“How does Grace handle you being gone so much?” The question is out of my mouth before I can stop it.
“She knows what she signed up for, and to be honest I think she likes the extra space to do what she wants. The only time she gave me a hard time was when she was pregnant and she was emotional all the time, I just tried to be home as much as possible and we got through it.”
“Do you ever worry about anything?” I didn’t want to come right out and ask him if he ever wonders if his wife would cheat on him, but I know a lot of guys who divorced when I was still in Delta Force because their wives got tired of being alone.
“Not a chance, that woman is fiercely protective of our family. Does she get flirted with when she goes out with friends? Yes, but she goes home to me every night whether I’m there or not.” He pauses and asks, “Would this line of questions have anything to do with the beauty you had me look into?”
I don’t answer the question, but change the subject with one of my own, “What’d you find out?”
He chuckles, “Sloane Marie Hayes, twenty-six. She had a promising start in ballet, but her parents died in a car accident during her senior year at the School of Dance in OKC, she had to drop out because her brother stopped payments to the school after they died.
“After her parents died, she got her own place and took a job in Tulsa that she had for a couple of years. What’s strange is that almost two years ago, she completely dropped off the map, there is nothing on her, no tax returns, no bank account, no vehicle registration, abso-fucking-lutly nothing.”
“How is that even possible?”
“It’s possible, but we usually see this type of activity with criminals. Based on her life up to a couple years ago, she doesn’t seem like a criminal.”
“What about her brother?”
“Well, speaking of criminals, he’s a piece of work. He seems to be involved in every gambling circuit from here to Las Vegas to New York. He’s dabbled in the skin trade, guns, and drugs. There is nothing that piece of shit won’t do for money.”
“Does he live local?”
A gun racking and Callum mumbling something to one of his kids is in the background for a few seconds. “He has a place in Tulsa and Las Vegas. When the parents died, he drained every account they had, sold the house, cars, stocks, everything within months, it added up to be a considerable amount.”
“Did she get anything when her parents died?” Anger is moving up my spine as the picture is coming together in my head.
“She has two accounts, one was set up by her mother, did I mention that her brother is from her father’s first marriage? Anyway, the first wife died when the brother was fourteen, his father married soon after and Sloane was born a year later. Anyway, the account set up by her mother is just a few hundred K. There is another much larger account set up by her father, it has a few million in it. She never touched either, never even accessed them to check amounts, she may not know about them.”
“How could she have not been told?” I already know he’s going to tell me the brother kept them from her somehow, but I want to hear him say it.
“You’re not gonna like it.” Callum’s voice lowers.
I don’t say anything but wait for him to continue.
“Her brother filed to have her declared dead eight monthsago and is filing to claim her assets, it’s a years-long process, but he didn’t waste any time.”
My hand curls into a fist as my anger is about to boil over. “Anything else?”
“That’s all I got, brother.”
“Thanks.” I end the call and turn to go find Sloane.
Maybe now isn’t the best time to talk to her. I stop, I’m already angry because, based on our encounter last weekend, it sounds like her brother has done something that has her shaking in her shoes. There is also the anger because she won’t trust me, I know she was avoiding my questions, but I thought giving her space was the best way to go.
Lacing my fingers behind my head and over my ballcap, I turn and look at the barns and the stables at the back of the house. Dad knows what’s going on but won’t tell me, he’s paying her under the table to hide her here. Why is she hiding and why does my dad think it is severe enough to hide her?
It obviously has something to do with her brother, but what?
Fuck this.
Turning to the house, I find her in the laundry room, when I walk in she is bent over pulling clothes from the dryer into the basket under the door. I lean against the door frame and watch her perfect ass while she works.
When she stands up, she sees me in her peripheral and drops the basket as she jumps and yelps, “Damn it, Mason, stop doing that!” She cries and slaps her hand over her chest, taking a deep breath.
I step toward her and say, “You’re always so jumpy.”
“You’re always sneaking up on people!” She leans on her hand on the dryer, “What do you want?”
