Property records. Available to the public.
“The courthouse and county clerk’s office are located in Pine Ridge.”
Niko was up and out of the chair in less than a second. He barely thanked Lauren as he shot like a cannon out the door of the realty office. His thoughts raced even faster than his feet, which carried him in long, tense strides to his SUV. He unlocked it with a furious jab at the fob, slid into the driver’s seat, and immediately began pounding at his phone, thumbs trembling with adrenaline and caffeine.
Fucking Bartlett. He should have seen this coming.
23
Niko satoutside the real estate office and pulled up the county government homepage, zeroed in on the Pine Ridge courthouse address, and thumbed it directly into his GPS. As the mechanical voice began dictating his route, he was already reversing, barely clearing the curb. He merged onto Main Street and then out of Hope Falls entirely. As the small town receded in the rearview, his anger and anxiety ballooned to fill every inch of the dashboard and windshield.
He wanted to kill Bartlett.
The drive was less than thirty minutes. Niko drove it with single-minded focus, an unbroken line of thought, chewing up miles of mountain road unspooled like an obsidian-black ribbon, passing every semi or minivan that so much as hinted at slowing him down. The sun was moving higher, and the light streaming over the switchbacks and pines was so clean it appeared fake, like the airbrushed glow on a fitness magazine cover. But even the beauty of the morning dew still clinging to the needles and brush, and the sky so blue it bordered on ridiculous, couldn’t reach him through the bristling hedge of his own worry and anger.
Fury and fear jostled for pole position in his mind, both were running hard, driven by the same thing, the image of Tiana,hisTiana, forced to answer to that asshole for rent payments, lease terms, and every repair or building issue. It wasn’t just about Bartlett winning. It was about Tiana losing. About her being reduced to a pawn in some sick, ego-driven game. Because that’s what this was to Bartlett. It was a game. Niko couldn’t live with that. He wouldn’t. And as the mountain road leveled out and the cookie-cutter government buildings of Pine Ridge came into view, his resolve only hardened.
He parked fast, even by his standards, and hustled up the steps of the courthouse, barely taking in the heavy grey stone columns and the sharply clipped lawns. The air inside was antiseptic, a mix of ancient paper and lemony cleaning fluid. The lobby hummed with the quiet, high-stress energy of a DMV on the first day of the month. Niko took one look at the directory and strode for the County Clerk’s office, past bored bailiffs and a couple of retirees waiting for their turn in probate.
There was a short line, so he queued up, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet, glancing at his phone every ten seconds. The counter was manned by a woman in her fifties with aggressive reading glasses and layered pastel cardigans. When it was finally his turn, he leaned on the ledge and flashed his most harmless, “I’m just a regular citizen, definitely not here to start a war” smile.
“Hi—” he scanned the badge “—Barbara. I need to do a property records search?”
She didn’t look up. “Address or parcel number?”
He gave her the address, carefully reciting the street down to the zip. She typed at a glacial pace, each key a metronomic tick, and Niko had to swallow a primal urge to reach over and do it himself. He waited, pressed against the boundary of the counterlike a child at a bakery window, until, after an eternity, she looked up.
“Do you want current owner, or deed history?”
“Both would be great, thanks.”
She printed out two sheets, stapled them, and slid them across the counter. “That’ll be four dollars.”
Niko paid by debit and snatched up the documents. He stepped aside, scanning the records. The owner’s name jumped out at him: Richard B. Reddick. Not because he recognized it, just because it would have been tough to have at school.
Wow.Dick Red Dick.
No LLC, no trust, just a regular guy. The name didn’t mean anything to Niko. Neither did the address, other than that he knew the street. 1480 Silver Brook, Hope Falls, which meant he could go speak to him. Niko’s mind was already strategizing his next step: try and get his number and call him or show up in person. He’d need to do some recon first, which meant speaking to a local who would know the dirt on everyone. Yaya.
As he strode out of the clerk’s office, he started pulling up Google and LinkedIn just to do his own background check, multitasking as he navigated the polished linoleum hallways. He was so absorbed, he nearly walked straight into a wall when he turned the corner toward the main exit. He caught himself at the last second, looking up to avoid a collision, only to find, for a split second, that he was staring at himself.
No, not himself. It took a full heartbeat for his brain to process the visual, and another for him to realize it was AJ, standing in the corridor, looking just as shocked to see Niko as Niko was to see him.
“What are you doing here?” AJ’s tone was flat, but there was a definite edge, as if he was being ambushed.
Niko, still blinking, gathered himself. “I needed some property records. What areyou—” He stopped mid-sentence as he caught movement beside his brother.
Poppy was there, standing just a half-step behind AJ, dressed in a stunning white satin dress that had the effect of throwing every ounce of sunlight in the lobby directly onto her, like there was a spotlight on her. Her dark hair was down in loose curls, and she was wearing makeup, which he hadn’t seen her do lately—the kind that took effort and intention.
Niko’s gaze snapped between his brother and Poppy, then back again. AJ was wearing a navy suit, with a deep burgundy tie that matched Poppy’s shoes. The realization dawned slowly, as if the universe had set up a joke and was waiting for him to laugh.
“Holy shit! Are you two…” Niko’s eyes bounced between AJ and Poppy, landing on AJ. “Are you…gettingmarried?!”
“Yes,” Poppy cheerily confirmed.
AJ just stared at him blankly. He could tell his brother wasnothappy to see him. To be honest, he wasn’t thrilled to see his brother, either, now that he’d done this.
“You weren’t going to tell me?” Niko had been hurt when his brother didn’t tell him about Poppy’s pregnancy, but it was very early on and high risk, so he understood, butthis, gettingmarried? Niko was his brother. His twin brother. His only brother. Did he hate him?
