He was exactly as Darcy had described. Salt-and-pepper hair, sleek and orderly. A sharp nose and intense eyes. I could practically smell his cologne through the internet waves. It was a headshot, but his shapely facial structure spoke of a man who was not overweight. The pompous tilt of his chin told the story of a guy who thought his shit didn’t stink.
“Lukyan. Luke. I fucking knew it was something close.” I pulled up a chair and sat, averting my gaze when Tallus assessed me yet again. “Have you done a—”
“Yeah.” He swiveled the computer around and tapped at the keyboard. “Lukyan Andrich is a multi-millionaire, purportedly having made his fortune in real estate investments. There are a ton of articles about him—not all positive. Also, his success seems to be fairly recent.”
“Meaning?”
“The last five or six years. One article I was reading seemed to imply a dramatic upturn in his financial empire around 2019. He founded his company, Andrich Development, in 2018, but they didn’t put themselves on the map until… Hang on. I’m still reading. There’s a lot to unpack. Let me finish, and I can summarize.”
“I don’t need a background. I want to know where Darcy is.”
“I know, D. Part and parcel. Hold your horses.”
Tallus adjusted his glasses and clicked around in full-concentration-mode. He had gotten good at the deep dive investigating,something he’d initially claimed to hate. Working for the lawyer helped unveil his strengths and boost his confidence.
Tallus dedicated himself to discovering quick, efficient, and sometimes shady methods of getting all kinds of information about people, learning their dirty secrets, and uncovering their financial profiles—particularly the stuff they tried to hide.
My backdoor, not-always-legal tips and tricks helped a great deal, and he sponged them up. Having a computer super-whiz cousin didn’t hurt either, although I doubted Ruiz promoted or taught him anything illegal, but when Tallus had questions, Ruiz usually answered them.
“How much is he worth?” I asked when I got impatient with his silence.
“Upwards of two hundred million.”
“Jesus. Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Weird, right? Why would a guy like this need to run a grandparent scam? It makes no sense. He doesn’t need the money.”
“I don’t know.”
I bounced a knee and cracked my knuckles. Darcy was out there with that freak, and we were sitting at the goddamn office doing nothing. I wanted to chase the asshole down and jam my hundred-dollar boot up his two-hundred-million-dollar ass.
I was about to ask Tallus for a home address when it dawned on me that a real estate mogul who owned a fucking development company would likely own dozens of properties.
My stomach sank.
I shoved from the chair, unable to sit still, and rooted around in my empty pockets. Fuck. Darcy’s smokes were in the Jeep.
Tallus shifted his attention from the laptop, a far too keen look in his hazel eyes. “Going somewhere?”
“Echo needs to pee.”
Instead of backing me up, Echo cocked her head questioningly as though saying,No I don’t.
Tallus deadpanned. “I’m not stupid, D. Go have a cigarette, and hopefully I’ll have something when you get back.”
“I’m not going to—”
“You are. It’s fine. Just… try to stay sober. I can’t do this alone.”
I wanted to say I wasn’t drinking, but he knew better. He always knew. He had a sixth sense when it came to alcohol.
Shame followed me out the door. I lingered near the Jeep as I succumbed to my nasty habit, hating myself. The self-loathing only made me wish I’d bought more alcohol so I could dampen those hateful emotions.
Yet, more alcohol would perpetuate the aversion.
And so on and so forth. The cycle was brutal.
I withdrew my phone and stared at Aslan’s number for a long time. I should have called earlier, and I should have called now, but I hated admitting to failure. I hated talking to people.
