Chapter 44
Xander
Amari Heiress Questioned by Federal Agents
I swiped away the headline. The press got a shot of Sloan getting into the SUV with the federal agents that went to question
her.
I was in a meeting with Tristan when he got the call, so he and I went to Sloan’s place and waited for her there. Given he
was the one who facilitated sending the files to Fitzgerald’s Senate office, he was well aware of what was going on. Not so
much the motive behind it, but he knew what we’d been planning.
He wasn’t really fazed by any of it. Tristan was used to being the go-between. He kept himself out of the family dynasty by
providing political capital from time to time—like with Fitzgerald and the Hightower hearings—and that meant the Alders family
usually owed him a few favors. Favors that he loyally gave to us when we needed them.
“Fitz talked to Liana Blackwell.” Tristan walked down the hall to the kitchen after making a call to his cousin. “Head of
the FTC. He was her staunch supporter during her Senate confirmation.”
I was waiting in the kitchen, checking my phone to see if Penelope called me back. She hadn’t yet, but it was late afternoon.
Maybe she was still working or caught up with any fallout at the office.
A sense of dread wrapped around my chest. I knew I’d have to tell Penelope about this now. Before, I could rationalize that it gave her plausible deniability to not know, but now she’d have questions and I wasn’t going to lie to her. I’d tell her all of it, it was a little batshit, but it was meant to help her. And it felt like now she’d stay regardless of pressure from Silas or not.
“And?” I clicked the side of my phone.
“Sloan is being asked to make a statement about her work with the Hightowers. The FTC is following up on a tip about potential
insider trading.”
“Which is ridiculous because no trades between myself, my family, or anyone were made with the Hightowers altogether.” Sloan’s
voice filled the room. We looked over our shoulders and she walked in, her hair in a bun and a scowl on her face. She turned
toward the living room and sat down on the couch. She motioned for us to follow.
“And that’s easy to corroborate,” Tristan added, conciliatory. “Don’t worry.”
“So, why bring you in?” I questioned.
Nobody in our circle was even invested in Hightower, that was easy to prove.
Insider trading. Very illegal. We hadn’t done that, we just happened to know when the Hightowers went down because we happened
to be the ones who brought them down.
Sloan laughed a little deliriously. “Because it does look suspicious when pointed to directly. My client’s entire company tanks and then my close friends swoop in. I’m not concerned,
obviously people know we’re close, so the implication is something I assumed we’d deal with. That’s why there is nothing to
find. I’m just surprised anyone was paying that close attention.”
“Right, they’d need a lot of evidence to prove that’s related,” Tristan added.
“And they have none.” Sloan perked up, she tucked her legs beneath her. “Based on their questions they’re building a larger case against the Hightowers.”
“There’s nothing to prove you broke—” Before I could say “attorney-client privilege,” which was exactly what Sloan broke in
handing over those documents to Fitz, she interrupted.
“It’s complete speculation. All of which, I vehemently deny,” Sloan challenged.
“And the firm?”
Sloan laughed. “They know that I am fully cooperating with the FTC’s questions. It is hardly the first time a big law firm
has had questions from the feds. We’re not exactly working for the weak and downtrodden. The feds keep going after me, I’ll
counter with a malicious prosecution suit. Bury them in work they can’t afford, looking for evidence that doesn’t exist.”
Tristan took a deep breath and sat down on the chair across from Sloan. “Any idea who called in the tip?”
“You think it was Penelope’s brother?” Sloan speculated. “He has an axe to grind, right?”
I shrugged. The news was public so technically it could have been anyone. But there was no proof to substantiate it and whoever
it was had to be paying extremely close attention. It made sense it might be Silas.
“Go home, tell Pen,” Sloan instructed when I stayed silent. “Everything. I trust her.”
I nodded. “You’re okay?”
“I’m fine. Tristan and I can figure this out. I’m sure Henry and Marcus are going to come barreling in here soon even though
I told them everything is fine.”
“Given that those files, the ones that ended up in Fitz’s chief of staff’s hands mysteriously ,” Tristan added, since nobody was going to say the quiet truth out loud, “are part of the reason Fitz is the frontrunner for the next election cycle, I’d say that you’ve banked a lot of favors with Fitz and my grandfather.”
I turned and made my way to the door, checking my phone but no calls or texts from Penelope.
When I got home, I couldn’t find her around the house, the kitchen, any of the bedrooms. I called her again, but no answer.
Panic started to bleed into my veins until I walked back into our bedroom one last time and looked out to the balcony.
Next to the poppies, her back against the glass wall, was Penelope.
I walked outside into the chilly autumn air.
She looked up at me; her eyes were puffy and a little swollen.
My heart dropped.
“We need to talk,” she told me quietly.