Page 62 of Axe-identally Married
“Show her the kind of man you are,” he urged. “Hell, show yourself the kind of man you are. She may want more, and she might not. But you’re gonna come out of this a better person either way.”
My stomach twisted itself into a knot. “You seem so sure.”
“I’ve watched three of our brothers fall in love. And every single one of them had a hefty dose of personal shit to work through before getting there. You’re in it, Cole. You’re doing the work. Now it’s time to trust yourself.”
“Thank you.” I swallowed back the emotion burning at the back of my throat. “I really owe you.”
He waved me off and turned back to his house. “Go home and impress your girl.”
Chapter Twenty
Cole
Had this been a mistake? Was I going to look like a total tool?
Parker Gagnon had texted and asked if I could stop by, so I headed over to Hebert Timber and met her in the conference room she’d turned into an investigation headquarters of sorts.
Gus and Chloe had stopped by to say hello. The moment they appeared, I was swamped with guilt. They’d been working nonstop with Parker and the FBI for the past few months. There was no way this ordeal wasn’t weighing on them heavily. Even if my oldest brother didn’t show an ounce of the stress that had to be plaguing him. Honestly, I’d never seen Gus so happy before. He’d admitted a few months back that he’d always wanted to be a father and worried that it would never happen.
Then his ex-wife had come back to town, and the baby was due in a few months.
“I’m going to run through preliminary findings with you, show you a few photos, and ask some questions.”
I nodded. “Not sure how much help I can be.”
She waved me off, the move making the largest diamond I’d ever seen sparkle. It could have taken someone’s eye out. “You’d be surprised what you might know. This is a family company, and our town is small. So many things are connected.”
She had me talk through my understanding of the business, her expression one of interest, never making me feel like an idiot for how little I knew. Then she guided me through an org chart of everyone who had worked under my father before his arrest.
“You were close with your father?”
I snorted, my chest tightening painfully. “Not very.”
“But of all the brothers, it seemed like he took the most interest in you. I found records for flights and hotel stays he expensed so he could watch you play hockey.”
Forearms on the table, I dipped my chin. “Yeah, Dad was a big fan of hockey.” And a raging narcissist who would lash out if I didn’t play well, if I didn’t make him look good. Every time I looked up and saw him in the stands, whether it was on the peewee league or when I went pro, it made me sick to my stomach.
Parker had set up whiteboards on the walls, where she’d listed names and dates. The room was filled with dozens of file boxes too. I couldn’t imagine I had any information she didn’t already know. Clearly, I was wasting this poor woman’s time.
“Did he spend a lot of time with Chief Souza?” she asked, her head bent over a notepad as she jotted down notes.
“Yeah. When I was a kid, they’d go hunting together a lot, and he came over for dinner once a week or so.”
“And in the couple of years before your dad’s arrest?”
“I wasn’t around much then, but I assume they were still friendly.”
Humming, she tapped her pen against her chin.
“Can you look through some of these photos for me? I’m curious about the items the feds seized in their forfeiture case. Cars, real estate, jewelry,a few pieces of art.”
I flipped through the photos in the binder and stopped on one in particular. “And the watches.”
She sat back in her chair and assessed me. “Tell me about the watches.”
“My dad was a big watch collector.” I pressed a finger to the first of dozens of photos of his collection. The federal government had definitely gotten a good chunk of change for some of these. “Obsessed really. He called them ‘timepieces.’ That was a bunch of pretentious bullshit, if you ask me.”
Parker laughed, the sound warm and genuine.
