“You’ve already met her. Cassandra and I started dating before you’d employed her solicitor firm. She had no clue who I was, and only realised that day I arrived with the guys.” It was basically true since we’d agreed to meet in The Midnight Rooms. Technically, that counted as a date.
“The sexy little solicitor with an attitude problem?”
“You need to think of her as something other than sexy,” I deadpanned.
He grinned and finally relaxed. “I’m going to be a Grandfather? Lucas will be pissed I was first over the line for the title.”
“Yeah, that brings me to the next part of our story and how we found out she was pregnant.”
Jordan and Ash arrived as I started to tell our story, filling in pieces when the memories began to enrage me. Dad stared out the window, his jaw tight, and his leg that was crossed beating time.
“That bastard Malcom has left a litany of problems for us to sort out. At least we don’t have to worry about his properties and his coming back if he’s been taken care of.” He moved his attention to Jordan. “Has he been taken care of?”
The scary smile Jordan produced was enough to freeze the blood in your veins.
“Well that is one less problem,” Dad confirmed. “His partners in his sex trade have been starting to call in his debts since his involvement has been revealed. They are incredibly unpleasant men who wouldn’t care if they got their money in cash or by abducting his young wife and two small daughters.”
Jordan’s head snapped around to Dad. His expression neutralised before he began tapping on his phone. Jordan was a sadistic sonofabitch who didn’t care who he tortured and killed. But rape and sexual abuse of kids was something he would never tolerate.
“There’s a team heading to their home now. We have a few safe houses within the Council that I can make available to them,” Jordan said, his eyes never leaving his phone as he continued to talk.
“His wife is the daughter of an old friend of mine. He thought being married to Malcolm would keep her safe because he was dull. Turns out he had us all fooled.” Dad leaned back on the sofa and studied the ceiling.
“I never trusted him,” Jordan snipped. “You should trust loud people who curse because they tend to be honest. The quiet ones who lurk and can’t bring themselves to say ‘fuck’ tend to be slimy little fuckers with a taste for darkness.”
Ash laughed. “There speaks the voice of experience.”
“Malcolm proved my point for me. Everyone thought he was boring, but he’d had a house filled with sex slaves and his fingers in human trafficking. I should have had his ass followed years ago.”
Rolling my eyes at him, I returned to the original reason we were here. “What’s happening, Dad? We can only help if we know.”
His tongue wet his lips before he spoke. “Malcolm was a wizard when it came to money. He brought a lot of money into the Council.”
I groaned, not liking where this was going, especially since the police were investigating Malcolm, and now the Council because of Michael. My hands scrubbed down my face. “Please tell me we’re not connected to all this?”
“I don’t know is the honest answer. Everyone is trying to track our assets, but that’s hard to do when you didn’t know the man you trusted was corrupt.”
“On it!” Ash said, bringing his phone out to begin typing. “I’ll need access to my computers back at the office, but I can start the searches now.”
“His business partners are on their way to England. I spoke to them when they contacted Moira. She came to me since her father trusted her safety to me when he died.” Dad said.
“Holy fuck!” I exclaimed, my eyes meeting Jordan’s. “Give us as many details as you have.”
“All I had was a phone number and a location I was to meet them at next week.” Dad had always been a force to be reckoned with, his personality overbearing at times. For the first time, I saw the lines at his eyes and the grey in his hair.
It was my turn for my phone to come out. “Details,” I grated out, typing them in when he uttered them. “Right now, I’m putting everyone on lockdown. Cas is already at home with her friend Megan, so I need to put you where we can watch you.”
I lived in the penthouse of my apartment block. It had been built by our company and the helipad on the roof was the reason we got to Cassandra so quickly. Over the years, I’d bought the lower apartments when they’d come on the market, deliberately leaving them empty for such an eventuality. Uncle Lucas and Lucrezia would be put in one, Dad in another, and it was probably best to have Jordan and Ash there in case the shit really hit the fan.
“I’m fine here with my security detail.” He waved off my concerns.
“Pack a bag and we’re out of here in twenty,” I said. “Bring what you need until this is over.”
My family was all that mattered to me in the world and I would do everything in my power to keep them safe.
Dad looked ready to protest, but one look at my fixed expression had him nodding wearily. His butler Owen had their bags at the door in fifteen minutes, since he was used to packing for Dad’s business trips. He’d be going into lockdown with Dad since he’d been around for as long as I could remember.
The suitcases were packed into the car in the garage far from prying eyes, and we left at different times. I had an entire parking level that was only accessible by key card reserved for the apartments I owned.