Tame Me (The Macintyre Brothers 3)

“Wow,” I said and was truly nonplussed by the news. Emmet had worked for the DOJ providing them with intelligence he’d gleaned through his contacts in the business world. “That puts a whole different spin on things.”

“It does. I can’t let on to people that I’m a friend of the DOJ or they’d clam up, but I do my part to bring the guilty to justice. Just so you know your father-in-law isn’t a crook.” I glanced at him to gauge his mind set but he was hard to read. Finally, he gave me a grin.

“That’s good to know,” I said with a relieved laugh. We shook hands.

“Welcome to the family, Son,” he said and gave me a quick hug.

“Thanks, Dad.”

I said it and it didn’t feel so strange. I was glad that I knew the truth about him now – how he’d offered up his once-upon-a-time future son-in-law as a suspect in the hacking case against MBS, and how he’d been working for the Feds all along.

“Don’t say anything to Ella, but if you do, and I’m sure you will because young couples these days tend to tell everything to each other, tell her it is imperative that she never ever says a word about it to anyone. Not Steph. Not her mother. My life could depend on it. If my enemies knew, I’d be dead.”

“Mum’s the word, and Emmet?” I said and gripped his arm. “Thanks for telling me and for what you did for MBS.”

He shook his head. “It was for Ella. You love her and be good to her and make me happy that I did.”

“I do and I will.”

With that, we each went up to our respective bedrooms in David’s mansion in the Hollywood Hills.

* * *

That night, I lay in bed and debated whether to tell Ella what Emmet told me. He didn’t want me to tell her, for her own sake, but he also knew I probably would. I knew he’d served in the military, but I didn’t know he’d been in military intelligence. His bio said he’d been in planning, so I had no idea exactly what he did while he served.

“Can’t sleep?” Ella asked when I tossed and turned.

“Big day tomorrow,” I said and pulled her against me. “Lots on my mind.”

“No cold feet, I hope,” she said softly.

I rubbed my feet against hers. “Nope. Hot as usual.”

I kissed her and felt her smile against my lips.

It was then that I decided to tell Ella what Emmet had told me, because of my pledge to always tell her everything. We would soon be married, and I felt so damn good knowing that my fears about Emmet were misplaced and he was in fact a very good man with strong ethics and morals.

He was a man I could respect. A man much like my father, in his own way.

Hopefully, one day, a man I could love like a father.

So, I told her.

“Oh, my God, Josh…” She sat up and turned on the bedside light, and then leaned over me, her hands on either side of my shoulders. “My father was working with the Justice Department to rat on his partner?”

“He was an informant and was helping them fight financial fraud. He suspected Derek when he learned MBS had been hacked because he was being personally threatened and figured it was Derek.”

We talked for a while and I tried to assuage her fears for her father and mother.

“I hope Derek goes away to jail for this,” Ella said.

“I have no doubt that he will. Hopefully for long enough that he’s suitably chastised by the time he comes out.”

She turned off the light and lay back down beside me. I pulled her into my arms, and we snuggled down together.

“I’m glad the two of you are now going to be on better terms,” she said softly.

“Me, too,” I said and sighed. “For a while, I was suspicious about your father and why he didn’t get charged when his partner did, but now I understand. He was working with the Feds to bring his partner down.”