Kiss of a Stranger (Lost Coast Harbor #1) (22 page)

Erin wouldn’t be distracted. “Normally I’d say that whatever you want to do with your genitals is your business, but I’ve been dealing with your celibate self for years. Now you’re finally getting some, and I find out over hash browns at the diner? Hell no.”

Without warning, the closet door swung outward, and Bree gestured at him like he was a game show prize. Erin’s glare turned to incredulity. Gabe waved at her.

“Aren’t you dead?” She studied him, then gave a satisfied nod. “The important thing here is I was right. I knew Maddie had feelings for him.” She looked around the room, at the various pens and stacks of paper. “What’s going on?”

To his disappointment, Maddie’s back was to him, so he couldn’t see her response to Erin’s statement.

She pointed to the coffee table. “Grab a highlighter, Erin. We’ve got some work to do.”

Hours passed. Maddie kept the curtains drawn and played music just loud enough to drown out their voices. If anyone came by and saw Bree’s old truck and Erin’s Jeep, they’d assume a couple of old friends were comforting her in her grief.

Though the condoms made her grief a harder sell.

Gabe might have actually fucked her stupid—and she’d been so eager to repeat the experience that she hadn’t considered the consequences. If she stopped to think for just a minute, she’d have known exactly what would happen. Secrets were considered public domain in Lost Coast. By now, everyone would know her preferred brand and whether she liked them ribbed for her pleasure. She’d need to check the newspaper the next day and see if she made the front page. “Maddie Palmer Finally Gets Laid!”

As mortified as she was, she couldn’t be too upset. A single moment of Gabe’s touch was worth every knowing look she’d be subjected to the next time she went into town.

Maddie debated whether she should tell the others about the money in Oliver’s safe. She knew the time for secrets was long past, but she still harbored a small hope that, somehow, there was an explanation. If the evidence before them pointed to her boss and friend, she would share what she’d found, but she feared the information would lead them to believe Oliver was guilty before the evidence supported that theory.

By silent agreement, she and Gabe weren’t sitting next to each other. Not to keep their whatever-this-was a secret—it was way too late for that. No, Maddie didn’t want to sit next to Gabe because there was no way in hell she’d be able to concentrate on random strings of numbers with Gabe just inches from her. Even now, she could sense his energy buzzing from across the room, a constant tension she felt as a spark against her skin. If he sat next to her, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from crawling into his lap.

Maybe that lack of concentration was why it took so long to see what should have been obvious from the beginning.

“Wait!” she called. “I’ve got something.”

The others gathered around her, and she pointed at the strings of numbers. “Look at these. Three columns. The numbers in the first one are all over the place. Some are in the hundreds of thousands. Some are in the billions. But the second column is all the same. All between one and nine million. Then the third column, the numbers are a lot smaller again. Some variety, but none are over a hundred thousand.”

Bree frowned. “Are we supposed to be seeing something?”

Excited, Maddie grabbed a pen and started making marks. “Take out the commas between the numbers, and the decimal point before the cents. You’re left with numbers between eight and twelve digits long in the first column, but everything in the middle column is nine digits. No exceptions.”

Erin’s brows drew together. “What about the third column?”

Maddie grinned. She was right. She knew she was. “I’m getting to it. Most bank accounts are between nine to twelve digits long. Some people here use the local bank, which has eight-digit account numbers. But all banks have nine-digit routing numbers.”

Gabe stared at her in wonder. “It’s a code.”

“Yep. Account number, routing, and I’m betting that third number is the amount deposited. I’ll double down and say someone at Hastings was doing the depositing.” She caught Gabe’s eye. “Probably Peter, since it was in his office.”

“Doesn’t mean he worked alone,” Gabe reminded her.

She ignored him. “There are pages of these, all the same accounts. The numbers in the headers indicate the month and year.”

Adam nodded, agreeing with her interpretation. “If it’s in code, someone’s trying to hide something. We just need to trace these accounts back to people. Bree?”

“Already on it.” She tried to grab it from Maddie’s hand, but Maddie wouldn’t let go.

Her hand shook as her eyes found the number midway down the page.

“What is it?” Gabe moved to her side. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave a gentle squeeze. When she dared look at him, his brown eyes were warm and concerned.

