Legacy (Steel Brothers Saga #14) - Helen Hardt Page 0,69
and waited in the hallway.
True to his word, Larry came out dressed in jeans and a Queen T-shirt, his feet bare.
“Get some shoes on,” I said.
“What for?”
“We’re going for a walk.”
Larry rolled his eyes but went back in the room, returning a few seconds later wearing Chuck Taylors. “Let’s go, then.”
Sedona was a beautiful city with its perfect red rock formations. I wanted to bring Daphne and little Joe here. They were both so beautiful. They belonged in a place like this.
“Can we stop for a bite?” Larry asked. “I need to carbo-load.”
“Too much information, man,” I said. “But sure.”
We found a small sandwich shop, ordered, and got a table.
“What the hell was so important that you needed to interrupt me fucking my fiancée?”
I widened my eyes. “Fiancée?”
“Yeah. I proposed last night. Greta accepted.”
“Congratulations, man.”
“Thanks. She’s coming to Phoenix with me when I start law school in the fall.”
“Cool. So you’ll be a kept man like Simpson?”
“Nah. I’m not going to make Greta work when I’ve got seven figures in the bank.”
“You’re a better man than he is, then.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to go too far for that.” Larry sipped his Coke.
I lifted one eyebrow. “Oh? What makes you say that?”
“Come on, Steel,” Larry said. “You’re not blind.”
No, I wasn’t. Perhaps I hadn’t given Larry enough credit. I’d always considered him the least intelligent of our little group. Of course least intelligent among the Future Lawmakers was still damned smart. He’d gotten into law school.
“Anything you want to tell me, Lar?” I asked.
“Nothing you don’t already know.”
I nodded. “We’ll get to that. For now, I have a simple question for you.”
“Shoot.”
“Did you pay for Daphne’s hospitalization?”
His brows nearly flew off his forehead. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“Hell, no. My dad has insurance.”
“His insurance is pure indemnity, not one of those newfangled HMOs. It only paid eighty percent, and his share amounted to over a hundred grand.”
“Where did he get that kind of money?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. My first thought was you.”
“Nope. He never asked.”
“Of course,” I said more to myself than to Larry, “because he doesn’t know you have money.”
“Right.”
“Okay, then. Who does your father know who could have given him that kind of money?”
“How do you know he didn’t just pay it himself? Over time?”
“I have his financial records.”
Larry opened his mouth, but I gestured him to be quiet.
“Before you freak out, I found them in my old man’s files. I didn’t get them myself.”
“Why the hell would your father—”
“I have no idea. I can only guess that he had Jonathan investigated after Daphne and I told him she was pregnant. He kept files on everyone, from what I can see.”
“On your friends too?” Larry wrinkled his forehead.
“Oh, yeah. There’s one on everyone in the club. I haven’t looked through them yet. I’m more concerned with Daphne at the moment, and also finding Patty and figuring out who’s responsible for Murphy’s death.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up. What’s up with Patty?”
“She’s missing. For two days now. She went shopping in Snow Creek and never returned.”
“Snow Creek? Someone invaded that little town? Hardly a hub for criminal behavior.”
“Apparently it is now.”
“And still no information on what happened to Sean?”
“No, and I’ve had the best investigators on it. My father hired them after the wedding. But I need to get back to why I’m here. Who does your dad know who could have paid for Daphne’s medical bills?”
“I have no idea, man. We weren’t exactly close. I didn’t see my dad a lot, and I hardly ever saw Daphne. I never really knew why she ended up hospitalized for so long that year.”
“You don’t know what happened to her?”
“Only a little. The story I heard was that she was bullied by a couple of girls.”
He didn’t know. Unless he was lying.
But maybe he wasn’t.
Maybe, to keep the truth from Daphne, Jonathan and Lucy kept it from everyone else as well.
Except…Wendy knew.
A conversation from months ago speared into my head.
“You and I, Brad. We’re connected. We’ll always be connected. Someday, we’ll have that baby that was stolen from us in high school.”
“No, we won’t.”
Her miscarriage had been tragic, but it had also been a blessing in disguise. I didn’t want to be bound to Wendy through a child. If I could excise her from my life with a sharp scalpel, I would, and I’d live with the scar, no matter how deep.
And it would be deep.
“Oh, we will. You can’t avoid destiny, Brad.”
“My destiny lies with someone else.”
“Daphne?” She shook her head.