“What!” Riley yelled in surprise. “Congratulations, dude, I told you happily ever after is real.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Creed chuckled. “I know we’re mates and all but him having my last name sounds fucking great man. Winter Makami.”
“You sound like a lovesick fool.”
“I am a lovesick fool, and we decided to adopt Connor officially. I’d like for you to be his godfather.”
“You’re going all the way, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Creed nodded. “You know how much I’ve wanted a family, and it’s happening.”
“I do, and I’d be honored to be Connor’s godfather. I just need to figure out a way for him to stop crying every time I try to hold him. I swear it’s like that kid doesn't like me."
Creed covered his mouth to hide his chuckle. Since the night that he and Winter had their dinner party, and all the other times Riley visited, each time he got within arm distance of Connor the kid would start to fuss until he wasn't near him.
"Give him time to warm up to you."
"Yeah, I suppose." Riley sighed then went to get up.
“Hey, why did you come in here in the first place?”
“Oh, shit, I almost forgot. I wanted to ask you about this bank account number that keeps popping up on the spreadsheet you gave me."
"What are you talking about?" Creed asked, holding out his hand for Riley to hand him the folder he was holding.
"At first, I just thought it was a series of numbers until it started showing up more, I tracked to a bank account two towns over that's connected to the company. But get this, as fast as money is deposited into, it's withdrawn a day or two after."
"When was this account opened?" he asked looking at the numbers that Riley highlighted.
"The first deposit was a few months ago. The deposits started out small, a few thousand here and there, but then a couple of months ago over two million dollars was deposited and withdrawn the very next day."
Creed's eyes widened when he recognized the date. It was the same day Richard and Caroline died.Could there be a connection?
Since reading Richard's letter, he'd been trying to get into the safe but hadn't figured out the combination yet. It was a good thing the house wasn't sold yet. Even though Richard said he’d know the code, nothing from their past was coming to him. He'd had all of his brother's things put into storage for the time being. Creed looked up at his best friend and knew he could trust him. He ignored the voice in the back of his mind telling him to talk to his mate about what he was thinking.
It wasn't that Creed didn't trust Winter, but there were things he could talk to Riley about that wouldn’t sound farfetched from things they’d experienced on military missions. Truthfully, there were times he thought he was crazy.
"Close my office door. There's something I want to run by you."
"All right." Riley did as Creed asked him to then sat back down. "What's up?"
Creed took a deep breath and started telling his friend the important parts of his brother's letter. He told Riley about his frustration with trying to get into Richard's safe.
"Are you telling me you think your brother was murdered?"
"As crazy as it sounds, yeah."
"Fuck, man, what does Winter think?"
"He doesn't know."
"You haven't told him?”Riley said in shock. “Why the hell not?”
Creed sighed. "I don't want to scare him or have him worry when I'm not even sure. Hell, Richard didn't even know what was going on."
"I get that you don't want to scare him, but he has to know what his friend..."
"Do you think you can tell him his best friend was killed on assumptions?" Creed snapped at his friend. "He’s just started living again, and don't you think it's eating me alive to think I could be working with someone that killed my brother? I need proof, I need to figure out if my brother was killed and why, or if it was just a car accident."
