Page 113 of You Owe Me

Her eyes widen. “You have?”

“Baby, I’ve been operating in gray areas for years. You think I don’t have contingency plans?” I shift slightly, trying to find a more comfortable position. “The books are clean, the tax filings are accurate, and every transaction has documentation. Carter’s anonymous tips will lead investigators to a legitimate family business run by a devoted grandson.”

“But the student management issue?—”

“Is easily explained as part-time consulting work during school breaks, properly reported and taxed. I’ve been paying myself a salary for two years, Ainsley. Everything’s legal.”

The relief on her face is immediate and overwhelming. “So we’re okay? The investigation won’t?—”

“The investigation will find exactly what it’s supposed to find—a small investment firm run by an experienced professional with assistance from his academically qualified grandson. Carterthought he was weaponizing federal oversight against me. Instead, he just gave me an opportunity to demonstrate how thoroughly I’ve covered my bases.”

She stares at me for a long moment. “You knew. This whole time, you knew Carter couldn’t actually hurt you.”

“I suspected. But I needed to see how far he’d go, what resources he had access to, whether he was working alone or with backing.” I trace patterns on her arm absently. “Information gathering is always the first step in neutralizing a threat.”

She’s quiet for a moment, processing this. “So when you said you weren’t worried about Carter……”

“I meant it. Carter Mills is a mediocre threat with daddy issues and delusions of competence. He’s annoying, not dangerous.” I meet her eyes. “But you going behind my back, using my network without understanding the implications—that worried me.”

“Because I could have made things worse.”

“Because you could have gotten hurt.” My voice is soft but serious. “My world isn’t just favors and poker games, Ainsley. There are people in my network who would do serious damage to anyone they perceived as a threat to the system. If word had gotten out that Maverick Lexington’s girlfriend was freelancing with his resources…”

I don’t finish the sentence. I don’t need to. She’s smart enough to understand the implications.

“I didn’t think about that,” she admits quietly.

“Because you’re not used to thinking like someone who operates outside normal boundaries. Which is one of the things I love about you.” I brush her hair back from her face. “But it’s also why you need to trust me to handle threats in my life.”

“And you need to trust me to handle them too.” She looks at me pointedly. “Like surgery. Like medical procedures that couldkill you. Like the fact that your heart has been trying to quit for months.”

Touché.

“Point taken.” I concede the argument because she’s right, and because the drugs are making me feel generous. “No more medical secrets.”

“And no more vigilante information gathering using your criminal network.”

“It’s not criminal,” I protest mildly. “It’s morally flexible.”

That gets a small smile out of her. “Morally flexible. Right.”

We lie there in comfortable silence for a few minutes, the steady beeping of my heart monitor providing a soundtrack to our temporary peace. But I can feel tension still radiating from her body, like there’s something else she needs to say.

“What is it?”

“Carter.” She sighs. “I left him hanging. Told him he had until tomorrow morning to call off the IRS investigation or I’d release the academic fraud evidence. But then the hospital called, and I just… ran.”

“Good.”

“Good?” She lifts her head to look at me. “Maverick, he’s probably panicking right now. Making calls, trying to figure out how to minimize the damage. What if he decides to escalate instead of surrender?”

“Then he’ll learn why people don’t fuck with what’s mine.” My voice drops to that dangerous register that makes smart people nervous. “Carter Mills has been operating under the assumption that I don’t know about his activities. That assumption is about to be corrected.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means it’s time for you to see how the infamous Maverick Lexington actually operates when someone threatens his family.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

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