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This time, I laughed in his face, and he jerked like I’d smacked him. “You would too if you’d seen the proof I have, cousin.”
“What proof?”
“Messages and phone logs. Videos, voice memos. You name it.”
After we’d taken the pictures, Ash had gone to our guest room to rest, and I had finally asked Nate to show me everything. He had so much evidence, there was no way to refute it. I only wished I’d been brave enough to ask sooner.
Cameron swallowed, but he still fought to convince me. “They were all faked. Every single one of them.”
A grim smile split my lips. “Of course they were.”
I tossed Cameron’s phone to Greyson and watched as he slipped it into his pocket. Whether it truly had anything on it or not, we’d find out later, but for now, I had more important things to focus on.
Behind Cameron, his wife peered out from behind her own pillar. We kept her closest to the door so she could run if there was a problem, but I hated that I’d get a front-row view of the devastation to come.
“Why did you come here?” I asked, knowing she needed the answer.
“I came for my wife.” Ash’s relief was palpable, even as Cameron relaxed where he stood. Now that his secret was out, it was obvious he wasn’t going to fight us. He wasn’t the type to go down swinging with his fists. Not when he had more than enough ammo in his head for a kill shot. “Did he even have her, or was this some trick to get me out in the open?”
Her, not Ash. Interesting.
“Would it have mattered if he had?”
He shrugged. “It’s hard to get people to trust in you when you can’t even keep your own wife safe.”
“So you’re not here because you love her.”
Aislynn jerked with his disbelieving huff. Anger made my limbs tremble, and I watched the boy I grew up with, the man I thought I’d known, take off the mask he’d obviously been wearing.
“Of course not. You’re the only one stupid enough to fall in love with your spouse. They’re bargaining chips, Mari. Tools to get us where we want to go. That’s all.”
I got a firsthand view of the unfathomable sorrow on Aislynn’s face, and even though I hated myself for it, I knew this was only the beginning. The worst was yet to come.
Nodding slightly to Nate, I kept my eyes on my cousin as Nate crept up on Cameron’s other side. Before he could react, my man pistol-whipped him, sending him to the floor unconscious.
Ash gasped, her hands covering her mouth in shock. Even from afar, I could see how they trembled, and I hated that for her. Hated that I’d been a part of damaging her like this.
Stepping closer, I tried not to let the way she stumbled back affect me. “Are you all right?”
It didn’t take a genius to see she was destroyed. Her lips trembled and her knuckles were tight as she twisted her hands together. She looked down at my cousin with love and loathing mixed in her eyes. Then she wiped it all away, hidden beneath her own mask. She was distant and aloof, beautiful even as she fractured. This was the Ash who’d been a mafia princess. This ice queen was O’Bannon’s spawn, and it broke my heart that she was hurt enough to fall back into that person again.
Clearing her throat, Ash wiped the tears off her face. “He doesn’t love me. He never loved me. He kept me close because it was easier to keep me safe if I was sitting happily at his feet. I was nothing but property to him, just like my father.”
She ghosted a hand over her belly, and I wondered if she felt as sick as I did at just how wrong we had been about Cameron.
Even though I agreed, part of me had to try to reason with her. “We don’t know that.”
“I do,” she said firmly. “I’ve grown up with men like him my whole life. He’s just exceptionally good at hiding himself, but now that I know, I can see the rot.” She stared down at him for a moment longer before stiffening. “I need to go. Do whatever you want to him. I don’t care.”
As she turned away, hustling out the door to her car outside, I realized I was no closer to figuring out what to do with Cameron, and that was a big problem.
Chapter Twenty-One
Greyson
We took one car with Cameron hog-tied and stuffed into the trunk and didn’t split up until we got to the Celestine. Nate and Dominic took our prisoner to the basement, while Mari and I took the elevator to the top floors.
“Do you think she’s here?” Mari whispered as we got closer to Aislynn’s apartment. It would never be Cameron’s again.
