Chapter 41 Mila It took until Thursday for me to face the family vault. Seeing Wallace and hearing his challenges had cut me to the bone, and I couldn't shake the sense of wrongness. That if I went digging any further, I wouldn't like what I found. I used my down time in better ways, taking Convict shopping and buying him things I knew he needed. Clothes including cargo pants that looked so good slung low on his hips. A hoodie so he'd be cosy in the cool spring weather, even if he didn't feel the cold. Later, in the bathroom, I caught him staring at the toothbrush I'd picked out. He'd been using a spare from a multipack in my cupboard. Bare-chested, and under the warm lights of the mirror, he glanced up at me. "I don't think anyone ever bought me one of these before. Not one just for me. I've no idea how I know that." He dropped my gaze. "Thank you. It means something." That tiny confession hurt my heart and confused me further. A message from Cassie finally spurred me into action. She and her boyfriend were at last heading out this evening to capture Yelland. She suggested Lovelyn, Genevieve, and I meet at the warehouse, and I doubled down, asking Lovelyn to meet me earlier. Convict had work to do there anyway, and Cassie gave us the run of her apartment where the files I'd stolen had been locked in a safe. Cross-legged on the floorboards, I stared at the stack I'd sorted. Adjacent to me, Lovelyn made a note on the pad. "Fourteen green-coded files, six orange, and three yellow." I blew out a breath that stirred the lock of blonde hair falling in my eyes. "Now the hard part. What on earth did he mean by it?" "People make lists for all kinds of reasons, but it usually comes down to a practical purpose such as treating the groups differently. Either communicating with them separately, or perhaps in the way he paid them." This was why I'd wanted her help. Not only was she smart, but she exuded calm methodology in her thinking. I nodded. "Such as the green group might be higher needs or more important than the orange?" "Perhaps. Does that resonate with what you know about the people?" I pondered this. "No. I haven't met all of them, so some I only know from my grandfather's stories, but recently, I went to visit three families, one from the green files and two from orange." She twisted her lips. "Was there a clear pattern? I'm guessing not from your frown." "Nope. In the orange corner, the Marchant-Smythes, a family of three, are not hard up, though they grouch that they are, and the Kingleys are more arguably in need as they're elderly and have carers. The green-coded family, the Grants, seemed to be living pretty well." "Then it's something else. Mysteries are meant to be solved. Let's engage our brains." We considered the positions on the family tree, geographical area, the date they were brought into the fold, and whether their file appeared to have been updated. All non-starters. Lovelyn was undaunted. "Perhaps another approach. The yellow group appears to be an outlier with so few in it." I picked up the stack, though I'd already pieced through it. My file was first, then Kane's, and lastly an unidentified one. The third was empty, no name on the front and no paperwork inside. "Let's assume yellow means close family. My brother and me plus probably our dad." She tapped her pen. "If so, we're missing a file for your Uncle Wallace, suggesting the family vault is incomplete." I thought about the person who'd been sneaking around the office when we'd raided it. All signs pointed to them being the one who'd broken into the room before us. It stood to reason that they might also have stolen files. Perhaps we'd disturbed them doing it. All of which gave me nothing. Exasperated, I tossed the yellow files down. "This is hopeless." Lovelyn watched me, hesitancy on her pretty features. "There is something else I considered, but I feel I need to couch it with a warning. Though your grandfather started this beneficiary role, he may not have been the one to set up the coding, so this might not be on him." My gut twisted with the same sense of wrongness. "What are you thinking?" "I mean, I'm probably way off base." "Out with it." The air seemed to tighten around us. "Those in the know and those not." A knock came at the door, a message arriving simultaneously on my phone to tell me it was Tyler and Kane. I informed Lovelyn, and she grabbed a blazer from the back of the chair and slid it on over the cropped top that bared her waist. I arched an eyebrow, glad for a break in the tension rising in me. "You're fine." She shook out her sheet of long hair. "I don't want to appear unprofessional." "There's a nightclub of barely dressed people downstairs." She didn't meet my gaze. "Not many of them are bigger girls, though." "Are you kidding? You're gorgeous." Lovelyn flashed a quick smile that didn't convince me