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His brother Judd eyed him. “Actually, we don’t know all of it. You were on your Harley. What happened to it?”
Jaren tapped a fingertip on the tabletop to punctuate each word. “Total loss.”
Both of his brothers sat back with dual winces. “Goddamn, that’s harsh, man. Should have taken the truck,” Jace said.
“Then I’d be out a truck,” Jaren said.
“But you loved that bike,” Jace started.
Ross’s sigh brought them to order again. “What matters is that Jaren and Trinny both escaped with their lives. Well, almost.” He sent her a long look. “In the chaos, we believe no one saw you escape with Jaren, but rumors are flying. We’re going to allow the press to run with whatever story they want to. If that means they believe your remains were in your vehicle, that’s what we’re rolling with too. At least until we find who’s after you and we stop them.”
She nodded that she understood even as her mind spun with all the questions that had been plaguing her like a biblical swarm for weeks.
Ross flicked his fingers and some footage appeared on the big screen in the top corner of the room. She let out a gasp.
“That’s my home in Manhattan!”
“Police photos taken at the scene after the break-in seven weeks ago.”
The photos flipped from the broken door to shots of the destroyed interior. Each photo left her burning hotter with fury, even though she’d seen them all before. Who were these people and how did they get past the high-tech alarm system in the townhouse?
A more strangled noise broke from her when she saw the next image of her grandparents’ home in North Carolina in the exact same condition. She knew about the break-in at her grandparents’ house too, of course. She’d received a vague voicemail from the police but at that point, she’d already removed herself from the situation and she hadn’t bothered to call them back.
Sheknewshe wasn’t handling her troubles the right way…but she just needed more time to think. Lie low. After all that happened to her mother and to her, she had to be cautious, right?
Now she couldn’t look away from the screen.
Suddenly, her gaze caught on one corner of the frame. “Stop there!”
She tugged her hand free of Jaren’s grasp and launched to her feet to move nearer the screen and get a better look.
“What is it, Trinny?” Jaren asked.
“Not much was stolen,” she said slowly. She pointed. “It’s meant to look like a robbery, but clearly it’s not about money. See that statue? It’s small, portable. And worth half a million dollars.” She twisted to look at the room full of people. “Why didn’t they take it?”
Energy ran through the team as they processed her words.
“And that painting?Allthe paintings. Some priceless works hang on the walls of my grandparents’ home. Grandmother loved art, and Grandfather loved to buy it for her.” She jabbed her finger at the screen again. “Why didn’t they take the art or antiques?”
“You don’t haveanyidea what these people are looking for, Trinny?” Ross’s question swung her attention to him.
His presence commanded attention, but she saw the light of concern in his eyes too. She didn’t know if that made her feel better or worse, but his expression loosened her tongue. In a world full of takers,thesepeople only wanted to help her. She didn’t trust easily anymore…but she would pay them to protect her.
“I have no idea what they want, but I knew four of the houses were broken into. I wasn’t going to wait around for them to break into the place I was staying, so I hit the road.”
“You don’t have any relatives or friends to go to for help?” Jaren’s question stung, though she was certain he didn’t mean to hurt her.
Wrapping her arms around herself, she shook her head and slowly returned to her seat. All attention was on her.
“My mother had a legacy of wealth inherited from her parents. Now that she’s gone, it’s all mine. Only I don’t know what to do with it. It’s a huge burden. You see…everyone I knew wanted a piece of it. I had distant cousins I never met crawling out of the woodwork asking for money. My friends—at least Ithoughtthey were my friends—they acted different with me. They started leaving me out of plans. Stopped calling. A few others asked for money for everything from car repairs to luxury vacations.”
Again, she shook her head, trying to make sense of a world that cared nothing for her. “I didn’t know what to do or where to turn. I started driving west and somehow ended up in a small town in Missouri in the stands of a rodeo. I watched it the first night. Then I started driving and caught up with them again, so I stayed for a second viewing. Pretty soon I was a groupie following them around.”
“That’s how you ended up riding in the opening ceremony,” Jaren said with a tenderness to his tone that strummed a chord inside her.
She gave him a nod. “Their regular girl broke her leg doing a trick in the halftime show, so I offered to take her place.”
Ross caught her eye. “You grew up around horses?”
