Runaway Wolfes of Manhattan Three - Helen Hardt Page 0,61

had a drink with.”

“I had a drink with him, yeah.”

“Damn him.”

“He didn’t tell me anything. Other than you’re all persons of interest in your father’s murder.”

And one more huff from me. “Not the devoted children we seemed to be at the funeral, huh?”

“He didn’t tell me anything I couldn’t find out on my own. You know that.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“Is that why you used a fake name in Montana?”

“Part of it. Part of me just wanted to be someone else for a little while. Pretend. Have that different life that you and no one else can give me.”

“But it wasn’t different,” he said.

“No. It wasn’t different. Not at all. On the outside, maybe, but not on the inside.”

“I want to help you.”

“I’ll say it again. You don’t know what you’re getting into.”

“Maybe not. But whatever it is, I don’t care.”

“What if I did it? What if I killed my father?”

“I don’t believe you did.”

“You hardly know me.”

“All right.” He took both of my hands in his. “I’ll keep all your secrets, Riley. Did you kill your father?”

I shook my head, sighing. “No. But if I’m going down for it, I wish I had.”

38

Matteo

I believed her.

This woman didn’t have it in her to harm another soul.

But if Derek Wolfe had done to her what I was imagining, he didn’t have a soul.

He was rotting in hell right now.

Good thing, because if he crossed my path, I’d strangle him with my bare hands.

This woman—this sweet and beautiful woman…

“Riley,” I said, “I’m going to help you. I’m going to help you prove your innocence, and I’m going to help you get through all the other shit you’re living with.”

“You can’t,” she said. “No one can help me.”

“I don’t accept that.”

“You don’t have a choice, Matt. I am who I am, and there’s no changing it.”

“I think you misunderstood me. I don’t want to change you, sweetheart. I love you exactly as you are. I want to help you deal with all of this.”

“I love you for that. I really do. But I’m a fucking mess, Matt.”

“You say no one can help you. I disagree. If you want help, it’s available.”

“I do want help. But I also don’t want to go down for a murder I didn’t commit, and I don’t want any of my brothers going down for it either.”

“Rock says he has an alibi.”

“He does. He was in Montana, but the authorities think he might have hired someone to do it. Except he had no money. He was living on his own.”

“And Reid and Roy?”

“Both alone in their apartments. No one can corroborate.”

“And…you?” I asked hesitantly.

“Same. I was alone. Here. The murder took place at four in the morning.”

“What about his girlfriend? Fonda something? I read about her when I researched your dad.”

“Fonda? She’s not implicated. She wasn’t with him that night. She and my mother appear to have alibis. Besides, my mother wouldn’t have him offed. No Derek Wolfe means no seven-figure alimony payments.”

“So you all have a motive?”

“All except Lacey, and they seem to be going after her the hardest. I don’t get it.”

“Where was she?”

“Home alone at her place as well. Except the security tapes, which would have shown her coming home and going out the next morning, seem to be missing.”

“Surely there are security tapes for this place,” I said.

“There are. But we all have the money to hire an expert, so the security tapes mean nothing.”

I nodded. “Fuck.”

“Fuck is right.” She sighed. “My dad was into some nasty stuff.”

“I can imagine.”

“No, you really can’t.”

“Riley, I know what some fathers do to their little girls. I can imagine, even though I don’t want to. If he walked through that door right now, I’d fucking kill him myself.”

“You’re not wrong in your assumptions.” She gulped. “But that’s not what I’m talking about.”

Rage unfurled at the back of my neck, surging through the rest of my body like a river of boiling blood.

I’d already guessed, but to hear her say it…

Good thing the derelict was already in his grave.

Finally, I gained my composure, tamping down the anger that threatened to overtake me. Riley didn’t need that right now. She needed me whole and unyielding. She needed my strength.

“Not your brothers?” I asked.

“He beat the shit out of them, but no, he didn’t abuse them sexually.”

“Then what? What the hell is worse than what he did to you?”

She shook her head. “I can’t even bring myself to say the words.”

“Please. I want to help.”

“Apparently, he…” She swallowed, closing her eyes. “He killed