she agreed. Someone had clearly done a number on her self-esteem. I went to the door and let in the two men. Earlier, I'd asked Convict if there was any update, and he'd replied that Tyler would tell me himself. I hadn't expected my brother to come with him, and when Kane took in the piles of paper on the floor, then pointedly retreated to play sentinel against the kitchen wall, a small flare of irritation rose in me. At the counter, Tyler walked through an update on the hunt for Jacobs. There wasn't much to say. No return home. No licence plate registered. "In my experience, men like that don't abandon all they've worked for without exceptional reason. If you believe he's influencing your grandmother, our next play will be to stake out the meeting tomorrow." Strange relief had me breathing easier to know the skeleton crew would be around. Convict had assured me he wouldn't leave my side. I needed that more than I understood. Tyler looked at Kane. "Anything to add?" My brother curled his lip. "My guess is he's dead at the hands of whoever he crossed." I snorted. "Which helps us none." Kane inclined his head. "Agreed. If that proves true, we'll take it out on that miserable sewer rat, Salter." "Any closer to driving said rat out of his sewer?" Grouchy emotion flickered in his eyes. "I'll tell ye when there's something to say." Tyler's phone buzzed, and he turned away to take the call. I directed my cool gaze back onto my brother. My feelings were all over the place, and for some reason, he appeared like an excellent target. "Ready for tomorrow?" A muscle ticked in his jaw. "We have no fucking clue how this vote will resolve. It's pissing me off." The looming meeting had me so nauseated I could barely think about it. It was still a draw, two votes for, two against. Nothing I'd done in the past several weeks had made a difference, and the hope I'd held of finding and blackmailing Jacobs shrank by the hour. "I think the trusted company panel gets a vote in the event of a deadlock." Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ FindNøvᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Ye think or ye know?" "I'm not certain. The will reading has to happen first. That's the clincher." "It's bullshit that this is left to an unknown fate." "Don't you think I know that? I'm doing my best," I snapped. He stood to his full height, easily a foot taller than me. "As am I." "Really? Want to come help with the family research? Want to go digging around in dark corners of the people you share DNA with? Didn't think so." Kane's file listed his only relative as his mother. He had to be helping her, but if so, why not talk about it? Why not trust me when I'd gone all out to build a connection with him? Tyler ended his call. "Lovelyn, do you have a second?" My friend, who'd been doing a very good job of faking interest in her phone, scuttled away. They went to the end of the kitchen area, but the distance didn't disguise the conversation. Or Tyler's cautiously neutral tone. "I haven't seen Dixie around." Lovelyn exhaled, and her eyes crinkled at the edges with concern. "She hasn't been back since when you saw us in the corridor. I've texted her a few times and no reply. I was considering paying her a visit." She paused. "If you want, you can come." I glanced back at my brother to see something interesting. Kane's attention had followed Lovelyn. The oversized oaf soaked in the sight of the woman, lingering on her curves and the tiny flash of exposed flesh still visible at her waist. Just as quickly, he shut down his reaction. I tilted my head, curious. Never once had he mentioned a love interest. "Are you seeing anyone?" I asked. His focus slammed back to me, his annoyance obvious that I'd caught him checking her out. "Aren't we a little old for girlfriend and boyfriend talks?" "I'm only asking." "Don't. I don't date." I heaved a sigh. "Probably better for the majority of womankind." He was so closed off, any girlfriend would need the patience of a saint. Kane muttered something about me being a brat, which was probably fair as I was sinking into the worst mood ever. My phone buzzed with an incoming call from Convict. I answered it, scooting away to an arched window overlooking the city. "Are you busy?" Damn, his voice made me melt. "We've heard nothing from Cassie yet, and Lovelyn and I have read every one of these files a hundred times and got nothing to show for it, so not really." "Want to play a game?" My insides liquified. I stared out of the glass into the night, unseeing, and with heat rising through me. "Always." "In twenty minutes, head down to the wardrobe and borrow an outfit." "You want me to change?" "Put on something you don't mind being torn off you." The heat inside me turned into an inferno. "Why do I get the feeling you're up to no good?" "Always, little gangster. Don't keep me waiting."