Page 116 of His Wounded Heart

“Oh, one other thing. Brantley insisted that all three of his sons get DNA tested in order to receive their inheritance.”

“What are the results of the DNA testing?”

“All three of them check out as Brantley’s kids.” Dex says. “I’ve emailed photos of the widow, her twelve-year-old son, Kevin, and the other two sons, twenty-nine-year-old Richard and thirty-five-year-old Brantley Jr.”

“Did you email them to Trenda?”

“Yeah.”

“Text them to me,” I tell him.

“Is there a reason I can’t send them to her? I thought you said she was okay,” Dex swiftly replies.

“She is, she’s just occupied with all of her sisters.”

“I’m texting the information now,” Dex says. “I’ve got more information. Richard used to be a big fish, not quite a whale, over at the Gold Strike Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. His game was poker. He abruptly stopped playing four months ago. All of his accounts were zeroed out, but I noticed that he was getting advances from Harris Developments. My guess is he had found private games.”

“So besides just wanting the money, he has a need for the money,” I say.

“Probably thinks that whatever his cut is, he can’t afford to have another person cutting into his piece of the pie,” Renzo agrees.

“Same deal with Carla. The house she and her son have been living in for the last fourteen years is going to be sold and split three ways. She’s getting a quarter of a mil from the reading of the will, but with her spending habits, that’ll last her no more than two years. The house she’s living in has a mortgage of twenty-five thousand a month. Yeah, she needs her son to get his share of the money. And she would probably think she needs as much as she could get.”

“Sounds like that’s true,” I snort. “Dex, how much of this information can you feed to the Jasper Creek sheriff?”

“I can give him everything as an anonymous source. Is the sheriff worth a damn?”

I turn to Aiden. “I haven’t been here long enough to hear about the sheriff; what’s your take?” I ask.

“He’s honest. But you have to remember, this isn’t a job you’re promoted into, it’s one you’re voted into. It’s basically a popularity contest. He likes wearing the uniform, and because this will be a high-profile case, he won’t do the smart thing and leave it to his deputies who have years on the job. He’ll want to handle it himself, he’ll definitely run with it. It’ll get fucked up for sure.”

“Don’t bother giving it to the sheriff.” I tell Dex.

“That there is one of the reasons I would never move to a small town,” Dex says. I can practically hear his shudder through my truck’s speaker.

“I’m okay with this being just us,” Renzo says.

“Yeah, I’m in,” Dex agrees.

“Drake’s going to prefer not having to deal with the sheriff. We take care of our own,” Aiden says.

“SEALs don’t operate on US soil,” I remind Aiden.

“Currently I’m a member of the Navy who is on leave, Simon. I’m here with my wife, staying at our second home here in Jasper Creek, and we’re visiting with her family. I’m lucky enough to find out one of the men I used to work with, Simon Clark, has retired and is living here. When my sister-in-law gets run off the road, I naturally feel protective.”

“How come I think you’ve said damn near this same spiel many times before?” I ask the big blond SEAL.

“Because he has,” Dex pipes up. “Our women tend to get in trouble. Welcome to the club, Simon.”

“What club?” I ask.

“The club where I saw you stake claim on Trenda inside the house, or were my eyes deceiving me?" Aiden gives me a hard look. I return it.

“When I’m here, I will always be Trenda’s protector,” I say slowly. Clearly. Again, I’m not making a long-term commitment to this man, until I’ve made one to myself, and then to Trenda.

Fuck, I need to get my head screwed on straight, as of yesterday.

“You had best get that sorted,” Aiden says. “I think very highly of Trenda, I don’t want to see her hurt.”