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“Or that it’s even true?” Royal had to add.
“Nondisclosure agreements drawn up by Blessed Reunions’ attorneys are included in the envelope. For us—and for you. One of your sisters is married to the governor of Texas—they don’t exactly want this everywhere either. Barratt, Barratt & Barratt is BR’s firm. I intern there.” Sydney took the envelopes and slid a packet free. “Royal? I take it you’ll want to read over it? It’s in order. The Barratt firm is the best in Texas.”
“You just are on the ball, aren’t you, sweetheart?” Royal asked smoothly. “Worked this racket before?”
“You just are a jackass, aren’t you, sweetpea? Worked your charm on the ladies before?” Sydney asked in a sweet-as-cotton-candy tone she’d probably learned from those sisters of hers. She batted her eyelashes at him innocently and blew him a kiss. “Frankly, I just don’t see the appeal. I prefer real men now.”
Quade snorted. “You tell him, sugar.”
Sydney turned a flirtatious look on the youngest brother. And batted her lashes. “See, I could almost like you, Wonkus. Almost. You might just be tolerable. But these other two…”
“Sydney is a licensed private investigator with Blessed Reunions. One of her sisters owns the company. They specialize in finding lost or, rather, misplaced, relatives and facilitating contact. That’s it. Nothing sinister or extortive about it. Whatever is between Sydney and Slater was coincidental and rather…inconvenient, right?”
“That’s the word for it.Inconvenient.” Sydney leaned forward a bit. Her neckline gaped just a bit. To Zoey’s disgust—Slater’s gaze dropped immediately. He was definitely the man dog Sydney had called him. “Eyes up here, Slater. My eyes, not my chest. To tell you the truth, I just about screamed when I saw your names. And not in any stupid fangirl crush way. I considered tossing the results, and just never saying a word to anyone. ButIam honest. Basically, I’m here to protect people I care about from having to deal with Slater. Sign on the bottom line, please. Then tell us what we need to know, we’ll tell you what we know, and we’ll never have to see you again. And then we’ll all be just peachy. And I can forget thattinylittle bitty encounter I had with Slater Man Dog Davis forever.”
Zoey coughed at that little dig. Slater looked ready to explode again. It was good to see a little bit of Sydney’s spark coming back. “Sydney, you’ve always been hilarious. Can we get started?”
“Why not? I have all the money I will ever need, I have private jets at my disposal, and I can do whatever I want in the world. I’m ready to party. Let’s do this.”
69
Sydney tookoff before Zoey was even half done with her so-calledbrothers.Citing a need to take the phone call that had interrupted. Zoey had seen Pen’s face on the screen.
Zoey wasn’t stupid. Whatever was going on between Slater and Sydney was nowhere near over. Time would tell how it played out, for all of them.
After she finished with her new brothers, she took the stairs from the basement level of the Talley Inn where the conference rooms were located and went in search of Sydney.
Zoey hadn’t bought Sydney’s harsh bitch routine for one minute. She was going to keep her eye on that girl until she had her safely back in Finley Creek with the rest of her family.
First, she was going to find Sydney and check on her. Then she was going to find Murdoch and see what happened next.
Sydney had called it true—Murdoch Lake was exactly the man he appeared to be. One hundred percentrealin a way a woman could count on.
After this conversation with men who pretended to be others for money and fame—not caring who they hurt—the importance of that fact was seared into her soul. Made her understand whatmattered.
Trust.
Trust mattered more than anything with a man. Of all the men in the world, she trusted Murdoch the most. Trusted him with what mattered most.
And who.
She’d trust him with Pen.
With all her nieces and nephews. Her siblings and their spouses. In a heartbeat.
And she trusted him withherself.
That rattled her more than she could have ever predicted.
She found Sydney at the front desk, with Charlotte.
“Sydney? Want to talk?” She hadn’t always been close to Sydney, it had come after what had happened to the younger woman. But there was something in Sydney that Zoey recognized.
That wall of hurt.
It was unmistakable to someone who had one of her own. She just hoped Sydney would let that wall down some day. Not spend forever alone. Then again, who was she to give that kind of advice?
Murdoch Lake right now was one of the most frightening things she’d ever faced.
