Page 131 of Bling

The cowboy lifted the corner of his mouth in a smirk. “It’s about as clear as mud, I’ll give you that. This is still just a hunch because I don’t have all the proof I need. Maxitech Solutions is a tech production company owned by Maxwell Jameson. It was founded about five years ago.”

“Maddox changed his last name to James for a while and people call him Max all the time. When I was investigating them after they stole my contract, that wasn’t the name on the letterhead.”

Jax waved his hand. “I figured Maxwell was Maddox but that’s not really the important part.”

Garrett narrowed his eyes and pushed his chair away from his desk. “Look, Jax. I’m running on an hour of sleep and not enough coffee and I have a warehouse to tear apart. Can you just get to the important part?”

“Sorry. Let me see if I can sum this up for you. When Solitaire was first opened, there was a lot of contention and we know Nicholas Sutton tried to blackmail David Eastman to keep the club from opening. It was all just part of their ongoing feud in the diamond business. My theory is that Sutton is still pulling strings from inside prison to fuck with the founding members of Solitaire. Especially the ones he thinks has personally offended him and he’s doing it through Grant Sterling. I think Sterling is still working for Sutton.”

Garrett whistled. “That’s a pretty damn wild theory, Jax. Have you shared it with the other board members?”

Jax shook his head. “Not yet. I want more information before I do.”

“It makes some sense. He was hovering when Patrick almost went to prison and we know he was around when Nicholas Sutton was on trial. My problem is, I have no known connections to Sutton so why would he be coming after me?”

Jax held up a finger and pointed it in Garrett’s direction. “That’s the thing. You do. When you told me Maddox almost went down for smuggling diamonds, I started looking back at my old records for my investigation into Nicholas Sutton. Your brother would have had at least some run-ins with Sutton while he was running the jewelry arm of your company. That would have been back before it became your company. Again, we have no solid proof, but if you came in and cleaned house and shut down a smuggling operation that Nicholas Sutton was somehow a part of? He would definitely hold a grudge.”

“Jesus, Jax. This sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory from a movie.”

“Tell me about it. You people keep my life interesting, that’s for sure.”

Garrett stood and paced. “I’m gonna need some time to process this. You have my permission to dig as far back into my business records as you need to find proof. Spend whatever you need to. I just want to get to the bottom of this. If you can somehow find proof that I didn’t encourage the judge and the governor to let Carmen out of prison, that would be even better.”

Jax stood and twirled his hat in his hand. “Why exactly are you shutting this place down?” he asked.

“It’s just temporary. But if he or Darren were somehow smuggling something out of here, shutting it down is the only way to kill their operation. And maybe if I cut off the flow it will bring Mad back into the open long enough for me to have his crazy ass thrown in jail once and for all.”

When Jax left, Garrett continued to pace his office as he silently prayed his plan would work.

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