Read Online Shattered Trust by Leslie Esdaile Banks - Free Book Online

between the window and the bed.
    â€œThat was the thing to tell him, wasn’t it?”
    James nodded. “It was.”
    â€œFill in Steve and the rest of the crew,” she said, not looking at him as she gazed out the window. She waited for James to make the call and to verbally download all that she’d just explained.
    â€œSo now we know,” she whispered once he’d hung up. “We aren’t just paranoid.”
    â€œCorrection,” he muttered. “We’re paranoid, but with good reason.”
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    â€œI thought this was all over,” Donald Haines, Jr., said quietly as he sat in his mother’s new waterfront condo.
    Elizabeth Haines continued to hug her body as she stared out the large picture window. She couldn’t even turn around to face him as he sat stunned on the sofa awaiting a response. Her son had aged; his handsome face now hosted lines from the strain. His once brilliant blue eyes now always held a haunted shadow within them, like hers did. She’d never wanted any of the horrors of her or her husband’s political lives of intrigue to touch him, but it had. Her dead husband’s business affairs and tangled web of political favors and back-scratching had shattered their lives. Donald had left her practically nothing, even the house that they’d built had been bargained out from under her as his last laugh in the will.
    But none of the carnage that resulted made any sense. The Mafia had received their pound of flesh; their casino charters and construction contracts for the new gaming houses coming to the state of Pennsylvania had all been preserved. Her ex-lover, a once renowned doctor, was behind bars for a very long time for Donald’s actual murder, and her son’s ex-lover was also safely put away for his complicit role on the travesty.
    A slight shudder passed through her as she remembered how narrowly she’d escaped the same fate. Who would be foolish enough to want to stir up that awful nightmare again? Even for vengeance?
    â€œMother ... are you all right?” Donny asked quietly, standing and going to her.
    Who would kill the senator and his son? What purpose would that offer?
    She embraced him slowly, filling his arms. “No,” she whispered, a hundred thoughts attacking her mind at once. “After all of this, how can you or I ever be all right?”
    He hugged her tightly and nodded. “I know.”
    She stroked his back, gleaning as much comfort from him as he gave, and laid her head on his slight shoulder. “Have you spoken to Alan?” she asked in a careful murmur, almost afraid to open the wound that made her dear son bleed.
    She felt him tense, and then he drew away from her.
    â€œNo. That’s finished,” Donny said through a thick swallow. “Why would I call or write him in prison after all he did to me ... to us ... to our family? That would be like me asking if you’ve been in contact with—”
    â€œI know, I know,” she whispered, closing her eyes. “Don’t be cross. I only asked because I’m trying to fathom who we might know that would be ruthless enough to murder someone ... trying to understand and work it all out in my mind, who might have been in business with the senator and his son, and only those two are likely. That is the only reason I mentioned it, and will never breathe their names again.”
    She watched her son rake his hair in agitation and then finally sit. “They can’t reach us or anyone we know from where they are. I don’t think.”
    They both stared at each other.
    â€œThat’s just the point, my beloved. And be honest, it ran through your mind like it has run through mine ... you’ve thought about it.”
    He nodded after a moment. Her refined, blue blood stature was disorienting as he thought about the ruthlessness it concealed. Her fit, trim frame ensconced in a chartreuse designer cardigan, a