Chapter 1
Ashton Nelson pulled up to the gas station, hopped out and started the process to fuel up his truck.
He glanced around at a place he knew well but hadn’t seen in at least six years, and that visit had only lasted a couple days, if that.
While eventful, he wondered if it even counted because he had pulled out on the second night like a demon out of hell.
But then, what did he expect? The family’s Missouri home came with … issues.
Some things hadn’t changed, and he didn’t expect them to change now either. He was here for a War Dog, and that was it. Then again, he could lie to himself as much as he wanted, yet he still knew that wasn’t the whole truth.
Something was going on in his family, with his grandparents.
His grandmother was, well, she was a case all to herself, and, as much as he loved her dearly, he didn’t exactly like her very much lately.
He couldn’t handle her lies and cheating or his grandfather covering up her antics, especially when she’d touched Grandpa’s client accounts for her personal gambling funds.
She didn’t consider gambling an issue. Her solution was to always get more money to continue her addiction.
Ashton could remember a time when she used to borrow money from everybody else in the family—and never repay them.
Those were the good ole days in retrospect.
She then branched out to dipping into the household fund.
Now she had graduated to stealing other people’s money.
He and Grandpa had called her on that, had stopped her outright thievery, forcing her to begin monthly payments to return that money where it belonged, which she did for about four years.
She still owed much more to make those accounts whole.
Then a couple years ago she resumed her old tricks again.
So now Ashton was back home again. He couldn’t believe it himself. It had been twelve years since he’d lived here. It had been a good six years ago that he came here, even for just those two days. He’d made that trip strictly for Crystal’s benefit—and only hers.
Now he didn’t even know if she would be there or not. He didn’t have that contact with her any longer. Granted, he had been the one to cut ties just so he could focus on healing and rehab. Looking back at that, he had to shake his head.
So to hear from Kat what was going on with his own family was a little disconcerting.
If Crystal had reached out, he would have come, but she hadn’t; and that went back to the visit six years earlier, no doubt.
He groaned in frustration, finished fueling up his tank, paid, and hopped back into his truck.
Without a second glance, he headed up to the corner, taking a right and traveling several miles before he took a left onto the family property.
Family property.
He almost laughed at that thought because, sure, it was family property, as long as he wasn’t the family. That’s where the challenge came in. Multiple wills had been written over the years, writing him in, writing him out.
Bottom line was, he had walked away from the family business.
And, since he walked away, everybody was of the opinion that he shouldn’t get anything.
They didn’t stop to consider the fact that he’d walked away because of things being done or not done, even when the ongoing activity was downright criminal.
They all just wanted to cover it up, but he, as a financial advisor, just like his grandfather, could not and would not deal with their shady shenanigans, even if his grandmother thought it was nothing but harmless borrowing.
His grandfather knew better and had asked Ashton to help keep her in the clear, so Grandpa didn’t have to worry about Grandma.
Ashton did his best from afar over the last twelve years.
However, Grandma was now in so deep that he and Grandpa knew there was no keeping her in the clear. Time to pull in the authorities.
As Ashton pulled up to the front of the huge mansion, passing several smaller dower cottages off to the side, he hopped out and looked around, frowning.
No vehicles were parked close by.
No sign of life was anywhere.
Frowning, he slowly walked up to the front door and knocked. It felt funny to knock on the door of his ancestral home, where he always thought he would live and eventually raise his family, but life hadn’t been that easy, particularly in his case.
His parents had both died in a freak accident years ago during a serious flood.
Being hard-headed and stubborn, his father insisted on driving across the flooded creek, and both his parents drowned when their vehicle had gone in.
Since neither one had been able to get out of the vehicle—weren’t swimmers even if they had—they lost their lives.
The catastrophe had left a traumatized teenage boy, still surrounded by family, but the only one who was a direct descendant of this estate.
He’d gone on to complete high school and various university programs, but, in the end, he couldn’t come to terms with too many of the family members living off money that wasn’t theirs.
