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He began to gather his wallet and keys. “When do we leave?”
“We’renot going anywhere. She insisted I come alone. On top of that, she swore me to secrecy, so I don’t have to tell you the internal shitstorm I’m going through by sharing this information with you while at the same time not reporting it up the food chain.”
Lucas was shocked. Grant was a rule-following, guideline enforcer. For his vault of a brother to share this information with him, something that had the potential to become a formal case, was way out of his brother’s comfort zone, let alone his self-imposed professional parameters.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because everything I’m turning up, even outside of Tatiana Northrop, indicates Birdie is more of a victim then a money-grubbing heiress.”
And yet, she’d married the man who had taken everything from her.
Lucas leaned on his elbow, pulling on his bottom lip. “Do you think Errol Shepherd coerced Birdie into marrying him?” Another realization hit him. He turned to Grant. “Could he have been behind the accident? Called it in?”
Grant didn’t confirm his suspicions other than to add, “And is it a coincidence that Tatiana Northrop, a family member who was on Marshall Shepherd’s payroll and had her own personal entanglements, was forced into a coma while Marshall became sick and passed away?”
Simultaneously, they said, “There’s no such thing as coincidences.”
Lucas’s heart was pounding in his chest. “We should talk to Angus. I think he knows more about the Shepherds than he’s telling us.”
Grant nodded. “I will, but not yet. I’m already pushing the envelope and a shit ton of local jurisdiction laws talking to you about any of this.” He finished his beer and added, “Let me meet with Ms. Northrop, and then I’ll decide if I need to talk to Angus.”
“You think he’s working for Errol?”
“No, but I can’t trust anyone else to keep this information to themselves. Last thing we need is a raging geriatric Scot, with two fractured legs, going full-on vigilante.”
Jesus, how was he going to keep everyone safe in the meantime? “Maybe I should have Bernadette and Angus stay with me until all of this settles?”
“Just the opposite. It’s probably safer for Angus and Mia to stay with Bernadette. But you can’t tell them why. Tell them you have a project that’s going to include late nights, or a trip to Atlanta to some lame-ass political conference.”
Just then, Clive Farlow gave Grant a slap on the shoulder to introduce him to his daughter, who had just graduated from Georgia Tech. A common occurrence in a small town where the chief of police was single and dedicated his life to defend and protect the community.
Although Grant would never admit it, Lucas knew his brother also had a cargo hold of baggage to work through. Stemming from the stigma of being in foster care and then losing Rachel. Lucas was well aware his brother blamed himself for their sister’s death, although he had never outright admitted it. He didn’t have to.
Because Lucas blamed himself, as well.
Losing Rachel had brought their small, nontraditional family to their knees. The loss was staggering, all of them playing the shoulda-woulda-coulda game until their insides screamed with self-doubt, questioning the simplest of day-to-day decisions.
For Lucas and Grant, the doubt manifested in decisions that involved commitments of a more personal nature, and it didn’t get past Lucas that Grant was as committed to remaining a bachelor as he was.
That is, until Birdie came back into his life like a maelstrom, ready and willing to hack away at his thinly tethered good senses.
While Lucas stared at his beer, he imagined what Birdie was thinking the day she left Wayward with her stepson, now husband.
Before, he had conjured up all kinds of explanations that always left Birdie somehow complicit. Culpable.
With this new information Grant had dumped in his lap, Birdie was the opposite of culpable. She was innocent. An innocent martyr who had willingly remarried into a family who wanted nothing more than to destroy and humiliate her.
Why?
Was she forced?
Did she have no choice?
After Mia had emotionally vomited all over her, telling her she never wanted to see her again, did Errol convince her leaving with him was the only way to protect the people she loved?
His imagination ran rampant.
Did that cocksucker threaten her? Was he holding a gun on her and in Lucas’s confused mental state, he’d failed to even notice?
