“The dilemma we have here is that Chip is a bitter dickhole who wants to prevent you from being happy. Why?”
“I don’t think it’s me,” I say. “At first, it was. In the beginning, he didn’t want to be saddled with a groupie and her kid. He paid me off.” I slide my eyes toward Nick, who seems completely unperturbed by my admission.
At my pause, he jerks his head around from Cassidy to me. “What? Am I supposed to think less of you for that? The guy had a multi-million-dollar contract and wouldn’t step up to raise his own child. You shouldn’t feel one ounce of guilt. I’d have taken that money. I think I’d have less respect for you if you’d turned it down.”
“Oh,” I say in a small voice. My heart swells to almost unimaginable proportions.
“Back to your theory…” he prompts.
“Right. My theory.” I pin my eyes on Cassidy’s wild curls because if I look at Nick, I’ll either attack him or completely break down. “After you and Charlie came to town and we got to be close, I think he was worried that I’d make him look bad. He wanted me to keep my mouth shut about our connection and threatened to take Cassidy away from me if I didn’t. He had gone to a lawyer and recorded it. Later, he played the recording for me. Basically, the lawyer said that I could be shown to be unfit, and that I’d lose Cassidy.”
“But then he’d be awarded custody, and he can’t want that,” Nick points out.
“True. I guess I wasn’t thinking it through. Now though, I think he wants to punish you. You’ve taken his place. You won where he failed, and if he has any inkling about how you feel…” I blush and my eyes fall to my hands. It sounds so presumptuous when I say it out loud.
His larger hand covers mine. “How I love you, Lainey? Is that what Chip believes my feelings are?” His legs shift closer, the black wool of his tuxedo pants coming into my still-downcast view. “Because he’d be right. I do love you. And I love Cassidy. I want us to build a life together, and if that means tearing Chip down, sending my brother’s SEAL team after him, or destroying his reputation, then I’m all for it.”
Wetness pools in my eyes. I can’t look at Nick because if I do, I’ll start bawling. I tell him as much. “You can’t say those things to me,” I whisper hoarsely.
“Why?”
“Because I’ve wanted to hear them for so long.” I raise our clasped hands to my mouth. “Because I love you, too. Whatever it takes to remove Chip from our lives, I’m in for.”
His free hand cups my face, a thumb brushing away the tears of joy that I can’t stop. “All right. We’re in this together now, Lainey. No backing out. No running away. If you do, I’m coming after you.”
“Promise?” I say with a watery smile.
His eyes darken. “Promise.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Nick
I toss the investigative file on the table. “This is what Tom was able to come up with in five days.”
Lainey doesn’t touch the stack. Her face is nearly colorless. I have the same sick feeling in my stomach.
“He found all of this in only five days?”
The file is at least two inches thick. “Yeah.”
“I don’t know if I can bring myself to look.”
I place a hand over the top of the brown expandable folder. “Then don’t. If it’s going to make you feel sick or guilty, then don’t.”
She raises stricken eyes to meet mine. “How many were before me? How many after?”
It’s the after ones that will torment her. I had wrestled with what to share with her, knowing that guilt would be the most powerful emotion she’d suffer rather than elation that we have enough to string Chip up by his gonads.
“I didn’t count.” That’s not a lie. I didn’t count because I knew she’d ask. “I’m going to ask you for a favor. You don’t have to grant it, of course, but give it some thought. Looking at this information is going to bring back bad memories, plus, because I know you, I know you’re going to be wracked with guilt. You’re going to torment yourself with what if questions. What if I’d spoken up earlier? What if I’d challenged Chip? What if I hadn’t taken his money to provide for my baby?”
Lainey’s jaw grows tight. “Yes, but I have those questions anyway.”
Her hand tugs on the file, but it doesn’t move. Not with my heavy paw clamped down. “Here’s my favor,” I barrel forward. “I’m asking you not to look. I’m asking you to let me take care of this for you. All the what if questions in the world won’t change what happened in the past. You made the right decision for you and Cassidy based on the information you had at the time.”