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H arlow had been enjoying herself so much that she’d forgotten the reason Grayson was here. However bad he thought the secret was, it was worse than he could possibly imagine. Just thinking of what she knew sent fear snaking down her spine.

If Anthony ever learned that she’d found out, much less told someone else, they’d never find her body. She’d withheld telling Grayson, wanting to be sure she trusted him first. Did she, though? Maybe it would be a mistake to tell him. She was mostly confident that he could get enough on Anthony to get her boy back without the risk of telling Grayson what she knew.

“Harlow?”

“Ah… It’s nothing important.” Unless you considered a secret that could send Anthony to prison important.

“I think it is.” He pulled his chair around to face her. “Whatever it is, it’s making you nervous and, I think, scared. What are you afraid of?”

“Really, it’s nothing.” He was too good at reading her.

“Is it something that will help us get you custody of your son?”

Was it ever. “I just…” She didn’t know how to explain her fear without telling him the reason for it.

“Do you trust me?”

“I want to.”

“Would it help if I told you a secret about me? Something no one else knows. If I trusted you with that, would you be able to put your faith in me?”

“Maybe.” What could he tell her that could possibly equal what she knew?

“Maybe isn’t good enough, Harlow. Full trust is a two-way street.”

It had been a long time since she’d trusted anyone. Was she ready to give full trust to him? As she stared into his eyes, looking for answers, all she saw was his truth. The man sitting in front of her and looking back at her with patience and understanding would fight on her behalf. He would keep her safe. She believed that.

He put his hand over hers, something he seemed to like doing. “I can leave now if that’s what you want.”

“No.” She shook her head. “That’s not what I want. I want to put my faith in you.” And oh, his smile when she said that. It was like the sun coming out after a storm, and apparently, his sunshine was all it took for a thousand butterflies to convene a butterfly convention in her stomach.

“Okay. Good.” He lowered his gaze to the floor. “So, my secret. I’m a Swiftie.”

“A what?” He’d mumbled and spoken so fast that the words ran together.

“You know, a Taylor Swift fan.” He shrugged. “A big one.”

“Seriously?” This big bad former SEAL was a Swiftie? And a blushing one at that. Just priceless. She tried not to laugh. She really did.

“I knew you’d laugh,” he said as if offended.

“Sorry. But seriously…” She pressed her lips together to crush the mirth bubbling up again.

“Go ahead. Get it out of your system.”

If she hadn’t heard the amusement in his voice, she would have worried that she’d insulted him, or worse, hurt his feelings. But she had heard it, and his lips were twitching. He was trying as hard as her not to laugh.

“One thing, Harlow. You can be amused all you want, but you have to promise never to tell Liam or Cooper. Swear it.”

“Why can’t they know?”

“You’ve met those two. They’d never let me hear the end of it if they knew.”

She grinned. “Although tempting, I promise not to share your Swiftieness with your friends.”

He laugh-snorted. “Much appreciated.”

“Well, I guess it’s time for mine.” Her amusement died a sudden death now that it was time to tell him. It was strange, but his confession and that he’d made her laugh eased her apprehension.

“I’m thinking it’s important, so yes.”

“Okay. Um… There’s evidence in Anthony’s safe of a murder.” His mouth opened, then closed. Well, he wasn’t expecting that, was he? She waited to see what he’d say. If this wasn’t so serious, she would have enjoyed that she’d surprised him. But it was, and there was no enjoyment to be had.

“You better start at the beginning,” he said as he leaned back in his chair.

“I overheard Anthony and his father talking one day. I was angry that Tyler’s nanny wouldn’t let me into his room because it wasn’t my scheduled time. Like what the hell?” She glared at Grayson even though he’d had nothing to do with that edict. But he was a man, and men seemed to think they could make the rules. “Why do men think they can run roughshod over women?”

He threw up his hands, as if warding off her accusation. “You’re right. Men suck.”

“Well, most of them do, but maybe not you.” She wasn’t ready to put too much thought into that little gem. “Anyway, I marched myself downstairs to Anthony’s study to have it out with him. This was two or three months before I told him I wanted a divorce, and during that time, I was angry a lot. About everything, but especially about how Anthony was punishing both me and Tyler for reasons known only to him.”

“Before you throat punch me for being a man, and I totally understand why you might want to, can I just say that your ex needs to be first in line?”

“Yes, you can definitely say that.”

“Splendid, and sorry for interrupting.”

This was it. If she told him, she would put him in danger just for knowing what she did. “This is a secret that’s unsafe for anyone who knows. Maybe it’s better—”

“Harlow, believe me when I tell you I’m not afraid of Anthony Pressley. I’ve come up against much worse than he can ever hope to be, and I’m still breathing.” He took her hand. “Tell me.”

His hand was big and strong, and just the weight of it over hers made her feel safe. “I didn’t realize Anthony’s father was in the study with him, but when I heard Arthur’s raised voice, I hesitated to go in. I’ve never liked Arthur. He’s always treated me like I’m not good enough to have the name Pressley .

