Entangled (The Accidental Billionaires, #2)(36)

My cock was so hard that it was physically painful. “You have a very willing teacher,” I assured her. “But let’s figure out your trigger stuff first, and not just with the intimacy issue.”

“I’ve never quite figured out how to not be afraid all the time,” she confessed. “I’ve just learned not to let it show.”

Hell, she might as well have knifed me in the chest. That’s how goddamn bad it hurt to hear that it was hard for her to ever really relax her guard.

“Why?”

“Because there wasn’t a single minute of my marriage that I wasn’t afraid that Marco would figure out what was happening and snuff me out.”

From what she’d said, Skye had tried to be a model wife. Why would Marino want her dead? “What did you do except try to please him?”

She lifted her head and looked around. There wasn’t another couple close to us, but I had a feeling she didn’t want anyone to hear our conversation.

“I did plenty that would make him kill me in a heartbeat,” she said breathlessly.

I couldn’t imagine what a woman like Skye could do to any guy that would make him want her to disappear. Fuck knew I couldn’t comprehend that. I never wanted her out of my sight.

“Like what?”

She was silent as she laid her head back down on my shoulder, her mouth as close to my ear as she could get it. “I wasn’t just docile and obedient during my marriage,” she admitted.

“So you fought him?”

“In the only way I could. Aiden, I figured out what was happening in the family right after Maya’s first birthday. And once I knew, I couldn’t stay silent.”

Holy shit! “You confronted him?”

“Worse.”

I shuddered at the thought of her risking her life by telling her ex-husband that she knew he was into organized crime. “What the hell could be worse than that?”

“Once I knew, I couldn’t just let it happen. I went to the police. They sent me to the FBI because they were federal crimes. I was an informant for several years. I’m the reason that the Marino crime family all ended up in jail for life. And I spent every minute of the day terrified that they’d find out. Once the FBI promised me that if anything ever happened or if I was compromised they’d make sure Maya was safe, I started telling them everything I knew or could find out.”

The truth finally slammed me over the head with a sledgehammer.

Holy fuck!

She was right.

There was something worse and more dangerous than confronting the mob.

Skye Weston had been the FBI snitch who had brought the entire Marino organization down for good.





CHAPTER 16

SKYE



I’d never told anyone that I’d helped bring down the Marino crime family. It wasn’t something I was exactly proud of, but it had been something my conscience had demanded that I do.

It had also been the only way to make sure Maya and I were safe for the rest of our lives.

Women didn’t leave a Marino male, and the ones who had before me had conveniently come up missing and were never seen again.

Given the choice between disappearing and being an informant, it had been a pretty easy decision. There was no way I was going to have my daughter reach adulthood having been raised in a crime family. She hadn’t really understood much of what was going on when she was young—thank God! And I’d wanted to get her out before she could figure out that her mother had married the mob.

Aiden didn’t say a word to me as he took my hand and led me down to the beach. It was deserted, and a safe distance from the reception.

“Are you serious?” he said as we stopped before reaching the water’s edge.

There was a gorgeous full moon, which gave me enough light to see his face. “Yes. I’ve never told anyone except you. I fed information to the FBI for five years before they finally had a big enough case to make sure every member of the family involved would go down.”

He dropped my hand. “No wonder you have PTSD. I can only imagine how afraid you were.”

“Every single day I was petrified that it would be the day that somebody found out.”

“Did you have to testify?”

I nodded. “Of course. But I didn’t care. Every trial got me closer to the freedom I wanted for me and Maya.”

“What made you decide to do it?”

I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “There was a maid in our house almost all the time. She was there from the time I went to live with Marco until Maya was just a year old. I liked her. She was young, in her twenties, and she was one of the only people I could really talk to. Her name was Maria. One day she told me that she had seen an enormous stock of heroin and cocaine on the lower level, and that then it all disappeared. And she meant a lot of drugs. I think she was trying to warn me. Unfortunately, Marco overheard her talking, and he showed her out of the house. She never came back. I never saw her again. When I asked about Maria, all Marco said was that she’d never talk again. That’s when I knew he’d killed her. I didn’t ever mention her again.”

“Jesus Christ!” Aiden exclaimed as he raked a hand through his hair. “Weren’t you afraid he’d shut you up permanently, too?”

“I think he would have if I’d talked about it in the open. But I learned to keep my mouth shut around any of the family. I was terrified.”