CHAPTER 49
Cal
“Wait.” Victoria stands. “Where are these records stored, Evander?”
“Most are in digital form on our secure cloud server. I can access all those from my laptop. The older stuff is probably in Arlo’s office in the barn.”
“Yeah,” Declan says. “And that place is a black hole of chaos. Maybe we should loop him in and ask for his help.”
“Let’s bring him in a bit later,” Victoria says. I see her tense up. Her back straightens and her shoulders go rigid, though she’s still smiling pleasantly. I wonder what the hell her problem could be with Arlo, of all people. “Is he working tonight, do you think?”
“Nah, he went home hours ago,” Declan says. “Evander, text me what you need from his files. Let’s roll.” Special K and Finn follow him out the front door.
“I’ll make coffee.” Evander hops on one leg to the kitchen.
That leaves me alone with Victoria again, who’s still avoiding my gaze. I don’t blame her. I’ve behaved like a complete douche these last couple of days—with a valid reason, of course. I saw the contract. My brothers saw the contract. Her betrayal is right there in black and white.
So why do I suddenly feel like I’m missing something?
“Hey, Victoria.”
She turns. What I see in her expression nearly knocks the wind out of me. She looks like she might cry. “What are you up to? What’s all this about?”
“I already explained that I’m informing your family of my concerns.”
“About what?”
“About who’s screwing you over, because it’s not me.
” She peers at me and laughs. “Don’t worry, Cal.
I know you’ve already decided that I’m the Cruella Deville of Southern California.
And speaking of screwing, there’ll be no more of that, because it’s over.
As soon as I arrange for a plane, I’m gone. ”
I open my mouth to say something but can’t. Even if I had enough air, what would I tell her? That I’m sorry and that I made a mistake? No. Because I have zero evidence that she’s innocent and a whole stack of it that tells the opposite story.
She shakes her head, disgusted. “Let’s just get through this and put it all behind us.”
“So you’re going back to daddy?” Seems I found enough air to say one more rotten thing to her. I’m already regretting my words before they’re out of my mouth. “You’ll just pick up where you left off, then? Find some new batch of unsuspecting landowners to play bait and switch with?”
“Fuck off, Cal.”
“Cream? Sugar?” Evander returns but realizes that he’s walked in at the worst moment possible. “Sorry. I’ll leave it on the counter.”
“I’ll come with you,” Victoria says. “We’re done here.”
A few minutes later, we’re heading into Evander’s bedroom. Victoria’s holding two mugs, helping him out as he hops. “You could get yourself some crutches,” I say.
“Don’t want ‘em.”
I see that all the papers from the night before are still spread on top of his comforter, along with two laptops and an adding machine. “You need a woman, dude.”
He chuckles, tidying up. “You? Giving relationship advice? That’s just hilarious.”
Victoria’s face reveals nothing. Maybe they were talking about me in the kitchen, about what an ass I am. Maybe she’d be better off with a man like Evander. He has an adding machine, after all. And probably a whole selection of staplers.
We get started. Evander sends her a bunch of files via email and then prints out hard copies. Victoria’s totally focused, taking notes, creating digital spreadsheets, and asking for clarification. Evander’s phone rings, and he picks up. “Okay. Sure. That’s weird.”
“Is that Declan?”
Evander nods.
“Tell him to please keep track of what he’s taking and from where. I…I don’t want…” she quickly glances my way. “Nobody likes their files rearranged.”
“What’s weird?” I ask Evander.
“Finn says that his file cabinets were spotless, perfectly organized and dated, nothing out of order. He said it’s like two people worked in that office—one a perfectionist and one a slob.”
Victoria makes a sound in the back of her throat but doesn’t look up from what she’s doing. About forty minutes later, my brothers return with banker’s boxes of files and ledgers.
We come up with a plan for who will review what. Victoria and Evander work side by side on the bed and issue directions when needed. The rest of us retreat to our respective corners and get busy.
Hours tick by. Evander goes through most of his healthy stash of sticky notes, color-coded page markers, and document clips.
Special K raids Finn’s pantry, because he’s known for keeping name-brand goodies on hand.
He claims they’re for Jasmine, but we all know that shit gets him through his intense middle-of-the-night gaming sessions.
I volunteer to make more coffee. It’s nice to get out of that room. It’s not fun being just feet away from Victoria while she doesn’t acknowledge me. I deserve it, but still, not fun.
Finn joins me in the kitchen. “Did you tell her the bullshit about the BLM delaying the contract?”
“Yeah.” I lean against the cabinets. “She didn’t fall for it.”
“Well, she’s damn smart.”
“Smarter than all of us put together, maybe.”
“What is she looking for?”
I glance over Finn’s shoulder to make sure she’s not headed our way. “I think she has Arlo in the crosshairs.”
“Yeah, but why?”
“No idea, but she’s digging up something in there. I’m starting to think she had nothing to do with the contract mess.”
“Me too. But holy shit, bro. She’s pissed at you. Anger’s shooting off her like lightning.”
Declan joins us in the kitchen. “Hey, Cal,” he whispers. “I think we were wrong about Victoria. Evander agrees—he just texted me, saying as much.”
“That girl is working her ass off in there,” Finn says. “Who would do that just for show?”
Special K wanders our way. “Your business lady’s a straight-up badass,” he says to me.
“She’s not my business lady. Or my anything.”
“Fine, but she reminds me of the time we were doing that extraction off the coast of
Malta—”
“Get back in here!” Evander yells from his room. “You got to see this!”