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“Jesus, what have you done to my brother? He’s a mushy goober now.” June may act as though she’s grossed out, but I know she’s loving every damn second of this.
“He is not.” Paisley is eager to defend me. I watch the two of them disappear into the diner, but not before my princess glances over her shoulder to give me one last look before she’s gone.
I slam the truck door before heading over to the driver's side. It doesn’t take me long to get home. I find Tigger stretched out across my desk. Half of his body is on top of my keyboard.
It makes me smile. He is one of the many things inside my home that has Paisley’s touch on it now. Slowly she has added a few things around the house. Her clothes are put away in my closet. That one might be on me. I was sick of seeing the suitcases packed.
She added some throw pillows she picked up at one of the little stores in town while I was in the hardware store the other afternoon. There are random vases of flowers she’s picked while out in the field. I should ask her if she’d like a greenhouse too.
Fuck, I’m getting ahead of myself. Other things need to be handled.
“Come on, boy.” I pick Tigger up off my laptop and place him in one of the chairs in front of my desk. He barely opens his eyes. I flick the laptop on, pulling out my phone to call Blu at the same time.
"About damn time," Blu says the second he answers. "Her parents are up my ass. I'm pretty sure we're fired."
"Fuck," I mutter to myself. Not because I want this job, but because I don't want them to give it to someone else. It wasn't hard for me to track Paisley down.
"I need you to clear out any trace of her. Any footage that caught sight of her. Anything that can lead to here."
"Are you sure about that? I'm not sure that's legal."
"You think everything we did for our own government was legal?" Blu lets out a low chuckle because he knows I'm right.
“All right, I’ll handle it.”
“The brother?”
“I’m still on it. I think I’m closing in. I should have something in a few hours.”
“Why has he been so hard to find?” There is no reason why Luka Woods should have been this difficult to track down. He’s the wildcard in this whole thing. I already have the drop on the parents and that fuckwad they tried to marry her off to.
“You really haven’t read over the shit I’ve sent you.”
“Out with it.” I don’t need a reminder of how out of it I’ve been. Even when I’d gone over the folder Blu gave me when I came out here, all my attention had been on the details of Paisley.
Her brother was an afterthought because of the distance he seemed to keep from all the other Woodses. But he was an end I wanted to cover. One that was irritating me since he couldn't be tracked down. I don’t like loose ends. I’ve learned they always come back to haunt you in one way or another. That’s a chance I’m not willing to take when it comes to Paisley.
“He founded Luka Technology.”
It sounds familiar. I search my brain for it. “I’ve used Luka Technology.”
"Yes, we have.”
“Well, shit.” That explains it. Paisley’s brother is not only into tech but is good enough at it that he provides for the US government.
“Yeah, but I'll reach out to someone I know.”
“All right, I’ll give you a few hours. If you don’t get it by then, I’ll make a call.” I’m not big on reaching out for favors or cashing in ones I have, but for Paisley, I’ll do anything. Either way, it would take me a few hours to get it myself. If Blu already has someone on it, I’ll let him handle it for now.
“Why don’t you go ahead and read what I have sent over? Bentley Bloomberg, the fiancé?—”
“He’s not her fiancé," I growl, clenching my teeth.
“Okay!” Blu chuckles. Not sure what is so fucking funny. “Bentley Bloomberg, the non-fiancé, is a real piece of work. He looks clean and shiny on paper, but he’s anything but.”
“That goes without saying.” The Bloomberg name isn’t new. It’s the oldest kind of money. The Woods family sat pretty damn close, but I’m sure they’re chomping at the bit to be tied in with the Bloombergs.
But this isn’t twenty years ago. Hell, not even ten years. It’s not so easy to stop the spread of information anymore. You can’t buy your way out of a story if someone truly wants it out there. The catch and kill doesn’t work as well as it once did. Those tracks not so easy to clean up.
