Page 65 of A Billionaire Gentleman

The worry in her eyes tugged at my heart. “Hey, we’ve got this. Royd knows what he’s doing, and I’ve got no problem using my name to make sure your voice is heard.” I kissed the tip of her nose. “And if that’s not enough, Grandad will start making phone calls, and that always gets stuff done.”

I kissed her mouth this time, keeping it brief, so we didn’t get distracted. As confident as I was that this would work, it wouldn’t look good if she was late because she’d been fooling around with her new boyfriend. I had no doubt her ex-husband would hit the roof when he found out about me.

Besides, I’d planned something more than just tailing the asshole, and I didn’t know how tight my timetable was.

“Ready?” I asked.

She nodded. Her expression was still pinched, and her fingers were cold, but she didn’t hesitate to walk out of the apartment with her head held high.

The cabbie dropped her off first, and since Royd was waiting outside, I didn’t have to get out of the car to hand her off to him. I didn’t know him, but Grandad said Royd was loyal and trustworthy, and I knew how much he valued those two characteristics. He wouldn’t have asked Royd to look into Mead in the first place if he hadn’t thought something would come of it.

I shook his hand as I took the manila envelope from him and made a mental note to send him a bonus for the extra work he’d done for me. Even Grandad didn’t know about this part of what I planned to do. He might’ve approved, but he also could have told Royd not to help me, and I hadn’t been willing to risk that.

After Royd and Sofi disappeared into the station, I gave the driver another address. The last anyone had seen of Mead, he’d dropped Dallas off at his parents’ house and then went back home. He was on the schedule to work tonight and was most likely getting ready for that when my cab pulled up in front of his house. If he wasn’t here, I’d have to improvise a bit, but I wasn’t opposed to that, as long as I was able to do what I’d come here to do.

No one had ever looked out for Sofi, and I was going to make sure she knew that she’d never have to feel alone again.

I knocked on the door and reminded myself that no matter what Mead did, I couldn’t punch him. Well, unless he threw a second punch. I’d even take one without reacting if only so I could press charges for assault. The only thing that would completely ruin my plan was if he told me to leave. Trespassing would probably get me in trouble rather than him. I was hoping the dirt Royd had dug up would be enough to get Mead to think twice about involving anyone else.

“Whatever you’re selling, I’m not interested,” Mead yelled through the door.

“I’m not selling anything.” I raised my voice enough to be heard but kept it polite. “Trust me, Mr. Stafford, you’re going to want to talk to me. It’s about your ex-wife.”

The door opened, revealing Mead in the processes of buttoning up his uniform shirt. “This better be good, or you’re going to find yourself on the wrong side of the law.”

I’d been a little worried that he’d recognize me from the hallway of Sofi’s building since it’d only been a week ago, but that clearly wasn’t the case. I held up the manila envelope. “I need to show you something.”

His eyes narrowed as if he was trying to figure me out, and I kept my expression bland as I pushed down my impatience. Finally, he unlocked his door and motioned me inside.

“I’m getting ready for work, so this needs to be fast.” He walked into the kitchen, and I followed. “You have pictures in there? My wife fucking some other guy? Maybe at that club? She says she’s not working there anymore, but who else would hire someone so stupid, am I right?”

Punching him in his face would only make things worse for Sofi, and that was the only thing that kept me from showing him what it felt like to be on the receiving end of a beating.

I opened the envelope and spread out just a few of the contents on the table.

“What the fuck is this?”

Time for show and tell.

I pointed to the first picture. “This is you in a compromising position with the patrol officer who ‘found’ drugs in Sofi’s car.” Moving on. “And this is a picture of you buying drugs from the same dealer who claimed to have sold those drugs to Sofi.”

Mead’s face was turning red, and I knew he was going to explode soon.

“Here’s a confession from that dealer saying that you’re actually a regular of his, and he’d never seen your ex-wife before you told him to speak against her.”

“You have no idea how badly you’re fucking up your life right now,” Mead growled.

I ignored him. “I also have screenshots from your girlfriend’s dash camera that show there was absolutely no cause to pull Sofi over or search her car. It also shows that same officer carrying a bag from the squad car to Sofi’s car, putting it inside, and then ‘finding’ it a few seconds later.”

“That stupid bitch!” Mead slammed his hand against the refrigerator.

“There’s a letter from Sofi’s public defender saying that he’d been told there was no dashcam footage from the incident.”

“So what?” Mead jutted out his chin. “Some dumb cunt decides she wants to set up my wife. Doesn’t prove shit.”

The more this guy talked, the more I hated him. “This is just a little of what my PI found on you. I have proof that you’ve been using steroids and various illegal drugs. Proof that you’ve stolen from police lock-up on more than one occasion. And to top it all off, evidence that you abused Sofi for years.”

“You’ve got shit.” He picked up the pictures and tore them in half.

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