Page 64 of His Little Secret in Discretion
“Be right back…” I murmured, not waiting for a response as I stepped into the hall.
I held the phone to my ear. “Tommy, talk to me.”
“Got something for you,”he said, his voice somehow rougher than it was early this morning.
“Vanguard Solutions. Paper trail says it's running as some kind of ‘consulting firm,’ but I dug deeper. It's tied up in loan sharking, offshore accounts, and debt collection.”
My jaw tightened. “Maia got tangled with them somehow…”
“Well, not directly.”He began,“Each loan statement I dug up belonged to the name Wesley Dalton. He ran up a few hundred thousand in the last few years. And judging by his current stay in the local rehab center for compulsive gambling, I’d say someone else is keeping his head above water.”
I didn’t need to ask who. My stomach twisted. “She’s paying it off.”
“Well, she finished paying it off. Used the account you gave her access to to make the final payment a couple of weeks ago.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. The same black card I used to let her go spend until her little heart was content, she used it to drag the person who was taking her down out of his own mess.
No wonder she was so burnt out when I first found her. The idea of her quietly bleeding herself dry for someone else’s mess, selflessly at that, made me furious. I didn’t care how much she loved her uncle, this wasn’t her burden to hold and suffocate under.
“Anything else, Sherlock?” My voice came out low.
“Well, she’s blacklisted from every decent job in a hundred-mile radius. You don’t get that kind of heat unless you piss off someone like… well, like you or Killian. Tapped her phone for you; all calls and messages will be recorded and sent to you daily. Couldn’t get a location on the number you sent me, though. Oh, and as for her backstory? Grew up in a much worse neighborhood. Her parents? Both gone. Overdose. She was barely ten, but she didn’t know. Wesley has been her primary guardian since kindergarten.”
The words hit harder than I expected… maybe because they were sounding all too familiar. I didn’t want to picture her, small, confused, barely old enough to understand.
It made the loneliness I’d already imagined for her feel heavier. She’d been surviving far longer than I would have thought.
My grip tightened on the phone. “And Vanguard Solutions? Who’s behind it?”
There was a pause, like Tommy was weighing whether he should answer.
“Tommy,” I barked into the phone, and he sighed.
“…Calvin Lockwood.”
Running my hand down my face, I let out a tired sigh with the shake of my head.
“Of course it fucking is.”
Chapter twenty-four
Blaine
When I returned to my office, I didn’t bother planning out my conversation. Just dialed the number and let it ring.
“Porter,”Calvin’s voice came over the line as a shiver of disgust rolled down my spine. Fuck, I absolutely hated him.“To what do I owe the disruption?”
“Wanted to run something by you. I was hoping you could clear it up for me,” I said, keeping my tone casual.
“Do I have to listen?”he asked, drawling it out like a spoiled brat.
“Vanguard Solutions. Your name’s floating awful close to theirs.”
He seemed to ponder his next words.“I advise. Occasionally,”he said, like he was discussing the weather.“But I don’t run it.”
“You advise a loan-sharking front? Branching out, I see.”
“I’m helping an associate. That’s all.”
