“I’ve been better. But I’ll be okay.”
He studied her for a minute. “You’ve dealt with your grandmother for years, and she doesn’t reduce you to tears.”
“No, she makes me angry.”
“So is it Slater?” When she didn’t answer, because she wasn’t sure what to say—she didn’t want to get Josh into trouble; Jamie could probably send a black ops team to assassinate him or something—he continued, “I know he moved in here with you.”
“You do?”
“Slater called me to let me know and to ask something.”
Why had he done that?
“So has he upset you in some way?”
She shook her head and decided on the truth. “I fell in love with him.”
“With Slater?”
The look of astonishment on his face almost made her giggle. “Why not?”
“Because he’s an ice cold son-of-a-bitch. And a loner. It was one of the reasons I picked him when you needed someone.”
“I didn’t say he’d fallen in love with me.”
“Ah.” He gave her a rueful smile. “Hence the tears.”
“Don’t worry. I was having my five minutes of misery. It won’t happen again. I’m a big girl.”
“It’s for the best. He’s a good man, but he’s also damaged goods.”
“So he told me. And I’ll get over it.”
She just wasn’t sure when. A hundred years or so might do it. “So what was the other thing you wanted to talk about?”
“Slater mentioned that your grandmother and Daniel were in town. He was worried for you, didn’t trust them. Slater was one of the best men I’ve ever had—if his gut tells him something, you listen. He suggested I get an audit done on your trust fund.”
“Why? I have the accounts done annually anyway. And I trust my accountants. There’s no way Grandmamma could touch it now.”
“Not now, no. Slater suggested I look into the early years.”
“And did you?”
“I requested the accounts and got an immediate audit.”
“She knows you were doing this?”
“I’m not sure. I actually had the rights under your father’s will. I never did anything, because I knew you were finding things hard, and I didn’t want to rock the boat. Plus, it never occurred to me that your own family would steal from you.”
“And was she?”
“Oh yes. Hundreds of thousands. And she hardly bothered to hide the theft. I don’t know how she got away with it.”
Arrogance, Lexi presumed. “I won’t prosecute my grandmother.”
“You don’t need to. Slater suggested that if we have something on her, then she’d back off. He reckoned you were worried.”
So he did care a little. Just not enough. “Is this sufficient to make her back off?”
“Plenty. She could be locked away for years if you took her to court. And I’m guessing the threat of releasing the information to the press would be enough to make her not interfere with your life.”
It was a lot to take in. But the knowledge was like a weight lifted from her. She’d been so worried her grandmother would make things difficult, would lock up the money so Lexi would be tied up in court for years. Now that would never happen. Josh had done this for her. It occurred to her that maybe he’d been looking for a way out, so he could get his divorce and go have his nice no-strings sex, no doubt with women too savvy to make the mistake of falling in love with him.
“Have you got the proof?”
Jamie opened his briefcase and pulled out some papers. “This is a summary. There’s more, but if you want to scare her off, then this should do it.”
“Thank you.”
She tried to smile. She should be happy. Earlier she’d wondered how she could get through the next six months having to spend time with Josh and not being able to get close to him.
Now that was no longer a necessity. She could go set the divorce in motion.
It hurt. But she loved him, so if this was what he wanted, she would set him free.
…
Logan looked rough, worse than rough, and Vito was no better.
So Josh wasn’t the only one having a hard time with his life changing vow, regretting the decision he had made while floating in that lifeboat, drinking far too much scotch and trying to forget his leg hurt like a bitch and that they’d just come an inch from death Hell, he’d felt better then than he did right now.
Why the fuck had he decided he needed to get laid? He couldn’t remember.
The thing was, facing death had a way of changing a man, making him think about how things could be different. But he’d been in pain, half-drunk…how was his brain expected to work the way it should at a time like that? How could he rely on the decisions he made being the right ones? The sensible ones?