“Anyway, I was in the hallway, and they didn’t know I was there. I turned to leave when Arthur said, ‘You didn’t have to kill her. There were other ways to shut her up.’ Well, whoa. That got my attention. Then Anthony said, ‘I didn’t kill her, Delgado did.’ I’ve never been sure exactly what Don’s job is other than cleaning up Anthony’s messes. Arthur told Anthony he was stupid if he thought just because Don killed her that he wouldn’t be charged for murder, too, if Don got caught. Then Anthony said that wasn’t going to happen because they… I assume he meant him and Don, that they dumped the body out in the ocean.”

“Do you know who the woman was and why she was killed?”

“There’s a blackmail letter in Anthony’s safe from a Veronica Dunbar, so that’s probably who. Neither Anthony nor his father mentioned a name. Veronica was one of Anthony’s hookups, and I guess she learned some of his secrets and saw dollar signs.”

“And no one suspects Pressley had anything to do with her missing?”

It amused her that he refused to refer to Anthony by his first name. “No. Anthony’s good at keeping his affairs secret from the public, so I’m not even sure if there’s anyone who knew he was seeing her. But in the letter, she was angry that he ended things with her. I wish I’d thought to take a picture of it, but I was afraid of getting caught. I should have gone to the police, but by then, I was afraid of my husband, and then there was the fact that he had the police chief in his back pocket. Now I realize I should have gone to the FBI or something, but I didn’t even think of doing that. I was just trying to survive.”

“So, you did read the letter?”

“Yes. Anthony kept my jewelry in his safe, only letting me have what pieces I needed when we were dressing up for an event.” She shrugged. “Maybe he thought I’d sell the jewelry and run away. Which is what I planned to do. After he left the night I caught him kissing the nanny, I went to the safe to get my jewelry and when I saw the letter, I read it. I was shaking by the time I finished reading it. Anthony wasn’t aware that I knew the combination, and if I took the jewelry, he’d be suspicious that I saw it. I didn’t want to think about what he’d do to me, so I left the jewelry, closed the safe, grabbed Tyler and ran.”

“You did the right thing. What did the letter say?”

“She didn’t say exactly what she was blackmailing him with, just that she knew what he’d done and if he wanted to stay out of prison, he’d pay her a million dollars.”

“We need to find out what she knew.”

“I’ve thought about it, and it has to be something really bad. If he killed once without losing sleep, he could have done it before. There’s also a gun in the safe. What if it could be tied to a murder?”

“I need to get into that safe.”

“That’s too dangerous. Anthony always has people around, and they’re not of the nice variety.”

“Don’t mistake me for the nice variety either, Harlow.”

Gone was the gentle, kind-eyed man she was growing to like…a lot. In that man’s place was a hard-eyed warrior, and definitely not a gentle or kind one. She’d never thought a muscled-soldier type of guy would appeal to her. Apparently, she’d thought wrong. The raw power he’d kept hidden until now was… Well, swoon-worthy came to mind.

That just made her want to know more about him, especially how he, Liam and Cooper had connected. She suspected there was a story there, and she wanted to know it. Maybe with the secrets they’d shared, he would be more open to telling her.

“You said someday you’d tell me how the three of you came to start The Phoenix Three.”

“I said that?”

“Yes.” Well, she couldn’t remember his exact words, but he’d said something along those lines.

“If you want to know, sure. The three of us were kidnapped during spring break in Fort Lauderdale and held for ransom when we were seniors in high school.”

She gasped. “Dear God. But obviously, you are all okay.”

“Now we are. The two men who did it are in prison, but they held us captive under deplorable conditions. At the time, Liam lived in Kansas City, and they grabbed him on the way home from school. They brought him with them to Florida where they knew I’d be for spring break. Our fathers were wealthy, so they figured they could get money from both of them.”

“How did they know about boys living so far apart?”

“One of them had worked as a mechanic at my dad’s Charleston dealership, and the other had worked as a line cook at Liam’s father’s Charleston pub. Liam’s family has Irish pubs all over the world. As luck would have it, our abductors ended up in prison together, one for armed robbery and the other for a carjacking. The two started dreaming up schemes to get rich when they got out and came up with the idea of kidnapping me and Liam. Unfortunately for Cooper, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person…me. When they grabbed me, they took him, too.”

“Your families paid the ransom?” She couldn’t imagine getting a call from kidnappers that they had Tyler. She’d pay anything they asked to get him safely back, even if she had to rob a bank.

“No. The first demand was a million for each of us, which mine and Liam’s families agreed to. The kidnappers thought that was too easy, so they demanded an additional million each. My dad was a former SEAL and decided he wasn’t going to play games with them. He called in some favors, and a team of former SEALs found us and rescued us.”

“That’s an amazing story and thank God you all were rescued. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like. I hope they got a long sentence.”

“They did. Because of their previous records and then the kidnapping, they’ll grow old behind bars.”

“The kidnapping, that’s why y’all started The Phoenix Three.” It wasn’t a question, she knew it was true. They’d gone from being victims of a terrible crime to being heroes dedicated to saving children. Not that they saw themselves as heroes, but they damn sure were.

“Yeah.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal. “It was to make something good out of the worst time of our lives.”

He wasn’t just a survivor. He was a man who had taken his pain and turned it into something that could help others.

And she was blessed to have found him, to have him helping her.