Entangled (The Accidental Billionaires, #2)(52)

“We could move,” I offered. “Start someplace else.”

I was a billionaire. Hell, anything was possible. We could move to the Caribbean if that’s what would help her forget the shit that had happened to her in Cali.

“I thought about that,” she admitted. “But I’d still be running away.”

“It’s not unreasonable to not want to live in the same state where you went through hell.”

“But I don’t really want to move, Aiden. I like my life in Citrus Beach. You have your family there, and I have my friends. The restaurant and your new business, too.”

“I’ll get my own damn jet, and we can travel back and forth.”

“Not necessary,” she said firmly. “Marco isn’t even in prison there. They transferred him and most of the family to a supermax prison in Colorado. And I figured out that moving wouldn’t make me happy. Why should I leave a place I love because I had some bad memories close by? They’ll fade away with time. Especially now that I have so many things to replace them with.”

That made sense. “Okay. If you want to stay.”

“I do. All things considered, I’m not leaving Citrus Beach. I grew up there. I have a lot of good memories with Jade, and even you, there.”

“Like the park?” I asked playfully.

Every sexual encounter we’d ever had when we were young had been at that city park.

My daughter had been conceived there, and now we took her there to ride the swings and play on the teeter-totters with her friends.

“One of my favorite places,” she confirmed as she rubbed her head against my shoulder like she was getting comfortable.

“I know you didn’t have it easy, sweetheart, but it was a good place to grow up.”

“Other than my crazy mother, I loved it,” she agreed.

I suddenly wondered about a detail we’d never discussed. “What did your mother know about Marino?”

“I’m not sure,” she said uncertainly. “I think she knew that his fake religious agency was actually a front to lure women and underage girls and boys into human trafficking. I don’t know how she couldn’t have known. But I’m pretty sure she was brainwashed into thinking that she was saving their souls in some way. She was crazy, Aiden. But I never saw her involved in any of the other crimes that I was informing the FBI on.”

“You didn’t talk about any of that with her?” I pretty much knew the answer, since Skye had never had a mother she could trust.

“I didn’t dare,” she uttered. “Even if she wasn’t involved, I wasn’t going to convince her that I was right and the Marino family was evil.”

“When did she die?”

“About six months before the FBI did their raid and arrested everyone. I’m not quite sure that she wouldn’t have been implicated if she’d lived. Maybe she was nuts, but she was breaking the law and aiding the Marino family in their human-trafficking ring. Whether she was aware of it being evil or not.”

I put my face in her hair because I was addicted to her scent. “I’m so damn sorry that nobody has ever been there for you.”

I’d had a whole damn family of people to back me up whenever I needed it. Skye had never had anybody she could trust. Not even her mother.

“I had Jade,” she protested. “I didn’t talk to her much while I was married because I couldn’t. And I would have never wanted her to know what was happening, because that knowledge could have put her life in danger. But she’s always cared. She was and is the best friend a woman could have.”

“You have me now, too.”

“I know. It isn’t the quantity of people who care, you know. It’s the quality,” she said earnestly.

I chuckled. “And you think Jade and I are quality?”

“Definitely.”

“You do realize that all the rest of my family is going to get to know you, and they’ll be there for you, too?”

“I think I could handle that,” she said, her voice slightly fading.

I kissed her on the forehead and closed my eyes because I knew she was falling asleep.

It was reassuring to know that if anything ever happened to me, my family would take care of Maya and Skye in a heartbeat.

Good to know that having a shit ton of brothers, sisters, and cousins wasn’t always a pain in the ass.





CHAPTER 24

SKYE



I was just a little melancholy when I woke up on our last full day in Vegas.

Every moment I’d spent with Aiden had been a gift for me.

I could feel myself finally changing, metamorphosing into the woman I wanted to be.

Yeah, I felt a little raw because I wasn’t used to my emotions being close to the surface. And just a little bit apprehensive. But those feelings were fading fast.

I’d rather be a woman who cries and feels genuine joy than one who’s like an emotional vacuum.

And the man who had brought me on this trip had been the catalyst I’d needed to come out of my shell of protection and start really living again.

Aiden made me feel safe.

He made me feel adored.

And he made me feel like the most fascinating, beautiful woman he’d ever encountered.

That attention was heady, and it had gotten to me.