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“Thanks, Daph.” His large palm covers mine, a small smile slipping across his face.
“So.” I gesture to the mess in front of us. “My fiancé’s a piece of shit rapist. My entire relationship’s a lie. Awesome.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I can’t find any evidence that he was ordered to propose to you, so he may very well love you for real.”
“Sure.” I snort. “So much so that he’s been fucking around since the day we got together.”
He jumps up, grabbing two more beers from the outdoor fridge and passing one to me. “You want to be the pot or kettle in that one?”
“Touché.” I clink my bottle with his before taking a sip. “Now you got me feeling like a bad person. Tell me something else sucky about him to make me feel better.”
“He’s been fucking Amber.”
The bottle stalls on the way to my lips, my mouth agape. “Walsh?!”
He nods, dropping back down into the chair across from me.
“Didn’t see that coming. Well, you say J and Mav are back together. That frees the little tart up to take him off my hands.”
“That’s gonna prove a bit difficult, considering she’s dead.”
“WHAT?!”
Rico winces at my reaction, suddenly avoiding my gaze. “I mentioned Nicky got picked up last night for assault. What I may have left out is Mav also got nabbed last night… for murder.”
I reach across the table, snatching his beer and placing it out of his reach.
“You don’t get this back until you fill me in on everything I’ve missed in the last seven days. Reader’s digest version. Go.”
Rico stares at me for a moment, eyes briefly flickering to his beer before inhaling deep.
“Mav got picked up for murdering Amber even though J was with him the night in question. Caleb isn’t really Caleb, he’s Cabir—Yuri’s nephew, who was planted in J’s life much like Lucian was yours, but he became obsessed with her and is framing Mav as payback for stealing her from him. Nicky kicked the shit out of Cabir when it all came out, which is how he got nabbed for assault. Even though Nicky and Mav are working as informants, a condition of their deal is they won’t be identified as such to any other government agencies so all active investigations against us are still ongoing. If they get indicted on federal charges before they deliver on their deal, we all go to prison.”
I sit in silence, blinking several times as I attempt to process all he’s shared. “Is that all?”
“Nope.”
Jesus Christ.
“Nicky was released today after being ordered by his DEA handler to produce you immediately. Yuri is looking to form a working relationship with Elliot, and they’re using your wedding as an opportunity to meet. The Feds are gonna bug the venue in hopes they can get the evidence they need on tape. It’s the closest they’ve ever come to a shot at nabbing Yuri. If you don’t come home to marry Luc, then the whole thing goes to shit.”
“Well, then…” I retrieve his beer from the corner of the table, placing it back in front of him. “Let’s go home and get me married.”
CHAPTER 39
NOW
DAPHNE
We pull into a deserted parking lot on the outskirts of Dutchess just as the sun is starting to sink in the sky. I scan the immediate area, my gaze shifting to Rico in confusion when I come up empty.
“Are they meeting us here?”
“Not here. There.” He gestures off to the tree line, drawing my gaze to a small break in the foliage.
“The walking trail?”
He nods. “Let’s go.”
