Misdirection (Pros and Cons Mysteries #1)

Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

I t didn’t take long for Tevin to find Jason’s home address for Olive.

As soon as she had it, she jumped in her car and took off toward his house. Her GPS indicated she was still forty minutes away.

Forty minutes? For some reason, she’d envisioned Jason having a place close to the office like she did.

That didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she’d found out where he lived, and now she could confront him.

This time she wouldn’t hold back. She wouldn’t play nice and do pinky promises.

No, she would demand answers. Demand the truth.

Her father had spent his whole life tricking her. She didn’t take kindly to when people did that to her now.

Finally, Olive pulled off the highway and into a neighborhood.

A very nice neighborhood with large, sprawling houses on big lots.

A few minutes later, she pulled into the driveway of a Tudor-style home that was probably five thousand square feet with an immaculate lawn and elaborate landscaping.

This place had to cost well over a million.

Where in the world had Jason gotten this kind of money? Conglomerate paid its high-level execs well. But not this well—and Jason wasn’t an exec.

Even though Jason’s dad was a doctor, his family had never appeared to have this kind of money.

More questions raced through Olive’s mind.

Had Jason bought this place with the money he’d made by selling company secrets?

Nausea roiled inside her at the thought.

To think she’d been beginning to trust him. What had she been thinking?

Her suspicions continued to rise.

She slammed her car door and then charged up the sidewalk.

Her knock was rapid-fire and urgent. She could hardly contain the anger coursing through her veins.

What if he didn’t answer? Or what if he wasn’t actually home? She’d headed here under an assumption.

If she’d been thinking more clearly, she would have considered the possibility he’d gone somewhere else.

But then the front door opened.

Jason stood in the entry staring at her, his expression hard and unwelcoming.

But that was okay. She imagined her expression wasn’t so friendly either.

Olive braced herself for the coming confrontation, knowing it would be ugly. But she couldn’t put it off any longer.

“What are you doing here?” Jason’s gaze burned a hole in her as he stared at her from just inside the front door.

“We need to talk.” Olive kept her voice firm and unyielding. “Right now.”

“Then by all means, come in.” He opened the door wider, but not necessarily in a friendly manner.

Olive had her gun tucked in her purse just in case she needed it. She hoped she didn’t, but she couldn’t assume anything. If Jason was the guy behind this . . . then he was dangerous.

Her gaze swept over the interior of his home.

Marble floors. A grand staircase. Spotless furniture.

The place could have been featured in an online decorating magazine.

It was nice. Really nice.

Then a Great Pyrenes trotted out from a back hallway, his tail wagging.

The sight of the dog almost made her resolve crack.

She and Jason had always talked about getting a dog when they got married one day. Not just any dog—a Great Pyrenes.

However, Olive had set aside that dream for herself. She wasn’t home enough to care for a dog. Plus, she had attachment issues. It was better for her to fly solo—with people and pets.

“Loki, sit,” Jason told the dog.

The canine did as it was told.

Loki? If circumstances had been different, Olive would ask Jason about his choice of name.

Because Loki had been their favorite character when they’d watched the Marvel movies together. They’d even dressed as Loki and Black Widow for a Halloween party that year.

Olive quickly reminded herself why she was here. Jason could be a traitor . . . and maybe a killer. She couldn’t let herself get soft.

“You’re wondering how I pay for all this?” Jason beat her to the punch.

She turned her gaze from Loki and looked at Jason again, her resolve hardening. “Yes, I guess you could say that. This is all nice. Very nice.”

“You remember I was adopted, right?”

“Yes, I remember.” Jason and all his siblings had been adopted. His parents couldn’t have children of their own.

“About five years ago, the father of my birth mom found me. It sounds dramatic whenever I say this, so I don’t tell people often.”

Olive waited for him to continue.

“He wanted to meet with me, and I didn’t know why. But I met him for dinner one night—he flew down to see me—and we got to know each other. Apparently, I was his only living relative. His wife had died twenty years earlier, and my birth mom had been in a car accident. He told me later he’d come into our meeting very skeptical about me, but he left feeling as if he had gained a grandson.”

“Go on.” She was very curious as to where he was going with this.

“I didn’t know it at the time but, when I met my grandfather, he’d been given only a few months to live because of liver cancer. We got together several times to eat and get to know each other. I was living in Florida at the time, and he’d fly down to see me.”

“That sounds nice.”

“It was. Two months after we met, he died. I went to his funeral, and afterward his lawyer asked me to meet. I was shocked to find out my grandfather was extremely wealthy. He’d made a fortune on some kind of all-in-one exercise equipment. He left all that money to me.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Now that’s a story you don’t hear every day.”

“I know. I always told myself I didn’t want a big house. But he left me this.” Jason swept his hands around him. “At first, I planned to sell it. Then I was offered the job with Conglomerate, and it felt like the timing of everything was providential. I decided to live here until I could figure out what to do. So hopefully that answers your questions about how I can afford this house. I’m not being paid off by an enemy of the United States.”

Olive gave him a look, careful not to confirm that had been her suspicion.

Jason crossed his arms, not bothering to offer her a seat. Instead, they continued to face off in the entryway.

“So why are you here?” Jason’s gaze burned into her.

“I’m here because I know about Adriana and Beau.”

She expected to see guilt flash over Jason’s face, something that proved he’d been caught and that his relationship with the woman was a ploy.

But she didn’t. Jason only stared at her with an unreadable emotion in his eyes.

“What are you talking about?” he finally asked, an air of confusion in his voice.

Great, he was going to make a game out of this, wasn’t he?

Olive wasn’t going to play. “I know Adriana was seeing Beau.”

Jason’s eyes widened with surprise. “No, she wasn’t.”

His statement came out hard and fast.

That was when Olive realized Jason had no idea his girlfriend had also been dating Beau. He’d just found out now . . . and he looked devastated.