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My father knows it’s coming.
And it has him panicked.
He may be stoned, but he will not let this go.
It’s after eleven by the time Brendan and I get back to town after dropping Gina off at Mom and Dad’s house and then heading back to Uncle Talon’s to turn in the truck and get both Brendan’s car and my truck.
Brendan walks me to the back door of the bakery and kisses me on the lips. “I love you. You okay?”
Apprehension races through me. “You’re not leaving, are you?”
“I didn’t want to be presumptuous.”
I brush my arms against the chill. “I need you tonight, Brendan. This is all such a mess.”
“I need to go over to the bar and just check things out. But I’ll be right back, okay?”
“All right. But I don’t want to be alone. I’ll come with you to the bar.”
He nods, and we walk the three buildings down and enter the bar through the alleyway. It’s hopping, and we get pounced on.
“Ava, how is Ryan?” comes at me from dozens of voices.
This wasn’t the best idea. I should’ve gone up, gotten into bed, and waited for Brendan. But I didn’t want to leave him. I wanted him with me. I needed his strength and his presence.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” Brendan says in my ear. He pushes a key into my hand. “Go up to my place and wait for me there. I’ll take care of all this.”
“You’re a lifesaver.” I head up to his apartment, unlock the door, and go in.
I inhale the aroma of Brendan. It’s only been a few days that he’s been living in his refurbished apartment—paid for by my family, unbeknownst to him—and already it smells like him. That aromatic mixture of warmth and spice and man.
I inhale, letting it give me some peace, and then I walk to his bed and sit down. Even though it’s late and I didn’t get much sleep last night, I can’t relax.
I rise, pace around the apartment for a few moments, until my gaze lands on his bookshelf.
Only a few books grace it—books he either was able to save after his apartment got trashed or that he bought new. A couple of bartending manuals, a couple of commercial novels, and a couple of classics.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
I haven’t read that since I was a kid, so I grab it. It falls open, revealing some folded white pages.
I open one, and my jaw drops.
It’s a quitclaim deed, transferring all Steel real property to my father, Ryan Steel. The signature at the bottom reads Bradford Steel.
My grandfather, who I never met.
My fingers lose hold of the paper, and it flutters to the ground.
I pick it up and stare at it again.
I don’t understand any of this. Why would my grandfather want to transfer all his property to only one of his children?
It doesn’t make any sense. Since my grandfather’s death, Dad, Uncle Joe, Uncle Talon, and Aunt Marj have all owned the property in equal shares.
This document would change that.
Is my father supposed to be the sole owner of all the Steel land and real property?
I’m still staring at the paper when Brendan walks in.
“Ava?”
“What the hell is this?” I shove the paper at him.
“Were you snooping?”
“Not on purpose. I thought I’d read to try to relax.”
“Fuck.” He grabs the paper from me and glances at it. “I just put those in there.”
“Those?” A couple of papers are still left in the book. I pull them out and hand them to him. “Could you explain all this, please? Is my father supposed to be the sole owner of all the Steel land?”
“No, I don’t think so. The deed has to be recorded to be valid, and this one hasn’t been.”
I take the paper from him…not gently. “But it’s dated… My God, it’s dated like fifty years ago.”
“Right. And he didn’t die until about twenty-five years ago.”
“How did everything transfer?”
“I don’t know, Ava. That’s something you have to ask your dad and your uncles. It either transferred through probate or through a different deed. Possibly through a trust benefitting your dad and his siblings.”
My pulse is rising. “Why do you even have this?”
“That’s a long story.”
“Well, I’m not going anywhere until I hear the whole thing.”
Brendan takes his hair out of his low ponytail and threads his fingers through it until he looks like a wild man. “No more secrets. We promised, right?”
“We did.”
“All right, then.” He sighs. “These are the copies of documents that I found under the floorboards of this place a couple of months ago. I told you about the lien and about the birth certificate.”
“Why were they here?”
“If I knew the answer to that question, I would gladly tell you, but I don’t.”
I walk back to his bed and sit down. “I’m so confused. There’s some connection here that we’re not seeing. Some reason why your family and mine are getting the same messages. And the tower, Brendan. The tower.”
