She rolls her eyeshard,and all I can do is chuckle while I head back to my brother.
“What did you do to her?” Silas winces.
“I don’t even know,” I lean back in the booth and take a sip of my whiskey. “How easy would it be to get some information about her?”
“Niamh?” He frowns, “What kind of information?”
I think about it, what I’m going to need, and answer, “Not the legal kind.”
While we try not to useunethicalpractices, I can’t in good faith, confirm that we are entirely clean. You can’t remain on top doing that, but I do limit how bad it gets. A little digging into someone isn’t the worst thing that’s happened.
“Why?”
“She’s perfect.” I tell him.
“To marry you?” He laughs out loud.
“Yes, because she doesn’t like me.”
“And you don’t want your wife to like you?”
“No, it’ll be easier if she doesn’t. Give us a clean break when the twelve months are up and no hard feelings.”
“I’m not sure she’s going to agree to marry you, Roman.”
“That’s why I want the information.” I hold my tongue as one of the servers drops off our food and wait until they’re way out of earshot to continue. “There might be something there I could use toconvinceher.”
“Ah,” Silas shakes his head, stabbing his food with his fork. “What a perfect way to start a healthy marriage. With bribery.”
“Not a real marriage,” I shrug, glancing back at her.
“And if she has nothing we can use?”
“Everyone has something.”
Five hundred thousand dollars’ worth of debt, give or take. Final notices supplied and a very real risk of her losing her bar. Niamh Calloway is in trouble with no way out, which is perfect for me.
“It looks like a lot of medical debt,” Silas informs me.
“Her?”
“Her father,” He scrolls on his laptop, “He passed away twelve months ago. But she’s got loans against the bar, credit cards, the whole lot.”
“Why would she be so reckless?” I wonder out loud.
“She was trying to save her father. She was his guarantor, looks like he’d been ill for quite some time before he passed.”
“And no other relatives?” I pry.
“Not based on this family history, she’s an only child. Her mom took off when she was young, and her father became her primary carer until she turned eighteen. No college education and has been here her whole life. She opened Sunstone Saloon five years ago with him.”
I run my finger along my bottom lip as I process the information.
Money. She needs money. Money thatIhave.
“Call our lawyer,” I meet his eyes, “Have him draw up a contract for her to sign.”
“What are you thinking?”