She took more time than she should to answer, because she knew, once she said the words, he wouldn’t look at her the same way. Maybe never again.

Maddie forced the words out. “Charlie worked for Hastings. Our joint checking account is on this list.”

Though she expected it, she still felt cold when Gabe removed his arm. He paced to the other side of the room as if he couldn’t get away from her fast enough, then rounded on her. “How much?” His voice was low and dangerously controlled. “How much of Hastings’ blood money did you get?”

Maddie wanted to deny it. She hadn’t known it was happening. Charlie had been the criminal, and she was one of his victims. All Gabe had to do was look at her life to know she hadn’t been rolling in piles of ill-gotten money.

But every month, enough money to keep them afloat had shown up in her bank account, and she never asked questions.

Erin stepped in, her voice sharp as knives. “Don’t blame her for others’ mistakes, including your own. A whole lot of people screwed up more than Maddie did, including you.”

Gabe’s face was locked tighter than any bank vault. “That date is a year before I was caught. Charlie was arrested two years after I was.”

Maddie gave a silent nod, not trusting her voice.

“He was getting paid the whole time you were married. Three years, at least. I was in prison, and you were living on Hastings’ gun money.” Gabe spun and punched the wall so hard his fist shot through the plaster. Bree and Erin rushed to stand between Gabe and Maddie, shielding her from his anger.

She didn’t deserve their protection. He was right. She lived on blood money for years. She fed herself and paid off her mortgage with cash made through others’ pain—and not once did she ask where it came from, because she didn’t want to know. She didn’t want to burst her comfortable bubble.

It didn’t matter if the money had come from Charlie’s drugs or the guns Hastings ran through town. It was still money that had ruined lives.

Maddie could have stopped it. She knew something was wrong a year before Gabe’s arrest. If she’d gone to the cops and told them something was wrong, that her husband brought home too much money, they might have looked into it. Years ago, she had the power to shut the whole thing down, and she hadn’t been brave enough to do it.

The way Gabe looked at her, with disgust and bone-deep pain in his eyes, told her he was thinking the same thing.

Because of her refusal to act, Gabe lost six years of his life.

“Can you give us a minute?” Maddie asked her friends. None of them moved. “It’s okay. He won’t hurt me.”

She couldn’t blame them for doubting her. Every hint of softness had fled Gabe’s expression, until he was nothing but sharp angles and cold eyes. Standing in her living room in worn-out jeans and a tight t-shirt, his muscles and tattoos on display, he looked every inch the ex-convict.

Adam stared at Gabe, asking some silent manly question. Whatever it was, Gabe’s short nod was a satisfactory answer. “We’ll be right outside,” he told Maddie, with a light touch on her upper arm. Gabe’s eyes locked on his hand, and if possible his eyes blackened further.

Maddie was pretty sure Bree mouthed “no-good ass clown” at Gabe before she left the room.

When they were alone, Maddie struggled to find the words. Anything she said would be inadequate. “I never knew. If I’d known…” Her explanation tapered off. She’d known something. Just a couple days ago, he’d understood—but that was before they knew the cost.

Gabe held up his fist to study the skinned, bloody knuckles with disinterested eyes, like the hand belonged to someone else. “I shouldn’t be surprised. This is how it always goes.”

She understood, a little too well. “That’s not true. I was stupid, and I’d do anything to take it back, but I never betrayed you.”

“Except you did.” His voice was almost mild. “This is who you are, Maddie. You avoid risk. You take the easy road, and back then it was easier to look the other way, no matter the cost.”

“That’s not fair,” she protested. “What’s easy about being on your own at nineteen? Being poor and lost? I was on an
impossible
road. I had no money and I was about to lose my mother’s house. So yeah, I did whatever I could to get by, but don’t you dare say I was a coward.”

“I don’t need to.” Gabe’s eyes flashed, his mild exterior cracking. “You said it yourself. In Oliver’s office, you said you weren’t brave. I should have listened.”

She couldn’t even argue. “I’m trying to change. To be someone different.” Maddie stood and took a step toward him, then winced as he moved away.

“I don’t care.” He stared right at her, and she believed every word. “This isn’t about the future. That’s over. It’s the past that matters. Because the past I have, you were a part of that. The man I became? You helped create him.” His disgust for both her and the man prison made him shone through every word.

