“And do you think you’re a gentleman?”
He just smirked in reply. “Let’s get to know each other. Why’d you become an attorney?” Byron curled on his side and propped his head in one hand.
“I was adopted by a pair of lawyers, so it’s the family business.” She’d never seriously considered another profession.
“Jedidiah Hunter was only a prosecutor back then, huh?”
“Yes.” When she was in high school, he’d become a federal judge. “You had Vick and Dix investigate me.”
From what she could tell, those two operated the money laundering and loan-sharking arm of Byron’s business, although Vick mostly did research while Dix did the heavy lifting. To do the job effectively, they had to dig up dirt on a client, in case he or she failed to pay the money back on time.
“What can I say? I’m real curious about you. Come on then, out with it.”
“Both Jed and his wife at the time, Gail, were prosecutors.” Jane couldn’t seem to keep her mouth shut tonight. “Though they got divorced when I was elemenatary school, and she moved to Boston. I can’t blame her, I was a handful.” It had hurt at the time, but she’d gotten over it.
“You think she left because of you?” Jane couldn’t quite pin down the expression on his face, somewhere between astonishment and sympathy.
Jed had denied it, but in the back of her mind, she’d always suspected Gail hadn’t bargained for a daughter with Asperger’s.
“I’m pretty sure. I’ve never liked authority figures.”
“Me neither, darlin’.” He toasted her with his glass.
“Or stupid rules, so I questioned everything.”
“Ah, so you’re an outlaw too.” He nodded with approval. “And your birth mother was one of your father’s defendants…?”
“No, he didn’t adjudicate her case. My mother’s prosecutor was John Talbot, a real ass who always goes after the stiffest penalties, even when it doesn’t fit the crime. My mother, Joanne, was charged as an accessory to murder. I was only eighteen months when my adoptive parents took me in.”
Since Jed and Gail had been registered foster parents and pulled a few strings, the state had placed Jane with them two days after her mother’s death, and they’d gone on to adopt her.
“So you don’t remember her.”
“No, and Joanne was only eighteen when she got into trouble with the law. She’d fallen in with a bad crowd and agreed to act as a lookout while her boyfriend and his friend robbed a liquor store.”
She still didn’t understand how Joanne could be so reckless. The entire trajectory of both their lives changed that night.
“Unfortunately, the owner had a shotgun behind the counter, and he fired off a shot, killing the best friend. Her boyfriend killed the owner, ratcheting up the charges to felony murder.”
Byron nodded. “And since your mother was involved in the heist, the death was on her too.”
It didn’t seem fair. Joanne hadn’t planned the attack and hadn’t shot anyone, but she was guilty in the eyes of the law.
“Her boyfriend agreed to cooperate with Talbot on another case, a higher profile robbery he’d been involved in, and copped a plea deal, leaving Joanne responsible for two murders.”
“Only an asshole sells out his woman to save himself.”
“That’s one way to put it. Poor Joanne didn’t stand a chance with the eyewitness testimony and the evidence. They were apprehended right after the heist, running a red light—with the cash in the truck and blood on the boyfriend’s clothes. Contrary to what Hollywood portrays, most criminals aren’t masterminds. The vast majority slip up some way, especially since DNA analysis came onto the scene.”
“When did she give you up for adoption?”
She raised a brow.
“Dix had trouble gettin’ all the records.”
“My father did his best to protect my privacy.” She sighed. “Joanne died having me in jail.”
Jane didn’t have an emotional connection to her mother, but there was a hole in her life just the same. Jed had told her the entire story, and she appreciated the way he’d given her the unvarnished truth.
“What about your birth father? Was he Joanne’s boyfriend?”
“Yes, Daniel Graham. He didn’t make it out of prison alive either. Before he could testify on the other robbery case, he was taken out by a member of his old crew.”
He hissed a breath between his teeth. “Damn, I’m sorry, but it happens a lot in there. My father knew a bent screw who’d take bribes and turn a blind eye when a prisoner wanted to exact a little vengeance on another. Buckley was stabbed by another prisoner too. They took him to the infirmary, and he died before the EMTs got in the door.”