Page 149 of Somebody's Watching Me
“What do you have on him?”
Hillary slipped her own file on the desk. “Where shall I begin?” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “There are the affairs. Several underage.”
He checked the time, not wanting to be late for his flight. He might own the jet, but timetables had to be kept. “That hits too close to home.”
“Sorry, you’re right.” Hillary turned the page. “Even I tend to forget how fucked your life is.”
His life was an utter shitshow, and Hillary was the only person brave enough to call him out for it. “Bribery?” she continued. “Embezzling from his wife’s charity?”
“Boring.”
He only wished she and Simone could get along. They were so close in personality it was damn scary, but he was smart enough to know not to force it. On the move to Haven House, Hillary had attempted tohandleSimone just once, and that had been enough. The two hadn’t so much as acknowledged the other’s existence since.
Miranda was the opposite. She appreciated Hillary’s tenacity and didn’t mind her taking over parts of their lives.
“What about Garrison’s mother? Marsha Garrison?” Hillary lifted a photo of an elderly woman with a head of bushy gray hair.
“What could you possibly have on her?”
“Oh, just that she most likely murdered her first husband.” Hillary turned to admire the photo. “Richard’s not really a Garrison. He was three when mommy dearest married Paul Garrison, partner to none other than Randall McIntyre. Before that, she was married to another one of McIntyre’s cronies, but that one liked to beat his wife. The rumor at the time was that Richard’s mother went to The McIntyre, and he gave the blessing for her to whack the guy.”
“How did my father get so tangled up with these people?”
Fairweathers were notorious, but the McIntyres were on the next level. He hadn’t understood the depths of their corruption until after his father died, and had he known, he would never have set out topersuadePaula McIntyre during Charlie’s engagement party.
“Why are you so surprised? James was a shitty human.” Hillary tucked the information sheet back into the file. “He wanted McIntyre land, so he made a deal with the devil to get it.”
“My brother ismarried to his daughter.”
“And you slept with his wife.” Hillary turned serious. “God help us if The McIntyre ever discovers the oh, so many ways the Fairweathers have literally fucked him over.”
Provoking Randall McIntyre was a dangerous game he’d been playing for what felt like an eternity, and it had to end.
“Back to Richard,” Hillary said. “He’s very much a mama’s boy and would probably do anything to keep her name clear of scandal.”
Standing, he buttoned his suit jacket. “Use it, but ease onto the gas, or else Garrison might go running to Randall.”
“Are you going to tell Miranda?”
“I’ll talk to Josie and let her make the decision on if Miranda should know,” he replied. “But I think the less the women in my life know about these things, the better.”
“Even Laura Jean?”
Ben winced, thinking of Laura Jean waiting.
“Especially Laura Jean.”
“I’ve got it from here.” Hillary closed the file. “Go to your woman, Ben.”
His woman.
His.
For the briefest of seconds, Albie’s grinning face popped into his head. No matter what Laura Jean said, it was always going to be hard loving her at the loss of him.
“If you don’t think Albie isn’t up in heaven laughing his ass off at your hesitation, you’re not as smart as I thought you were, Ben.”
He hoped she was right. He hoped, more than anything, that Albie was smiling down at them from a better place. Although, it was hard to imagine any man being okay with his best friend falling in love with his widow.
