Page 35 of Reckless Love

I sank into him, took all the warmth and security he had to offer in his strong, firm body. I also took all the loving strokes of my hair and tender kisses. If I could have burrowed inside him I would have.

“This isn’t your fault,” he murmured against my hair.

“It doesn’t feel that way right now.” I tried for so long to make penance for my actions. Everyfootball player I manipulated? I made sure they had good jobs. I did a little light stalking and made sure they were happy. If they weren’t, I did what I could until they were. I even arranged a meet-cute that I’m happy to say resulted in a very happy marriage.

As for all the employees of the Nashville franchise? They all got jobs too. And mysterious bonuses. I couldn’t change the factthat I made their jobs disappear, but most of them simply moved on to another football franchise. The ones who were locals and didn’t want to move were the ones I had to help the most, and even that wasn’t too hard in the end. Every penny I earned from fixing games went into fixing their lives.

I knew there were unintended ripple effects I would never be able to quantify and at the momentI was staring into the eyes of the biggest one yet.

And yes, I’m aware that analogy technically didn’t make sense. Who can make sense at a time like this?

“Whatever is happening now is someone else’s fault,” Leo said. “The people they’re hurting? That guilt is on them. I refuse to allow you to put this on your shoulders.”

I waved at the board in front of us. “No,” I kind ofyelled, “I’m not doing this, but I sure as hell set it in motion. Look at all these connections, Leo! Look at them!”

Yeah, I was definitely bordering on hysterical and well into dramatic.

Leo scooped me out of his lap and placed me on my feet, then he stood in front of me, taking my face in his hands. “What will absolve you of any of this? Huh?Isthere anything? What is figuringthis out going to accomplish? I know you don’t want to hear this but it might be time to walk away.”

I clutched his arms. “This is so much bigger than I ever thought. You’re right.” I hoped he could see in my eyes how much I understood. “And when I started, it was because I thought it was my father. And yes, I wanted to make sure I was on top of the investigation in case I needed to dosomething, but I can’t stop now. Whatever this is, it’s big and huge and unchecked and someone isgetting away with it.”