Seventeen
Noah
“I needyou to look into someone for me,” I said.
I was whispering, though I was sure Alex couldn’t hear me.
She was a deep sleeper, I had discovered, and she hadn’t moved in a couple of hours.
I, however, hadn’t found a moment’s rest.
Every time I looked at her, I was so overwhelmed with anger that it left me trembling.
Based on what little I knew of him, I already deeply disliked her father.
Birdie had offhandedly mentioned him being unreliable but hadn’t given me more information when I had tried to dig.
Alex had mentioned him even less, a reference to him going here or there, a call, or a text. But every time she spoke of him, I saw a change in her.
Subtle, but I didn’t miss anything when it came to Alex and could see the hurt stamped all over her face, see the slump in her posture.
See some of her beautiful light dimmed.
But to hear the story…
Maybe I was just angry for myself.
A reasonable enough conclusion, especially since Alex’s story was so like my own.
But it wasn’t just commiseration that raised my ire. Prescott had fucked me over, sure, but to see Alex hurt…
I couldn’t abide it.
Wouldn’t.
“What do you need, Mr. Wilder?” the woman on the other end of line said.
“Everything there is to know about Alex McPherson. There are two. I’m looking for information on the older male Alex McPherson, mid-to-late fifties.”
“A birthdate, sir?” she asked.
“No,” I responded.
“When do you need this information?”
“Now,” I said.
“I’ll be back in touch within the hour,” she responded.
I hung up the phone, then went to Alex’s kitchen.
I lacked anything in particular to do, but the energy coursing through me wouldn’t allow me to stay still.
I despised seeing Alex like this, despised seeing the sadness and vulnerability that I knew she hated to show.
But it meant more than I could say that she had shared her hurt with me.
It proved that if nothing else, I had her trust, something I knew wasn’t freely given.
Another way Alex was like my nonna.
Neither was quick to trust, but when they did, it was all in.
And to think her piece of shit father would toss that away.
I put down the glass I was holding before I shattered it and then went back to the living room.
Before I could sit on that fucking couch I hated so much, my phone buzzed, and I went back to the kitchen.
“Yeah,” I said.
Less than twenty minutes for a call back. Impressive. But then again, this kind of efficiency was something money could buy and was one of the things I appreciated most about the wealth I had managed to build.
“I have preliminary findings, sir. We’ll continue with a more detailed exploration if you’d like. But given the urgency, I wanted you to have this information now.”
“Email what you have,” I said, “and keep digging.”
“Yes, sir.”
I hung up again, then looked at my email, watching as the message came in.
I read the file and started to piece together the story. Alex had sent her father money for some emergency involving his girlfriend’s children.
But unless the emergency was a third arrest for driving on a suspended license, which seemed pretty hard given that the kids were eleven and thirteen, I figured that story was a lie.
I scrolled through the report, and as best I could tell, her father had used the money to pay a lawyer and clear up some outstanding fines.
No doubt his attempt to put on a good face for the judge and then plead for mercy.
A smart play.
But not one I would allow him to make at Alex’s expense and certainly not based on a lie.
I’d never even met the man, but seeing the way Alex reacted, I knew she would have given him the money no matter what.
That he felt compelled to lie get it from her…
I’d known the man was scum, and this confirmed it.
But that didn’t matter.
Not anymore.
Because Alex’s father would never hurt her again.
I’d see to that.