And he’s helping me.

“Thank you,” I mutter.

“She loves you, Marcus. For whatever reason. Because of that I’m going to have to step aside and let her. Don’t give me a reason to have to hunt you down.”

Then he hangs up the phone. Fuck. This shit just keeps getting better. I sigh loudly, running my hand through my hair and growling low and deep. Before I have the chance to process the fact that Katia went to her father and asked about me, not to mention that Walter came this fuckin’ close to blowing everything, my phone rings again. I glance down at it this time, and see Katia’s name. I reach for it quickly, answering and pressing it to my ear.

“Katia, where are you?”

There’s a long silence.

“Marcus?”

There’s something wrong, I hear it in her voice instantly. It’s scratchy, like she’s been crying, but it seems worse, like she’s been told her best friend is dead.

“Katia, what’s wrong?”

“It’s my mom . . .” she whispers. “She’s been in a car accident.”

~*~*~*~

KATIA

I stare blankly at the stark white wall. I feel nothing. Nothing at all. My entire world is crashing around me and I have no one to lean on. Dusty tried, but I don’t want him. Candy has called, but I didn’t answer. I called Marcus, and he told me he was on his way, but nothing feels okay. My mom is in surgery, Ellie is hysterical, and I’m sitting out here alone. Dusty disappeared half an hour ago to get coffee.

Unable to sit still, I stand up. My entire world is spinning as I run down the halls. If something happens to my mom . . . I can’t live with that. She’s all I have. I know it was an accident, I know Ellie didn’t mean for her car to crash, but now I could lose the only good thing I have left. Who the hell will I have if I don’t have her? My body jerks and tears finally break over the wall they’ve been welling up behind.