Maddie glared. “There is nothing wrong with the man you are.”

He gave a sharp inhale. “That’s up for debate, but it doesn’t matter. You were scared, and your fear helped ruin my life. I won’t stick around and wait for you to do it again.”

“I told you I’m trying to change.” She tried to stay calm, but the words came out through gritted teeth.

“Bullshit. You’re supposed to start school on Monday, right? Your big, beautiful business career because you’re too scared to do what you really want. You’re too scared to even admit what you really want. Maybe you don’t know. You’re off on dates with Declan Donnelly and counting down the days till you can get a proper, serious job, and both those things would make you miserable.”

The words stung, because every single one of them was true.

Maddie raised her chin. “And you’re the expert on what makes people happy? The man who insists he’s not okay but doesn’t try to fix himself? Who’s chasing some dream of revenge instead of going home to the brother he claims to love? I may be a coward, but so are you. You’re free, Gabe. You can build a new life, a
good
life, if you want to, but instead you’re dodging bombs and sleeping with a woman you obviously don’t respect.”

“Don’t you dare turn this around on me,” he growled. “My life will look very different if I convince the world I’m not a felon, and you know it. I have good reasons for what I’m doing. What are yours?”

She tried to reply, but every possible response felt weak and pathetic.

“What you did, Maddie…” Gabe ran both hands across his skull, fingers digging hard into the bone. “I don’t want to hear excuses, because that’s all they are. I’ve heard enough of those in my life. You had a chance to stop this happening, if you’d decided to be brave just once in your life, but you’re not capable of that choice, are you? I don’t expect the criminals to hand themselves in, but I never thought the good people would screw me, too.”

Maddie closed her eyes and began tapping her finger and thumb together. One. Two. Three. She stopped, almost laughing at herself. It didn’t matter how long she stood there, trying to find a bit of equilibrium. She’d lost that forever the day Gabe appeared in her life.

“Let me fix this,” she insisted.

Gabe’s laugh was short and ugly. “I think you’ve done more than enough.”

Maddie stepped toward him, and she fought the sharp ache when he flinched. “I’ll go see Charlie. Whatever he knows, I’ll make him tell me. We’ll get proof. We can prove the Hastings were involved.”

“Fuck the Hastings.” Gabe stalked toward her. There was nothing gentle in his eyes. He was a dark stranger, the bad boy she once believed him to be, and all she wanted was the real Gabe back. The one who smiled and teased and offered her unexpected truths.

“This is about you, Maddie. You were part of this. How do I get revenge on you?”

Gabe closed the distance between them and slammed his mouth across hers in a hard, bruising kiss.

Gabe fisted her hair and yanked her head back, trapping her against his body while he ravaged her mouth. He made no effort to be gentle.

When he pulled back, his cock was hard against her hip. “Will you let me use you? Use you like I wanted when we first met?”

She wasn’t certain what he was asking. It didn’t matter. His rough touch didn’t scare her. Already, the heat rose in her cheeks, and his sharp eyes didn’t miss it.

Maddie brushed her fingers across his cheek. “I need you,” she whispered.

Something flashed in his eyes and was gone before she could identify it. “I don’t.” Gabe wrenched on a dark sweatshirt and pulled the hood tight, obscuring his face. He opened her front door.

The words were a knife to her heart, tiny stab wounds that would bleed and scar until she was never the same again.

Somehow, she managed to stand straight, and her voice didn’t waver when she called to him. “I may be a coward, but you’re the one walking away.”

The door closed behind him.

Chapter Twenty-Three

B
ree’s truck made the kind of sounds that would normally indicate demonic possession. Maddie ignored them, keeping the accelerator pressed flat to the floor. Erin’s Jeep would have been the more reliable choice, but it had been low on gas. Maddie refused to waste time filling the tank.

Bree warned her the truck could be a little temperamental, but she didn’t argue when Maddie asked to borrow it, and she only asked once if she wanted company for the ride. This was a long-overdue confrontation with her ex, and Bree knew Maddie had to do it on her own. That was the thing about best friends. They knew when you needed them, they knew when to press, and sometimes, they knew when it was time to butt out.