Zak rolled his eyes. “Of course you did. Damn it, no fair. Next game should be a bench-pressing competition.”
Scott scoffed, “Eva’s got a hidden strength inside her, man. She might surprise you and kick your ass there too.” He slapped Zak on the shoulder. “Besides, you coach Aiden’s baseball team. I would have thought you’d be better at this.”
“Baseball is overhand, softball is underhand,” Zak grumbled, though he was more just putting on his frustration for show. “She has the advantage.”
Eva simply grinned wider, directing her smile Scott’s way.
They’d been at the BBQ for several hours, and the excitement of the day seemed to have died down a fair bit, when Liam approached Scott and Eva standing next to the gazebo softly chatting.
“There you two are,” Liam said, beer in hand. “Are you enjoying the party?”
Scott nodded, as did Eva, but he could tell she was eager to hear what information about Todd the PI had managed to dig up.
Liam’s face sobered and he took a pull from his beer, letting out a satisfied ah, before he spoke again. “Now that our bellies are full, we’ve had some drinks and you annihilated Zak and Adam at bocce ball, maybe we should step into the house for a minute and chat.”
Scott could practically hear Eva gulp next to him. Or maybe that was him gulping. Either way, a huge knot bobbed in his throat as they followed Liam into Zak’s kitchen. The kids—even the older ones—were all out in the driveway doing chalk art with a couple of women—drinks in hand—supervising. The rest of the group took up various pockets throughout the yard or house, caught up in conversations.
“In here,” Liam said, jerking his head toward the empty living room. They followed him. “You might want to sit down,” he offered to Eva.
She shook her head, her body stiff, jaw set tight. “I want to stand. Now please, tell me what your PI found out about Todd.”
Liam’s lips flattened. He dug into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a manila envelope that had obviously been folded once lengthwise. “It would appear that your husband—”
“Ex-husband,” Scott corrected, not blinking as Liam unfolded the envelope and began pulling out papers and a few photos.
“Right. Sorry. Anyway, I have copies of all of these at my office, just so you know. But it would appear that your ex-husband’s businesses are not what they seem. They are in fact fronts for other businesses. His strip club runs a pretty pricey escort and prostitution service out the back. He launders money through the gentlemen’s club and his nightclubs to fund his other ventures, like illegal arms dealing.”
Eva’s hand flew up to her mouth to smother her gasp.
“His casinos have some shady shit going on in them too, though my PI is still digging to get more details. From what he can tell though, high rollers are given access to some underground betting. McGregor, my PI, thinks it might be dog or cockfighting—possibly even people fighting. At least that’s his guess. They go into the casino but then disappear, emerging hours later, sometimes through a door around back.”
With each word Liam spoke, Eva’s head began to shake faster.
“And lastly … ” Liam exhaled, handing her a photo of Todd with his arm around a woman who looked not much older than her niece Sabrina. “He was spotted two nights ago with this woman. They climbed into his town car together. Now McGregor wasn’t able to get a real name for the woman, but none of us believe that she’s old enough to be in a bar or casino, let alone dating a thirty-seven-year-old man.”
“I doubt there’s much dating going on,” Scott muttered.
Even with the tight, revealing clothes and makeup, the woman with Todd looked no older than thirteen or fourteen. Was he not only running a prostitution ring, but an underage prostitution ring at that? Could the man get anymore disgusting?
Did they want to know the answer to that?
“I think I’m going to be sick,” she whispered, handing the photo off to Scott. Her cheeks had lost all their color, and her eyes no longer held that spark he loved. Her sunglasses were pushed up into her hair, and she mindlessly reached for them, her hands shaking as she cleaned the lenses on the hem of her shirt. He could practically see the fear clawing at her as she came to terms with the fact that she had been married to this man—and probably while he was doing all of this shit. She had loved this man. He was the father of her children, and he did despicable things, cruel things. Evil things.
Scott already knew it to be true after what he’d done to Eva, but now more than ever he was convinced that Todd Fletcher was the walking definition of a soulless, psychopathic demon.
“So what do we do now?” Scott asked, taking the notes and photos from his brother and putting them all back into the envelope.
“Now, we go to the police,” Liam said. “There’s too much illegal shit going down for us to just sit on it and use it as leverage for your relationship. Hopefully, the guy gets found guilty and sent to prison, then we don’t have to worry about him for twenty-five years—if he gets life.”
Eva’s thumb was wedged between her teeth, and she stared straight ahead at nothing in particular. “But you said your PI is still working on getting more information about what’s going on in the casinos?”
Liam nodded. “He is, yes. He might bring in an associate, and then Quincy can pose as a high roller and potentially get an invite. McGregor is like ninety percent sure it’s dogfighting. He could have sworn he heard dogs barking when he was scoping out the back of the building.”
“That’s fucking disgusting.” Scott’s words came out through clenched teeth. He focused on his brother but kept his arm tightly wrapped around his woman. Her body was iron-stiff. “So then maybe we should sit tight until McGregor gets back to you with more information. The more dirt we have on Fletcher, the more ammo the prosecutor has to fire at him, right?”
“Yes,” Liam confirmed. “That’s right. And everything the PI has uncovered so far would hold up in court. We could put Fletcher away for a long time with what we already have on him.”
Eva had gone silent, her gaze once again focused intently on nothing in particular.
He pecked her on the side of the head. “Eves, you okay?”
She blinked up at him, her head shaking slowly. “Would you be?”
Good point.
He squeezed her tighter. “We’ll get through this, okay? Liam is helping. McGregor is on it. We just need to lie low for a bit longer until McGregor gets us the rest of the information, then, with Liam, we’ll take it to the police.”
Her jaw trembled, and tears welled up in her beautiful eyes. “Only twenty-five years, Scott. What if it’s less? What if he gets a lighter sentence or community service or just a fine? Even if it’s ten years, eventually he’ll get back out, and then he’ll come looking for me. For us.”
He wrapped her up in his arms, determined to absorb as much of her pain and fear as he could. His chin rested on the top of her head, the fruity and feminine scent of her shampoo driving his senses wild. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, okay?” He glanced at Liam. His brother was normally one of the most confident men, sure in his plan and downright arrogant about how successful of a lawyer he was. But right now, the look on his face gave Scott anything but faith in the justice system. Liam was well aware of how connected and powerful Todd was and that Eva’s concerns were not unfounded. Todd could get a puny sentence, and then he’d be out and he’d be furious.