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“What do you mean?”
“Well, he was born to a drug-addicted mother,” I revealed. “We know nothing about his father, because there wasn’t one listed on the birth certificate. He’s not in the foster care system, and there’s no official adoption paperwork.”
“Have we located his mother?” Jax asked.
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Died from a drug overdose years ago.”
Frustration washed over Jax’s face. I couldn’t say I didn’t understand it, because I’d felt the same way. The one woman who’d likely be able to tell us what happened to her son was dead.
“Well, what did he do?” Jax finally asked.
My brows pulled together. “What do you mean?”
Throwing one hand out in front of himself, he reasoned, “Well, how did he survive? Where did he work? Was he living in an apartment or out on the streets?”
As soon as he asked those questions, several thoughts ran through my mind. The first of those thoughts was the answers to each of those questions. And while I wouldn’t be able to share any known employment for Xavier Pope, I could reveal his living situation.
“Fuck,” I clipped.
Jax jerked back in surprise. “What?”
I cocked a brow. “How do you think you’d live in a mansion if you didn’t work?”
“Someone would likely be letting me stay there for free,” Jax reasoned.
“Right. Or, if you were now the owner of that mansion, perhaps you’d have been given it as an inheritance, right?” I countered.
Understanding washed over him, but there was still a question lingering there. “How does that apply to Hanna?”
I flipped open the file I had on Xavier Pope. Searching through, I located the address and held that sheet out to Jax. “We need to find out everything we can about the owner of Xavier Pope’s mansion. I have a feeling that is going to tell me what I need to know about the link to Hanna.”
Jax dipped his chin. “Right. Okay. Any idea why you say that?”
So many questions about Hanna ran through my mind. I didn’t get any answers I was looking for, and I knew we had no time to waste. “The money for Hanna’s tiny homes came from an inheritance. I’m willing to bet that’s the link between Hanna and Xavier.”
“Well, let’s get to work,” Jax urged.
So, that’s what we did. And it wasn’t long before we had learned about a man named Saul. He had died a couple of years ago, and his massive estate had been divided between three individuals. Hanna was one of them. Xavier was another. The third individual was a woman named Whitney.
We’d found the link.
And having that, I knew there was no way I could avoid it any longer. If I didn’t want to dig up anything this way on Hanna, I had only one option.
“I think I need to go and talk to her,” I said.
“And what’s your plan?” he countered.
“What do you mean?”
He allowed the silence to stretch between us briefly. Eventually, he took in a deep breath and let it out before he reasoned, “You’re not happy about this. I guess I’m wondering if you’re going to keep a level head and not do something that could jeopardize an investigation because you might like this girl.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “I’d never risk a case for a stupid reason.”
He shrugged. “Maybe your reason isn’t a stupid one.”
