House of Paine - (A Romantic Suspense - Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

she could see he’d made up his mind. Asshole or not, Jackson was his father and Alex was his brother. Loyalty to family she could understand...and respect. “That’s fine,” she said. “We’ll take the Kramer’s out of business and walk away.”
    “What is it that you have?” Jake asked them. Damien told him what he had and what Paige had. Jake looked like he was contemplating it and then he said, “I’ll have to check into some things...bringing Kramer down with the evidence that also implicates your father, while leaving his family intact, won’t be easy.”
    “Not easy?” Damien asked, “But possible?”
    Jake smiled. “Anything is possible. It will just take some time to figure out how to do it right...and safely for all involved.”
    “Do you need to see what we have?” Paige asked him.
    “I do,” he said. “I’m leaving soon to head back to New York. I’d like to take it with me. The only person who will have eyes on it besides me will be my father. We can trust him. He’ll do what I ask.”
    “Okay,” Damien didn’t hesitate. Trust is big in this family. Roxi trusts Jake so Damien does too. Paige was doing her best to trust anyone these days...but she knew they needed help. She didn’t have any choice.
    “I’ll get it,” she told them. As she was making her way down the hall towards the guest room, she came face to face with Roxi. The other woman stopped and looked at her. At last she said,
    “It took balls for you to deal with your brother’s murderer the way that you did.”
    Paige wasn’t sure what to say to that. Finally she said, “Thanks. My brother was an amazing person. He didn’t deserve to die...especially not the way he did.”
    “I’m sorry for your loss. I can tell by the way Damien looks at you that he cares a lot about you. Just keep in mind that no matter how much he wants to leave the family and be with you, it’s not going to be an easy transition for him. It took me a long time to adjust to life outside of that circle. I had a lot of trust issues.” Paige hadn’t even realized her face gave her away until Roxi threw her pretty head back and laughed. “Fine, you’re right. I still do. But you should have met me ten years ago. I might have even rivaled Kelsey for bitch of the year award.”
    “That’s hard to imagine,” Paige said with a grin. Roxi laughed again.
    “I think you’re okay, kid.” Roxi walked away and Paige was left standing there smiling.

Chapter 5
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    B y the time Kevin arrived, Jake had already left with the evidence. Kevin hugged his daughter and his nephew and then he looked at Paige and said, “How are you feeling?”
    “I’m doing okay,” she said. “Considering.”
    “Killing a man is not an easy thing to deal with...even if he needed it.” Paige was grateful that at least none of these people seemed to be judging her too harshly for what she’d done. She knew that Damien had killed people...he told her. She was sure that Kevin must have at some point in his life, and she was beginning to believe that Roxi would, if she deemed it necessary to protect what she valued. This was a whole different world than the one Paige came from...she hoped that she and Damien would be able to return to that other one someday, not too tainted from their time in this one.
    “I told Jackson what’s going on,” he said. Paige felt another pang in her belly.
    “What did he say?” Damien asked.
    “What you would expect,” Kevin said. “He’s worried about the evidence. He wants to know where you are so he can send Alex to collect it.”
    “You didn’t tell him did you?” Paige asked with terror gripping at her chest.
    “No. I didn’t tell him. I told him you were somewhere safe. Which leads me to the next item on our list. Lucas knows that it was you who killed Caine. He had cameras in the back room.”
    “Shit! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. What are those rooms for anyways? Caine would never