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“You speak for him now?” I felt my irrational irritation rising again.
“No,” he answered with a laugh, “but he and I have discussed it at length. Obviously, the dipshit didn’t know how it would look, hiring a PI on his new girlfriend, but he was only trying to get information to help you and your brother. I’m sure it didn’t seem like that, and I know it didn’t look like that. However, when you withdrew from him after your return from the UK, it fueled his desire to help and understand what you and your brother were dealing with.”
“I understand I wasn’t so open with him about my family, namely my father, but that’s just who I am. He should’ve known that and let it rest. It wasn’t up to him to try and dig up what I wasn’t sharing, which was that my dad was an awful human being who ruined his children’s lives. He damaged us in more ways than I care to share, and Spencer should’ve respected that boundary.”
“I understand. He does now, too; trust me on that.”
“I’m glad he does,” I said, “hopefully it’s a hard lesson learned, and he won’t be so bold with his next girlfriend.”
Jim nodded. I could tell he was done discussing this behind Spencer’s back and probably sick of speaking on Spencer’s behalf.
“Now, can you call Spencer in?” I stopped and stood from the fancy leather chair. “You know, I prefer to speak with him alone.”
“Understood,” Jim said. “Allow me a few minutes of your time, and when Spencer arrives, I’ll leave you to discuss the issues which brought you here. But, trust me, I need you to hear what I have to say.”
“You seem quite concerned about something?”
“I am,” he answered. “And forgive me if I’m also out of bounds, but after I read what happened with your father regarding your mother, I became quite concerned and knew the day would come when you would want answers as well.”
“What are you talking about, Jim?” I was exhausted at the thought of going through this again, and I was confused about why Jim had anything to do with this.
He nodded, “Before I start with my end of things, I want you to know how dreadfully sorry I am about the loss of your mother.”
“Well, it’s been a very long time, but okay. Thank you. Now, go on,” I said, not knowing how I felt about where this discussion was headed.
Thank God I knew this man well enough to know that while he was a fierce mother fucker, he was also an extremely sensitive teddy bear when it came to his family and friends. Jim was as solid a man as it comes, and there was no doubting that. My trust in him was absolute, so I knew any information he may have gathered without my knowledge was not done in malice; it was to fix things.
“What did you do?” I said, almost as if I was let down but still loved him for trying to cover for his friend.
“I asked Spencer to allow me a moment to look over what his PI found. I’m not sure if you know Spence as well as I do when it comes to his intuition about people?”
“I know he can usually sniff out the dirt on someone from a look or a tone in someone’s voice,” I answered, rolling my eyes that I had to pay Spencer a compliment for being a badass.
“Precisely. With that said, after he received the reports from the investigation, which was only done to help you and your brother gain closure—”
“You can save yourself from going into the reason for him being a complete jackass, trying to fix my brother and me without telling me first,” I answered.
“Right,” he nodded. “Anyway, after he received the final reports on that, he noticed something about a certain partner or co-owner for the company where you work.”
My stomach dropped. If Jim was about to say there was some shady shit going on with my job, I was most likely going to throw up all over the man’s desk. How many hits can one person take in their lifetime, much less a fucking month? It was as if someone had tipped the dominoes in my life, and they all just fucking took off, collapsing all around me.
“Go on,” I said through clenched teeth.
“He wanted me to see if it was worth looking further into. He believed that enough damage had been done to you at this point and didn’t want to make things worse.”
“At least he was right about one thing.”
“I agreed with him; however, some things cannot be ignored, and in my vast experience in business, it was evident that this was one of those things. Spencer had caught onto something that could be damaging to you, and I felt it best to hire one of my best investigators to ensure no one was trying to hurt you, as Spencer believed was happening.” He exhaled, and I could tell he was uncomfortable. “Nat, we have concluded that your father has your boss, Adam Brinkler, by the balls. He’s the shadow partner in the company. Your father has a money-laundering racket and uses Adam’s company to wash money.”
My ears started ringing, and so many questions flooded my brain at once that I froze up entirely. I couldn’t speak, and I was surprised I could even breathe.
“I’m so sorry, Nat, but Spencer will get to the bottom of this. We won’t stop until people are in handcuffs.”
How did my dad maneuver his way into my life like this, and why? This had to be why Adam was sweating when I confronted him about my money. Was he doing my dad’s bidding? How in the fuck was this my life?
“Tell me something,” I asked shakily, “in all this investigating that you and Spencer have done behind my back—”
“Nat, it wasn’t our intent to spy or do anything that—”
