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“Okay,” I said, not understanding where he was going with this.
“My grandmother sued for the money…not for herself, but for me. So I could use it to go to college or start a business or whatever I wanted when I turned twenty-one and got control of the trust the money was in.” Cain got up long enough to get my shoes and socks for me.
“After my grandmother died, I went to see my mother. I was so pissed that she hadn’t believed me…that she’d defended my father even after I’d told her the truth about what had happened. Knowing she helped him escape…”
I nodded in understanding. “I get it,” I said softly.
“She told me I’d never understand and tried to convince me I was confused about that day. That my father loved me, that he still loved me despite everything I’d said. She said that one day I’d see and we’d be a family again. I knew…” His voice dropped off for a moment. “I knew at that point that she was still in touch with him. Don’t ask me how, I just did. She was so…certain about how things would play out.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I started following her in the hope she would lead me to him. But she never left town, didn’t sell the house. I started to think maybe I was wrong, but then I met someone who told me I wasn’t.”
“Ronan,” I said softly.
“Guys like my dad are exactly why Ronan started his group. On the five-year anniversary of the murders, my mother did an interview with a national news organization. She spent the entire time defending my father despite all the evidence to prove he’d been the attacker. My father was tried in absentia,” Cain said.
I nodded in understanding. “That means they have a trial whether the defendant is there or not, right?”
“Right,” he said quietly. “He was convicted so if they ever find him, he goes right to jail. No second trial. My mother was charged with aiding and abetting, but the prosecutor ended up dropping the charges when he decided he didn’t have enough evidence.”
“So how did Ronan get involved?”
“He saw the interview my mother did and then started looking into the case. When he saw me trailing my mother looking for proof she knew where my father was, he reached out to me and made me an offer.”
“A job in exchange for helping find your father?” I guessed.
“Not quite. I asked for the job when he explained who he was and what his team could do. He resisted at first, but then he took me on and taught me what I needed to know. He told me that he’d found evidence of my mom emptying out her 401k account a few weeks before I’d confronted her after my grandmother died. But the money trail stopped as soon as she took the money out of the account. No wire transfers, no spending it on something for the house or herself. It was just…gone.”
“She gave it to your father,” I murmured.
“That’s what Ronan suspected. Either she went to him or he came to her. That’s why Ronan was trailing her. Ronan suggested I give her access to the account that had the fifty-thousand in it. That way would we could monitor it and if she touched it, we’d know.”
“So she took money out?” I asked. “Is that why Daisy called you?”
“Yes. She took all of the money out. First time in almost four years she’s touched it.”
I understood and quickly climbed to my feet. “She’s giving it to your father or going to join him,” I said. I grabbed my bag and began jamming my few belongings into it. “Let’s go,” I said.
“It should only take me a couple of days to deal with this and then I’ll come get you at Vincent’s. Hopefully we’ll know more about the phone by then.”
“I’m not going to Vincent’s,” I said calmly. “I’m going with you.”
“No, you aren’t.”
I’d already braced myself for the argument that I knew was coming. “Let’s fight it out in the car, Cain,” I said as I headed for the door. “But I’m telling you this,” I said as I snatched the car keys off the table. “You aren’t winning this one.” I didn’t even give him time to respond before I left the room.
Chapter Seventeen
Cain
I didn’t like giving or receiving the silent treatment when it came to the man next to me, but I was too wired to apologize to him like I should have. I’d ignored what he’d said about winning the argument until we were within a couple miles of Vincent’s house and he’d made a random comment about how he hoped Vincent had a couple of certain over-the-counter medications at his house, because mixing them would have interesting effects, even on such a big guy. I’d suspected he’d been bluffing, but knowing he was adamant about coming with me had made me realize he could easily do something to Vincent that would piss the man off. And while I didn’t exactly not trust Vincent, I couldn’t say I trusted him not to do something like lock Ethan in a room or similar in a twisted attempt to keep Ethan from getting away and following me. In truth, I couldn’t even be sure Vincent could be bothered to care about keeping Ethan from coming after me since the man had barely even agreed to let Ethan stay at the house with him.
