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A second later, the background noise grew louder. They were also in a moving vehicle. He wanted to ask, but let Xavier take the lead. The guy had called him, after all.
“You still there?” Xavier asked.
“I am. Why did you call me?”
“Um... Well, this isn’t gonna be easy for you to believe. At least I hope not. I mean... Never mind. I was a friend of your father’s.”
Not his son. A friend. “All right. But you sound a little young to be a friend of my dad’s.”
“You’re not surprised,” Xavier said faintly. “You already knew about me?”
“Not really. Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” A squeeze to his hand had him looking at Molly, who was shaking her head.
“Be nice,” she mouthed.
She was right, of course. “Please,” he added.
“Well, I knew your dad from when I was a little kid. I, um—”
“Tell him later,” another male voice hissed. “In person. When we know he’s the real deal.”
“Who’s with you?” Gabe asked sharply.
“My mom and my best friend.” He sighed. “And my best friend’s brother and my mom’s best friend. We’re... well, we’re kind of on the run. Someone tried to kill me last night and Rocky told me that if that ever happened, I should come to you.”
“Oh.” Gabe blinked, not having expected any of that. Xavier was traveling with a damn entourage. And someone had tried to kill him. Just like someone might have done to me if Molly hadn’t chased them away before they could poison Shoe.
The timing was damn interesting.
“You have my attention, Xavier. Please go on.”
“Yes, sir.” The young man inhaled, then exhaled loudly. “Okay. I didn’t know your number, so I called Mr. Lott. Do you know him?”
“My dad’s lawyer? Yes. I’ve known him for years.”
“Okay,” Xavier said again, and Gabe felt genuinely sorry for him. He was clearly terrified. Join the club, Xavier Morrow. “Like I said, I called Mr. Lott and asked for your number. He kind of ignored me.”
“He didn’t ‘kind of’ ignore you,” a third male voice said. Gruffer and more gravelly than either Xavier’s or his best friend’s voice. “He totally ignored you.”
“All right, all right,” Xavier snapped. “He totally ignored me, then said that he’d come and get me and take me to you.”
“Did he tell you that he called me?” Gabe asked.
“No. He didn’t really talk about you at all. Did he call you?”
“No. I haven’t talked to him since my father died. I take it that you didn’t go with him.”
“No, I didn’t. I told my mom about it and she said that I shouldn’t go with him, that your father had told her to only trust you. So, we came in our own vehicle—well, it’s my mom’s friend’s minivan—and he’s following behind us. Except it’s not him.”
Molly straightened at that, briefly letting go of the wheel to twirl her finger, gesturing for him to ask more questions about that. She hadn’t let his hand go, though, and that made him feel, well, not better, but at least more secure.
“What does that mean?” Gabe asked. “That it’s ‘not him’?”
“It’s not Paul Lott,” Xavier said. “I found a photo of Lott—which was damn hard to do, by the way—and your dad’s lawyer looks way different than this guy. This guy is a lot younger, too. I’d thought that he sounded a little different, which is why I searched for his face.”
Gabe blinked some more. “That’s... wow. I don’t even know where to start with that.”
“I know, right?” Xavier said, sounding very young. “I don’t know what to do now.”
