Nash: A Rough Romance by Piper Stone (book series for 12 year olds txt) 📕

exclamation was louder than I’d wanted, but the way Reaper was looking at me, as if I was the criminal, pissed me the fuck off.

The bastard remained quiet, his eyes still flashing. Goddamn him.

“Look, I didn’t know who the hell he was before I met him. Hell, there were almost a thousand clients. I had questions about some of his numbers and Dante suggested we meet for coffee. That’s exactly how the whole thing started. He was charming and polite, answering every single question without pushback.”

He turned his heated gaze in my direction, a smirk on his face. “All right. That sounds plausible. When did you realize something was off about him?”

I hesitated before answering, perhaps realizing for the first time just how stupid I’d been. “From what I’d been told, Dante ran a credible real estate development firm, but after about a week, I noticed that some of the numbers had been inflated. That’s when I became curious. Dante assured me that it was a simple mistake with a new hire on his accounting staff. When I pressed him after another week, he asked me out for a drink given his busy schedule. One thing led to another.”

“So he snowed you.”

I held back the nasty words, barely able to nod.

After taking a gulp of his drink, he nodded several times. God, the man could be such an asshole. “A legitimate business that he could use in order to run monies he’d illegally made through. If I had to venture a guess, your boss knew what Dante did. He would have certainly known about Dante’s reputation. He simply figured that you were too green to figure it all out.”

“Apparently. However, I wasn’t tossed off a turnip truck. I started digging into other files, earlier tax returns and financial records. It became clear that my boss had aided Dante in skirting around paying taxes at minimum. My guess is there was more. Maybe I tried to get closer to him personally so I could figure out the truth.”

Reaper chuckled. “Including sexually?”

“I told you, I never allowed that asshole to touch me that way. But I did go out to dinner with him, the bastard luring me by saying he’d provide everything I needed. When I balked at some of Dante’s answers, that’s when he got rough, his innuendoes starting. Did I have some emotional attachment at that point? Yes, and I crossed a huge line. Did I buy his bullshit? No. I’m not a stupid woman, but I felt trapped. Dante knew where I worked, where I lived. Hell, he knew how much money I had in my bank account. What was I supposed to do? I kept my head down, pretending to play along until I gathered actual evidence. While what I did was risky, I was on a mission, even finding some damning information on my boss. Things started to get out of hand after that and quickly.”

His laugh was guttural and disgusting in every way, as if he would have never made the same wrong choice. “It would appear you were played. Dante thought he could keep you quiet. First by romancing you, then when that didn’t work, threats.”

“Yes.” I couldn’t help but laugh, the feeling tickling my throat to the point of closing off. “The murder I witnessed was completely unexpected, but he didn’t seem to give a shit about that. I realized soon after searching through various newspapers from the past and after what the DA told me, Dante had been in front of a judge several times. He was never given jail time. And why? Well, he’d paid off plenty of people along the way. I’d just wasted my time testifying in court. But at least with what I’d found, the Feds could get him on white collar crimes, forcing other hands to intervene.”

“A brilliant idea except you were placed in the middle of a situation that was too much for you to handle alone,” he said, snarling under his breath. He fisted his hand as he stared at me. Then his eyes twinkled all over again. “I’m going to venture a guess that you removed certain valuable information from where you worked in order to help with the investigation. I’m also going to assume that given your tenacious nature, you kept some of that information for yourself as a level of protection.”

I studied him as he took another sip of his drink, rolling my glass between my hands before I answered. “Yes. As I said, I’m not stupid. What I have could put Dante away for one hell of a long time. I wasn’t certain who I could trust at that point. My boss wasn’t who he purported himself to be.”

“Dante suspected just how smart you were.”

“That would be my guess.” I could barely whisper.

“And let me guess. That information is somewhere in the vehicle you crashed on the mountain.” He shifted his gaze in my direction, his expression bland.

“I wasn’t going to allow a man like Dante Giordani to continue skating the system. So, yes, before I was fired, I copied every computer file I could get my hands on. My intention was to offload more of them to Mr. Porter, but there was no time. He had street sources telling him that there was a price tag on my head. Supposedly, there was internet connection at the cabin he sent me to, allowing me to forward everything I’d gathered to him, but I could also keep it as some crazy kind of insurance on my life. And don’t you dare say I’m fucking stupid. I did what I had to in order to survive. I had enough that at least he would be arrested for extortion among other criminal acts.”

Damn the man. He was so calm as he shifted his gaze toward the fire, acting as if we were discussing something normal.

Whatever the hell that was.

“You’re not a stupid woman. What you did was courageous, albeit not as well thought out as