Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 110360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Devon’s eyes narrowed. He looked back at me, needing more than she was capable of at the moment.
I hooked my arm around Brooke’s shoulders and pulled her into my side. “He was kind of a one-night stand turned relationship. After Zoey was born, he got into drugs. Cocaine, mostly. Their relationship fell apart, and the custody situation turned into a nightmare. She pushed for a drug test, he failed, but after thirty days in rehab he got visitation back.”
Devon’s thumb moved slowly across my knuckles. “Rehab didn’t stick?”
“Nope. Six weeks, maybe. And then—” My throat tightened around the words. “Zoey was about ten months old. He had her for an overnight visit, and he didn’t answer when Brooke called the next morning. So Marty went over there to check on things. He’d forgotten about her and left her in the car all night.”
Around the table, something moved through every man simultaneously.
Jude shifted his weight.
Lark’s hand balled into a fist.
Leo muttered a curse.
Devon’s jaw ticked once and locked.
Brooke pressed against my side as if she were holding herself together with pure force of will and me. I curled her closer. “We’d gotten lucky that there’d been a storm that rolled through and dropped the temperature that night. If it had been any other night—” I stopped and shook my head. “Before that, Marty had done everything he could to help him get clean. He told me he felt responsible because he’d brought Jason into our lives through Arrow. He kept trying to be some kind of fatherly influence, but Jason just kept choosing the drugs. Finding Zoey alone in that car was the final straw for Marty.”
Brooke went solid. She already knew what I was going to say. She’d been there every step of the way. But hearing it now, in this context, in this restaurant, after her daughter had been torn from her arms, she braced for it anyway.
“I paid him half a million dollars to sign away his parental rights.”
All four men turned to stone.
“It was my idea,” I rushed out. “Jason had gone off the deep end, and Zoey wasn’t safe. We tried doing it the right way first. Marty called the cops when he found her in the car. Jason lied and said she’d only been in there for a few minutes. Because technically Zoey hadn’t suffered any major injuries, all the court did was make him take a weekend parenting class and then hand her right back to him every other weekend.” I looked at Devon. “He didn’t want her. There wasn’t a fatherly instinct in that man’s body. He just liked having a way to hurt Brooke after they broke up.”
Devon rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. He circled his other hand in the air for me to continue.
“I had Marty approach him with an offer.” I paused. “He signed away his rights the same day. And never looked back.”
“Until now,” Devon said.
I nodded. “Until now.”
A fresh round of tears pooled in Brooke’s eyes. “I told the cops about him after the break-in. When they asked Lofton for a list of known contacts. I specifically asked the detective if I needed to list Zoey’s father. They said since he had been out of the picture for so long and that he was connected to me and not Lofton, he didn’t seem relevant. Even when I told them about the drugs, they patted me on the shoulder and said they’d look into it.” She paused and shook her head. “They never so much as asked for his full name.”
“Son of a bitch,” Devon muttered. “He was right there. But we were all looking in the wrong direction.”
Tears streamed down Brooke’s face. “I should have pushed. I should have made them take him seriously. I just never thought he was capable of something like this.”
“Me either,” I said, crying right alongside her. “I’m not even sure he knew the money came from me. Marty made the offer, delivered the cash, had him sign the papers. All I did was make the withdrawal.”
“Oh, he knew,” Leo rumbled, retrieving his phone from his back pocket. “And I refuse to believe half a million dollars carried a junkie for four years.” He put the phone to his ear. “Apollo. I need you in Marty’s personal financials. Large cash withdrawal, last two or three years. Cross-reference with the tax office to rule out a property or vehicle purchase.”
Brooke looked at me.
I looked at Devon. “Why is he looking at Marty’s records?”
Devon’s lips thinned. “Whether he knew the money came from you or not, if Jason needed more, he knew where he could find it.”
Brooke’s hand tightened around mine so hard her nails bit into my skin.
“You think he came back?” I whispered.
“I think it’s worth looking into,” Devon replied. “If he did, and Marty caved, paid him again, and then decided to stop? That might be exactly why things escalated the way they did.”