Page 60 of Kingpin

I pinched the bridge of my nose as the private investigator I had hired started rattling intel into my ear. He confirmed my sneaking suspicions, and what he had to say made my stomach turn. I looked up toward the second floor, where I knew Bonnie was resting. She hadn’t moved much over the past few days, even after I moved back into the penthouse. If I didn’t feed her, she didn’t eat. If I didn’t put water by her bedside, she didn’t drink. It killed me to see her like that. To see the once-vibrant and beautiful woman reduced to nothing but ash.

“I want copies of all of it. Every single thing you find. Got it?” I asked.

“I’m already headed your way with copies. I’ll send them up the private elevator shaft to you, so we don’t have contact.”

“Thanks.”

I hung up the phone and paced the living room. With my phone in my pocket and my hands clasped behind my back, I listened for any sound that might mean Bonnie was on the move. Even after getting her hair cut and styled right here in our penthouse, she hadn’t done a thing with it. Hell, I wasn’t even sure the woman had showered since the fire.

Well, except the night we came back together after all was said and done.

Note to self: remind her to shower.

I heard the elevator whirring, and I walked over to the golden doors. I waited impatiently until they opened, and on the floor was a stack of three very thick manila envelopes.Oh, boy.Thickness with police reports were never good. As I scooped them up, I pulled my phone out to confirm the payment for the private investigator.

I needed to keep him on speed dial because he was efficient.

I walked into the kitchen and scooped up my glass of wine. I opened envelope after envelope, pulling out sheafs of original documents that had either been blacked out or altered. I had a copy of every police report. What it was before, according to Officer Brent, to what it became.

Reading it curdled even my stomach.

“Fuck,” I murmured.

I sighed as I set down the last of the papers. Shit. It was true. That fucking coward of a man had killed his own damn brother. I had a good guess as to why, as well. Power. Money. Fortune. That’s what everyone in our lifestyle killed over. No one had any principles anymore. No one fought on anything that mattered. Money didn’t matter. Prestige didn’t matter.

Honor mattered.

And Pava Moretti had none.

My mind spun with so many different things. If Pava had shit like investigation reports altered that badly, that meant he had police officers in his pocket. I wasn’t that stupid. I simply played nice with those who upheld the law. It kept my nose clean, and it kept me vigilant in keeping things hidden. It kept everyone on their toes. If I wasn’t having the police come by and clean up my messes, that meant everyone I employed had to either cover their tracks or not leave any at all.

The first sign of a predator wasn’t to have someone else cover you, it was to cover oneself innately.

Otherwise, things were bound to be unearthed.

“Like this,” I murmured.

I scooped up the documents and tucked them beneath my arm. I knew Bonnie would want to see them. All of them. I knew damn good and well, by that point, I’d never be able to stop her. She had a mind of her own. A soul of her own. She was a woman who could never be contained, either. A wild, free-roaming spirit. And that was something that attracted me to her.

Maybe that was the reason why I hadn’t divorced her yet.

Maybe that was the reason why I hadn’t kicked her out yet.

Until the issues in her life were settled, no matter what she did, she’d never be safe. I was fully and completely convinced that her uncle set that fire.

And that he tried to kill her in the process.

“Sweetheart?” I called out.

I walked up the stairs and headed for the bedroom, but I didn’t hear her call back to me.

“Bonnie? You in here?”

I softly pressed the door open and saw her sitting upright in bed. A stark change from constantly lying down. She was gazing out the window over the whole of Chicago, her eyes completely glazed over.

As if she weren’t really here.

“Bonnie?” I asked as I sat down beside her.

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