Exposure - Kelly Moran Page 0,45

He shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to prepare himself for what rehashing his past was going to do to him, to her.

"My mother had a daughter through a previous marriage when she met my dad. Fresh on the political circuit, they got married quickly and had me. Melissa was eight years older than me and spent a lot of time with her dad, so we weren't exactly close. Neither of us harbored any resentment, there was just such a big age gap."

Pressing his palm to the frame, he leaned into his hand and hung his head. "She married Mario Francesco when I was ten, and none of us had any idea he was a legal aid for Rizzoli. My father was part of the Democratic Party and went up against Rizzoli in a few elections. Mario found out about misused campaign funds, but that was the tip of the iceberg. When the feds dug deeper, they found money laundering and drug pushing out of New Jersey. We didn't see a lot of Melissa during those years, either because the family wouldn't let her or it was some misguided way to keep us safe. They'd had a son, Jonathon, but he barely recognized us."

Forcing himself to look at her, he turned and checked her reaction.

Pale but calm, she nodded slowly. "Go on."

Nervous energy skimmed under his skin, so he paced. "The summer before my senior year of high school, she got pregnant with Aubrey. Jonathon was five. The feds were coming close to gathering enough evidence for an arrest on Rizzoli. Mario was turning over particulars to avoid prosecution which, of course, Rizzoli didn't know."

Bone tired, he crossed the room and sat on the table in front of her. The ingrained part of him needing her near was pacified by the move. "My father was concerned enough to have me looking into colleges as far from the east coast as possible. That's how I settled in Alaska." He swallowed hard, his gut churning.

As if sensing the story was about to take an ugly turn, she closed her warm fingers over his hands. "Do you need a minute?"

He shook his head. He'd had nothing but minutes, endless agonizing minutes that accumulated into years. Better just to spit it out fast. "The summer after graduation, Rizzoli found out what Mario was up to and had Mario and Melissa's house burned down to the ground. With them inside."

She gasped, fingers tightening over his. Her eyes welled. "Noah."

Waving away her sympathy, he got up to stand by the window again. The pressure in his chest expanded, the vise around his throat cinching. The fucking worst part was coming. "Two days after the funeral, I got a call from the FBI asking to meet. Turned out, a neighbor of Melissa's saw the house burning and called the fire department before running into the blaze. He wasn't able to save the others, but he got Aubrey out."

He paused, but there was no way to garner composure for the rest. He let himself break for the first time in a decade. "She had second degree burns on the left side of her body. She was only eight months old and couldn't escape the crib." His voice cracked. Tears blurred his eyes, falling hot and heavy on his frozen cheeks. His chest cracked open.

Raven came up beside him, her eyes wet. Smoothing her hand down his arm, she linked their fingers. She moved in front of him, not wiping away the tears or offering pithy condolences. None of those things helped one fucking bit. But he was grateful, so damn grateful, she was here.

He wiped his face with the back of his hand and looked over her shoulder, still hearing Aubrey's cries of pain in his head. "A month later, when she was stable enough, they transferred her in secret to a hospital in Anchorage. While she was recovering, I used my inheritance and the money from her life insurance to build this house, with everything a little girl could ever need. My parents never knew she survived, and it killed me not to tell them, watching them grieve with no hope. But I had to keep her safe."

His gaze slid to Raven's. Held. "I hired the Brisbins to be her caretakers, who were down on their luck and could never have children. She has a tutor who lives on site four days a week, a team of security that never leaves." He shook his head.