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I stare down at the stack of papers spilling out of the file, my brow furrowing in confusion as my gaze returns to his.
“Nick got arrested last night.”
***
Rico and I sit at the table on the back patio with a mountain of documentation spread out between us. My fingers periodically sift throughout the papers, though continue to revisit one page in particular.
It’s a mug shot dated several years ago from a sealed arrest record—Lucian’s.
“I can’t believe he raped that girl,” I whisper, covering my mouth in shock. “I remember when she disappeared from the college. It was all over the news.”
“I’m sorry, Daph.” Rico reaches forward, patting my arm before relaxing back into his chair.
I reread through the report documenting the allegations made against him. How she claimed he drugged her at a party before raping her in one of his friend’s rooms. My eyes drift up to the corner of the page, locating the date—just months before we started dating.
“How did I not know about this?”
“The same way everyone in our social circles keeps all their dirty laundry under wraps. Elliot used his money to bury it. I had to search deep for this shit.”
Placing it off to the side, I move on to the phone log showing a series of calls between her and Lucian following the incident. “Luc rapes her, Elliot pays her to go away. But then she starts calling him again when she finds out she’s pregnant.”
Rico nods, holding up the copy of her medical record detailing the positive pregnancy result.
“And then she disappears.” This is the part I remember. I can’t recall so much as a whisper of any rape, but it was big news when this girl went missing. The cops spent weeks searching the town, but she was never found.
“And you’re telling me this Yuri guy got rid of her as a favor to Lucian.”
“Not a favor.” Rico shakes his head, his fingers picking at the label of his beer bottle. “For leverage. Lucian’s the son of a prominent family. He had a problem. Yuri solved it, and now he owns him.”
“So, when Lucian asked me out… it was because he was directed to do so? Because of my connection to Nicky?”
Rico sits up, sighing as he places his bottle off to the side. “We’ve been dealing with Yuri a long time now for reasons far more complicated than I have time to go into at the moment. Yuri needs Nick and our operation. We all make a lot of money from our partnership, but he also knows if Nick could off him tomorrow and be free of him, he’d do it in a heartbeat.”
“Why?”
“Because Yuri’s a fucking psychopath prone to violent temper tantrums. We didn’t enter into this partnership willingly, Dee. Yuri has an overwhelming need to control everything and everyone around him. Nicky’s been looking for a way out since the day we got sucked in.”
“I still don’t understand how me dating Lucian serves any greater purpose in this master game of cat and mouse between Nick and some Russian gang leader.”
“Because it hurts him.” Rico leans forward onto his elbows, his expression serious. “Yuri was having Nick followed in the beginning. He knew you guys were carrying on. Yuri saw something that made Nick happy, so he took it away. Not only that, but having you paired up with Lucian meant if Nicky ever stepped out of line, Yuri had easy enough access to you if he needed to teach Nick a lesson.”
The realization slowly dawns on me as the pieces click together in my mind. “He’s not hiding me from the Feds, is he?”
Rico shakes his head, scrubbing a hand over the scruff of his chin. “Yuri suspected Nick and Mav were making moves against him, so he threatened you and J.”
“Which is an actual thing, from what you say? They have some kind of alliance?”
“Daph, when I tell you I had zero idea those two assholes have been working together the last four years…” He scoffs.
“How did he manage to hide that for so long?”
“Fuck if I know! Fucker waits for it all to blow up in his face before he clues me in.” Rico reaches for his beer once more, clearly distraught as he drains the last of its contents.
“Hey.” I reach for him, taking his hand in mine. “You know it has nothing to do with how he feels about you, right? He trusts you more than anyone in the world, Rico. If he kept it from you, he had a reason.”
“I know.” He nods, his face bearing a somber expression. “I just hate feeling like he’s been all alone in this. I could’ve helped him.”
“Rico, I don’t know anyone who’s helped Nicky more in life than you. I can’t imagine where he’d be if he didn’t have you by his side.”
