“Okay. Tell me.”
Did I ever say that Wyatt was my favorite? I love the guy, do not get me wrong, but Jared is my kind of pal. He’s quiet and only talks when necessary, and above all else, he cuts right to the point without pleasantries.
Plus, he looks so much like Jace that I’d swear they were twins if not for the fact that Jace is a little older, and, well, he really does have Miah as his twin.
“I overheard someone talking when I came out of the bathroom at an event a few weeks ago. I can’t tell you who it was that was having this conversation since I was hidden behind a curtain at the time, but I heard someone say that you boys were having some serious trouble down here what with your Aunt Lynn dying and your family—Ronny, specifically—planning to contest the original will and take you all to court.”
That has him sitting up straighter and he sets those blues eyes on me, keeping me pinned to my seat.
“Ronny plans to contest my granddaddy’s will. Why? She should know by now that the original will was ironclad and has provisions for just such an occurrence.”
“I know. I figured.”
And I did. Like I said, it’s not the contesting that caught my attention, but the timing. It’s too coincidental for my liking that the very same week Ronny decided to start this rumor and actually go to a lawyer, the Bureau got intel that the Patriots were planning to make a move.
The timeframe is still unknown, and with this organization being this intricate and well run, we don’t even know what they’re planning. What we do know is that they have plans, and Ronny—she lives here.
She lives here. She has money she should no longer have unless she’s become a high-end call girl. And she has motive. And the best part of it all? Ronny is a staunch ally of Timothy’s and she’s been spotted with my own father.
This is all still just conjecture on my part, and if not for the fact that my superiors brought this case to me and demanded a thorough profile on the men involved as well as the entire operation, I would have just kept slogging away at other cases while investigating Daddy.
It’s a freaking bonus that I can, in some way, connect Daddy to this, even if just to say that he knows a person connected to an extremist group. Boy, would the press go nuts over that little nugget.
Jared’s eyes narrow at me and I close my own on a tired sigh.
“Your mom is so pissed at you all for making the women and your father stay at home for this.”
“Stop trying to change the subject, Trace, and start talking. Who the hell are you? Hearing a rumor and passing it along is one thing—which I have yet to understand since you should hate us all after Jace broke your heart and we walked away from you.”
“But?”
“But you came down here, knowing that the rumor held no water, anyway. Any other normal person would have just given one of us a call and stayed in DC. You got on a plane,” he points out like the freaking genius he is.
“Yup. So what? Has it even crossed your mind that I might have used it as an excuse to come down here and see Jace again?”
“No. You’d have gone just fine without seeing Jace again, though that would be a waste with him being your soul mate and all.”
“Jared—”
“We’ll argue about that later, Trace. Talk. I want to know why you’re here. I want to know why the sight of blood didn’t almost give you a screaming fit when Mama and even Ellie almost became hysterical. I want to know.”
“Fine. I’m trying to connect Veronica, Timothy, and my father to an extremist group very loosely referred to as the Pure Patriots. I got intel a few months back that the Patriots are operating out of a little town near here and being fed by funds stolen or made from the theft of drug evidence in this department.”
Jared’s eyes almost bug before narrowing on me suspiciously.
“Who are you?”
“I’m me, Jared. Just me. I, uh…I joined the Bureau three years ago after I was blackmailed by a high-ranking agent. My mom used to have a weakness for…she was a freaking klepto and they had footage of her lifting a shitload of designer gear. They built it up till she was liable to sit a life sentence for her sticky-fingered habit.”
That gets a long, low whistle and he shakes his head in disgust.
“That’s why I prefer the military. You know what you’re in for and it’s your choice from start to finish. Those government agency bastards will get you every time.”
“You’re telling me.” I snort, feeling plenty hard done by at this present moment. “They pulled me in to save my mom, but my first case—my only case, so far, really—has been my father. They want him investigated until there’s no stone left unturned and I have yet to find any real proof that he’s in any way involved in any of this. All I have going for me is the Ronny connection and now this thing with the Patriots.”