Page 79 of A Cowboy's Claim
“Okay. So now we just have to tackle your funding issue—and then we can do the next thing.”
Sydney snuggled under his arm. “For the first time since this whole big ball of trouble started to unravel, I feel as if there might be a chance for things to simply work out instead of falling apart.”
He was glad she felt that way, although he wasn’t certain.
Michael had been more than reasonable. Grandpa Nate? He was the one who had caused problems in the first place.
Still, it was positive news for now, and as the two of them made their way hand-in-hand across the yard to Declan’s apartment, he pushed everything aside except the here and now and the woman he planned to hold all night.
The woman who curled up in his arms, languid and sated after their lovemaking, and proceeded to fall asleep sprawled over his body.
In the morning he happily went out to her truck and grabbed the duffel bag of clothes that she’d left there, whistling the entire trip. He hummed softly as they made their way into the house and enjoyed breakfast served up by a grinning Aiden.
Hell, Declan was one step away from breaking into song after he kissed her goodbye and she headed into town for the clinic. The yard was quiet, the fresh scent of rain lingered. The barn lights glowed softly. Everything felt right.
Of course he should’ve known better. Feelings like this were too good to last. Only when a man was at the top of the mountain could he get kicked hard enough to rollercoaster all the way down to the valley.
He stepped off the porch and came face-to-face with Logan.
“Declan. We need to talk.” Logan stared at the screen of his phone as if something might jump out and bite him. When he glanced up, his face had drained of colour, his hands shaking as he held out his phone. “It’s my brother. He sent me a whole shit ton of information...and a USB stick just arrived in the mail. I don’t know what the hell to do.”
18
Declan wasn’t handling this one alone. He gathered his brothers and Petra, who was still in the house. With Jinx and Jeffrey off with Tansy at her mom’s for the morning, the kitchen was quiet as they gathered around the big, beat-up kitchen table.
Logan shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing, and let’s figure out how to fix this,” Jake ordered. “You said Dean didn’t know how to get a hold of you.”
“He didn’t. At least until a couple of days ago.” Logan opened his phone and pushed it across to Petra. “He messaged me. Used the wording we used to use when our dad had decided to go on a bender.”
Petra examined the phone. “Pick up milk?”
“If we saw that, we knew not to come home.” Logan said it flatly, no emotion at all. “I usually still showed up because if I didn’t, Dad would just beat the snot out of Dean. At least if there were two of us, sometimes the old man wouldn’t start, worried about the odds.”
Aiden cleared his throat softly. “The scarring on your legs. That’s from your dad?”
“Yeah.” Logan sighed. “The times that I sent the message to Dean and ended up alone.”
“You saw that message, and you answered it, didn’t you?” Declan asked quietly.
“He’s an ass, but he’s still my brother,” Logan said.
Petra scrolled for a second then put the phone down. “You guys didn’t exchange more than two or three sentences.”
“I gave him my email,” Logan pointed out. “I thought it would be better to have anything from him show up there. Then I could ignore it if I wanted to instead of having him interrupting me with a message. I don’t want him in my life, but I can’t just abandon him.”
Even though it seemed to be exactly what Dean had done to Logan in the past.
Petra opened her laptop and plugged in the small black USB stick that Logan had set down. Her face changed in an instant.
Declan lifted his chin. “What’s wrong?”
Petra cursed under her breath. “Some of these files are locked down hard—encrypted. But from the folder names and what little I can see, we’re dealing with financial data. Lots of it.”
Jake leaned in. “What kind of financial data?”
Petra didn’t look up. “I need more time to unpack it, but it’s not someone’s tax returns. There are hints of crypto wallet keys and what might be international transfers. If this is what I think it is, there’s enough here to hurt someone—or help the right people stop it.”
