Page 154 of Dirty Rival

I catch her arm. “You don’t see. I want to marry you, Carrie. I love you more than life itself. You need to hear me out. Then you’ll understand.”

She draws a breath and eases back into her seat. “I’m listening.”

“My father pushed to get a series of buildings complete within a certain budget for a client. Rules were broken with the construction of those properties. Codes were not up to standard and someone in one of the buildings died as a direct result.”

“Oh my God. And your name is legally connected to the properties?”

“Yes.”

“We can fight that. You didn’t know. Just let me go talk to my brother and it won’t matter. I will make this go away.”

“I’m not done, Carrie. My father not only covered up the death, the private investigator working for your father found out and then ended up dead. A tragic suicide they called it.”

Carrie pales. “Suicide?”

“But of course it wasn’t a suicide, Carrie. My father had him murdered. Your father has proof. Bottom line, as you said, I was on the paperwork for that building project. I’m connected to a murder.”

“Murder,” she whispers. “That’s—unexpected.”

“I know, and fuck, baby, it’s killed me to stay silent on this, but I’m in the middle. I don’t have proof of an actual murder.”

“Well then, how can you be sure your father killed anyone?”

“When I confronted my father about your father’s accusations, he didn’t admit it or deny it. And granted, my father would stay silent just to fuck with my head, but this—I don’t think he would on this. Not unless it was true.”

“What proof does my father have?”

“A recording of my father talking to my uncle, who isn’t my uncle at all. He’s just my father’s best friend. They say some pretty damning things in that recording.”

“I thought you didn’t have the proof?”

“Your father gave me a transcript,” I say. “If it’s accurate, it’s damning.”

“Does Gabe know?”

“Hell no. I don’t want him involved and I don’t want you involved, but at this point, like I said, you had a right to know.”

“What about the information you have on my father? What was he trying to cover up by leaving the company? Surely that still keeps him silent.”

“He wanted to save face with you, baby. That’s over. He’s moved on and found his field of oil, quite literally.”

“I can’t believe this,” Carrie breathes out. “This is like a mob movie starring our families. Do you—are you sure the paperwork on the building project would take you down?”

“No,” I say, “but it’s not a war I want to fight. Proving I’m innocent would destroy our company. It would destroy you, Carrie, if you were married to me. Had I not asked you to marry me, you wouldn’t be in the middle of this.” I stand up and walk to the window, and damn it, I know this is how Carrie and I end. I know this is what her father knew would happen.

Carrie is suddenly in front of me again, leaning on the glass, her hands on my chest. “You didn’t do this, and as for the risk of marrying me, there are none. Marrying me protects you. Once it’s done, it’s done. My father won’t risk taking me down with you.”

“He’ll have a plan to protect you, and baby, if your father comes at my father, that’s bad. He killed someone. Remember?”

She blanches. “Are you suggesting that your father might kill my father? Is that why you don’t want to tell your father what’s going on?”

“Yes, Carrie. That’s why I don’t want to tell my father.”

Chapter seventy-five

Carrie

It’s all I can do to process the idea that Reid’s father would kill someone. That Reid believes that his father would kill my father. “You have to call your father,” I say. “You have to warn him before you end up burned. Before Gabe ends up burned.”