Page 32 of His Custody

“Settled by who?”

“I told Deja to use money from my parents’ estate. It’s not a problem, and I don’t want you thinking about it. It’s done.”

“But you said I have money.”

“You do.”

“If it didn’t come from my parents, where did it come from?”

He looked away from her again and she swallowed her own discomfort at how uncomfortable this conversation made him. He might even be breaking a sweat.

“It’s Gavin’s trust. Was Gavin’s trust. Now it’s yours, like I said. It was mine long enough to move it and I have no claim over it. It’s set up to come under your control when you turn eighteen, although when it does, there’s going to be a seventy-two hour hold or you’ll need me to co-sign on withdrawals of large amounts until you’re twenty-one. Then it’s yours to do with as you please, free and clear.”

The magnitude of her situation started to dawn on her. “So I’m at your mercy? I have nothing.”

“No.” Jasper was shaking his head and raising his hands as if to placate her, but if he thought it’d be that easy, he could think again.

“But Ihadnothing, and I have something now because you gave it to me.”

“Keyne, I don’t think of it like that. It was never mine. It was Gavin’s and now it’s yours. He would’ve wanted it that way. He cared about you so much, he’d want you to have it.”

“Not like my parents. Who left me with nothing.”

“That’s not what I—”

“How could they have even gotten away with that? It doesn’t make any sense. We had the houses, and the cars, and...” It didn’t make any sense. Everything she’d known was a lie. The life she’d led was one giant fake. What the hell?

“They’d never touch my trust, they wouldn’t.” But as she said the words, she wondered if that weren’t true. Her dad had been a generous person. He loved to be the center of attention, lauded for his charity works, his largesse. Maybe his need for praise and adoration had gotten the better of him?

Or had he been helping Sean even though he swore he wouldn’t? Or maybe worst of all, had he been just like his brother and gambled their life away? You saw it on TV, people getting in too deep with bookies or the mafia, and then getting bones broken or property torched. Is that what had happened to the boat? Was that why her family was dead? And Jasper’s? But no. He’d said, they’d determined it was an accident. Just a horrible accident.

“What happened to it all?”

Jasper’s blocky features looked like they were carved out of stone, and the way they tightened when she asked, Keyne thought they might shatter. “A lot of it was bad business decisions.”

A lot wasn’t all. “What about the rest?”

“I can’t say for absolutely sure just yet, but it looks like...” Again with Jasper’s eyes boring into her. Was he trying to see exactly how much more she could take before she broke? But knowing he was there, holding up pieces of her world even when the rest of it was crumbling around her—that helped. She could take more.

“Looks like what?”

“Like when things started going solidly downhill, your father started gambling with what was left. Probably trying to make back his losses. He borrowed money from some friends, everything I know about has been paid back and if anything else comes to my attention, it’ll be taken care of. You have my word.”

God, how desperate would her father have had to be to do that? Turn to the thing that had destroyed his brother? Jasper looked like he was holding something back, but fuck it. This time she’d let him. She needed time to mull this over, shake this out in her head. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

“No. That’s everything.”

“Swear?”

“On everything I have.”

His gaze raked over her, as if his list of possessions included her. Which at once delighted and infuriated her. She wasn’t a thing, but feeling as though she was Jasper’s... it was nice. Safe, because she believed him. When he’d held her at night, it was as if nothing could touch her. If she was his, he’d take care of everything. And the way he looked at her... there was a flicker of something there. Something like hunger, want, and it made some long dormant coals inside her glow. But he blinked, and the wicked spark guttered.

He started to rise out of his chair, probably to offer her comfort, but she couldn’t have that. Didn’t deserve it. So she shoved her chair back, almost knocking the thing over, and held up her hands to ward him off, even though she ached to be contained by him.

“I can’t right now, Jasper. I need to go.”

“Keyne.”

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