They called them loans initially, getting away with not paying some back.
Then that part of the family decided they shouldn’t pay back any of it.
As far as they were concerned, it was their money after all.
An advance inheritance of sorts. That led to Ashton and his grandfather having one hell of a fight some six years ago.
His grandfather used to have strong morals, but his grandmother’s penchant for sticky fingers and meddling in other people’s accounts had messed that up too.
Ashton knew his grandfather’s misguided actions were done out of love for his wife, but that didn’t change the fact that a lot of the townspeople were depending on his grandfather’s investment firm to safeguard their own retirement funds, investing them wisely, keeping those funds safe.
If things weren’t cleared up, Ashton would be forced to call the authorities about it.
That had been the crux of his visit six years ago.
Back then his grandfather had promised, absolutely promised, that they had replaced almost all the money and that his grandmother had stopped taking what wasn’t hers to fuel her addiction.
When Ashton demanded to see paperwork to prove it, his grandfather took offense and got angry, saying that Ashton should trust him.
“Well, trust is a hard thing when you’re already a criminal.” Those were the words Ashton had used, and that had been the last straw as far as his grandfather was concerned. Grandma had taken it a step further and had essentially thrown Ashton out.
When Ashton left that last time, he’d warned his grandfather that, if it wasn’t fixed, Ashton would do something about it himself. “When I come back the next time, I will fix it permanently.”
There had been a gray cast to his grandfather’s face as he understood the threat, but Ashton was prepared to let go of only so many things in life, and his personal integrity was not one of them.
Over the last six years, he’d given his grandparents enough time to fix the crooked books, and, if they hadn’t bothered to do that, well, Ashton would see the entire company and, therefore, most of the family, potentially behind bars for the rest of their lives.
Back then his grandfather understood and, to a certain extent, agreed.
Since it was primarily about the family, secondarily about his business reputation with the townspeople, Grandpa intended to do everything possible to keep them above water, which was fine by Ashton.
He was okay with that, as long as it got done.
Not getting any proof of it happening? That was an entirely different story.
He pushed open the front door when no answer came, not surprised that it wasn’t locked. They’d never locked the house as far back as he could remember. As he walked in, he called out, “Hello.” Still he got no answer, but, given that no vehicles were out front, maybe that made sense too.
He walked through the living room, with the same old furnishings, the same old wallpaper. It brought both a pang of nostalgia and a wince to his face as he realized just how caught up or lost in time this place really was. As he stepped into the kitchen, he found Jenny.
She had to be almost as old as his grandmother at this point.
Jenny lived in the main house, was treated like family, but she insisted on working for her keep.
As she put it, she wasn’t up for charity.
He wondered how she would feel if she understood the entire family was criminally involved in stealing money from the Nelson accounts as well as from Grandpa’s clients—stealing money that was not theirs.
Not wanting to startle her, he called out gently, “Jenny?”
Jenny looked up, froze for a second, then a big smile spread across her face when she saw him. She got up, and, with obviously pained movements, walked toward him. He opened his arms and gently hugged her.
When he finally stepped back, he looked at her and nodded. “You look exactly the same.”
She laughed, a bright pealing one. “Except for a few more creaky joints and a few more lines,” she noted, with her chin up. “Other than that, I am who I am.”
“And who you are is absolutely beautiful.”
She smiled. “You were always such a charmer.”
“It’s not charm to say the truth,” he told her. “You’ve always been a golden-hearted soul, and that has always shone through.”
She stared at him, the tears forming in the corner of her eyes. She shook her head. “I think that’s the nicest thing anybody has ever told me.”
“I’m not surprised,” he muttered. “Sometimes we forget to say the things we should, and we don’t necessarily do all the things we should either.”
She frowned as she eyed him intently. “Are you okay?”
“I am okay,” he replied. “I mean, the last six years have been tough, but I’m doing okay.”