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Forming a plan, I left the room with her sleeping.
The sun was high when I returned. Before I made it to the door, a truck came rumbling up the drive. Before Liam walked over, I lifted a hand for him to stop. I walked over to the other side of the truck and leaned on the truck bed. He followed suit on the other side.
“What brings you around?” I asked.
My cousin and best friend lifted the ball cap off his head and ran a hand through his unruly hair before settling the cap in place. I eyed him but said nothing as my questioning gaze should have been enough.
“I think I’m going to New York,” he blurted.
I whistled because it was long expected.
“Why now?” I asked.
At just twenty-two and recently honorably discharged from the Air Force, I’d thought he’d settled down.
“They say the old man is dying.”
According to Liam’s mother, Dad’s brother, the King of New York himself, was Liam’s father. I personally thought there was another possibility.
“What are you going to do? Ring his bell and declare you’re his long-lost son?” I asked.
“I’ve got to do something,” Liam spat. “They say in his will, he limits the time for heirs to produce themselves.”
“How did you find out about that?”
“Reporters. You know there are new stories about him all the time. Everything that’s happened with the scandal with his son, he’s more in the news than ever,” Liam said.
“So this is about money?” I asked.
“It’s about making things right for Mom.”
As the story went, when she’d confronted my uncle about paternity, he’d threatened to take her son if she was right. With no money to fight him legally, she gave up.
“And what about what he did to your dad?” Liam tossed out.
I’d only seen the man in person once in my life. Natalie, Liam’s mom, was my mom’s closest friend in town. When Dad’s brother showed up to get him to sign away his rights in the family business, he’d met Natalie.
“Dad made a choice. He didn’t have to sign.”
“How do you know?” Liam asked. “He could have blackmailed him the same way he did my mom.”
It was true, I hadn’t been there. Well, I had, but I hadn’t heard the conversations between my dad and uncle.
“That’s Dad’s battle to fight, but not mine,” I said.
“He owes me.” Liam held the lip of the truck with white knuckles as he clenched his jaw. “I need to know the truth.”
I worried he wouldn’t find the answers he wanted.
“What if you get stuck there? I heard they might close the state.”
The mystery virus was spreading like flaming embers in the city.
“That’s a risk I have to take.”
“What’s your plan?” I asked again.
He shrugged as he let go of the truck, taking two frustrating steps back. “I don’t know. Connor has a club in the city. If I can’t get to the old man, I’ll reach out to him.”
