I saw Breck start to answer for him. Steele laid a hand on his knee, stopping him. I knew Sammy would get there.
“Married brother?” Sammy asked. “No. Brother-in-laws!” he said triumphantly. “And we’re already step-brothers so we’ll be like double brothers! That would be cool.”
I laughed. “It would be really cool. Being in your family automatically makes me cool.”
Sammy nodded as if that made sense. “Yeah. We’re pretty cool, right Big Brother?”
“Absolutely,” Carson said, reaching over to high-five his brother.
“And I’m going to ask Grace to marry me,” Sammy said. “So she’ll be your sister. But only a single sister.”
“What?” Aunt Momo said, sitting up straight.
Sammy struggled to a sitting position. He nodded vigorously. “Yep. We talked about it and she wants to marry me and I want to marry her so I’m going to ask her. At Thanksgiving.”
I could feel the room holding its breath waiting for her reaction. People tended to infantilize Sammy, though he was a grown man. I’m sure none of the guys had much experience with people with Down syndrome and it had never occurred to them that he had the same desires as most of the population.
“Oh my God. Sammy! That’s amazing!” She started to cry.
After that, there was a pause in business as congratulations were shared and champagne was opened. I knew there would be long conversations to come about details and where they would live, but it would all work out. I had faith in Sammy, in my family, and Grace’s family.
Love, a home and family of his own. Sammy had always wanted that since he was a boy. And now he was going to get it. After giving him a huge hug, I had to wipe away my own tears.
It took a while to pull things back to order. Sammy was getting bored, so Davis set him up in one of the bedrooms with a movie, cake, and a whole army of pillows.
“Tell me why we aren’t calling the FBI or some agency that deals with financial crimes?” Bob asked once we were resettled.
“Because they haven’t done anything illegal yet,” Leo answered. I could tell my father felt the most comfortable with Leo, which made sense. Wisely, everyone was content to have him take lead in this conversation. “I could have someone in the Bureau look this Symanski guy up under several of the aliases he uses, but that takes time. We do know there are one or two arrest warrants out on him.”
“What if we let the scam go through and then press charges?” Bob asked.
“If that happens, your money could be seized through civil forfeiture and tied up for years. If you even got it back,” he said.
“Can they do that?” Breck asked. “It’s his money.”
“They can,” Danny said. “We learned about it in my government class.”
“That sucks,” Breck said.
“And it’s ripe for abuse,” Carson added. “But anyway, Bob, unfortunately, this situation with Symanski goes beyond just protecting your money. Symanski’s real name is Jiri Dudacek. Up until now, he’s been mostly protection and small-time shakedowns. He ran with a very bad crew but they’ve been recently neutralized.” He shot a look at Ridge, who looked smugly satisfied. “With my mentor’s passing, there has been some jockey for power and position in various circles and it looks as if Symanski is trying to move up in the world.”
“And Ryan is helping him?” Bob asked. “How does he know this guy?”
“Ryan owes several bad people a large amount of money,” Carson said.
“How much?” Bob asked.
“One hundred and ninety-seven thousand, two hundred and forty dollars,” Wesley said to my parents’ stunned expressions. “Approximately,” he added.
“I had no idea,” Aunt Momo said.
“Me neither,” I said. “Trust me.”
“What about this makes Symanski an immediate threat?” Bob asked. “Why can’t we just tell him and Ryan we’ve decided not to do the deal? And you men find a way to stop him before he tries again.”
“Yes,” Carson said. “Well.” He straightened up in the loveseat we shared, and I put a hand on his leg for support. “We have a bit of a problem. Symanski saw me and Mom together the other day. Ryan, of course, told him my real name. Unfortunately, he recognized me, so he was able to tie Carson Grieves to Jake Karlsson, something I have worked very hard to keep from happening. And since my reputation precedes me as always, he thinks he has the perfect opportunity to take me out of