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“But what?”
“I think Hank knows more than he’s letting on.”
That didn’t surprise him. Hank had been his father’s best friend and confidant for years, and he used to be a family friend until Dalton found out that Hank had known their father had cancer well before anyone else and hadn’t bothered to tell any of them. Instead, he let the old man forgo treatment and waited until the cancer was in his brain before he finally told anyone.
By then, it was too late. His father had spent all the money the company had made from his racing, and more. He’d even spent the money Dalton had made during his race days. It was the stuff of nightmares. And now this. What was one more tortuous thing that Dalton had to deal with?
“I’ll deal with Hank. I’m sorry he called you instead of me. He should’ve called me.”
“He’s afraid of you. You threatened to sue him.”
“And we have a case. He got a couple of extremely expensive cars from the old man when Dad was sick and didn’t really know what he was doing. Hank didn’t call us then. Only when Dad couldn’t pay his bills did he bother to let us know. Those were assets we could’ve used. He benefited from his friend’s illness, and he wasn’t upfront about it. Yeah, he should be afraid of me.”
“I was going to ask him to dig up stuff on Lorenzo Bianchi for us,” Rory offered.
“Don’t bother,” Dalton snarled. “Shit, we have to tell Jordana. She’s here. Then should let Cormac and Niall know, if we can find them. Have you heard from either of them at all?”
“I haven’t heard from Niall in a few months. I think he reaches out to Jordana now and again. I can ask her. Cormac is racing in Dubai this week.”
Dalton nodded. “I’ll reach out to him and let him know. If you get a line on Niall, let him know, not that he’ll care. He’s pretty much washed his hands of us.”
Rory shrugged. “We all had to cope somehow. You raced. I drank. Cormac went as far away from us as he could manage and Niall… just dropped off the radar. The only one that handled Dad well at all was Jordana.”
“He was nicer to her, and she’s also younger. Not as much time spent around the old man. Plus, she had Sydney’s family to lean on. They practically raised her through high school, and beyond.”
“Yeah, that’s true. Thank God for her best friend and her family. It spared her from the worst of the old man.” Rory stood. “I’m exhausted. I need to get some sleep so I can be fresh for tomorrow. Dennis Moore can be a bit of a handful, but he’s got promise. I really think he could win it for us this year. I’m sure he was pissed about today, so I’m going to have some making up to do tomorrow.”
Dalton closed his eyes and swore under his breath. Rory had arrived at the hotel and hadn’t spoken to anyone but Mario and that was only briefly. He came directly to Dalton since the news of the will had driven everything else from his mind. “Rory, you need to sit back down.”
“Why?” Rory said, staring at his brother.
“Just sit.”
“Did you piss off Moore enough that he quit? Seriously, Dalton, you need to work with the clients. We needed that money.” He pulled out his phone. “I’ll call him and smooth things over, but you really need to stop being such a condescending jerk to the clients. You have to treat them like equals.”
“Rory,” Dalton said through gritted teeth, “please sit down.”
Rory glared at Dalton. “Man, I’m tired.” But he must have seen something on Dalton’s face because he dropped onto the edge of the couch. “What?”
“Dennis Moore crashed today at turn one. It was ugly. The car caught fire.” Dalton gripped the arms of his chair. “He’s dead.”
Rory’s mouth gaped open. He stared at Dalton. “What? How? How could that be possible?”
Dalton shook his head. “The cops are still figuring it out. Detective Haas, he’s in charge of the investigation, thinks Moore had a heart attack.”
“A heart attack? Really?” Rory frowned. Then his eyes narrowed. “But that’s not what you think happened.”
“Rory, there’s more to the story.”
“Like what?”
He considered telling his brother, but Rory had been through enough in general, and today had been a tough one. The lines around his eyes were deep, and his shoulders were sagging. “We can discuss this in the morning if you want. I know today sucked. It’s late, and you drove about ten hours on top of having to tell me bad news.”
“I’m not a delicate flower. Tell me what the hell is going on,” Rory demanded. “My client is dead. I deserve to know the truth.”
Dalton held up his hands to placate Rory. “You’re right.” He took a deep breath and then blew it out through pursed lips. Then he said as calmly as he could, “I think someone murdered him.”
Rory’s mouth popped open again, but then he snapped it closed. “Explain.”
