Page 25 of All of Me

I knew Albert’s father had gambled and gotten in too deep, but it was the first I was hearing about Texas.

“I thought you’d always lived here.”

He sighed. “No, I was moved here after the trouble I got myself in.”

Moved here? Likeforcibly? “I thought you’d always owned this place?”

He chuckled. “No, that was my Moira’s family. I came with lint in my pockets.”

I tried not to appear as surprised as I felt.

“How’s Shae doing?”

I passed him his glass and, changing my mind, poured myself a small one mainly to give me some time to mull over Albert’s words. We clinked, but my mind was going a million miles an hour. I sat in the other chair and stretched my legs out. “Shae’s good. Doc’s very pleased with him.” I didn’t go into details as it wasn’t my news to share, but I was sure Moira would wheedle it out of Shae later.

“The cops get any further with that trouble at yours?”

“The guy’s dead, and there’s nothing tying him to Ryan.” I took a sip. “We’re trying to find out who might be pulling Ryan’schain, if anyone. Didn’t you say a developer had been sniffing around here as well?”

Albert scoffed. “Aye, we get them all the time. Can’t say any were especially insistent.”

I had no idea how to put this delicately, and Albert had been good to me, so I decided to be straight. “Some idiots shot at me and Shae today when we were exiting Rawlings’s place.

Albert stilled and stared at me. “Say what?”

“False plates and they disappeared, but I thought I’d better come and see if you’d prefer I move out.” I had to ask, even if I believed it would make them more vulnerable with me not here. “We’re putting a couple of guys on watch to keep an eye out at night, but whoever seems to have a beef with me, well, I don’t want it to spill over on to you.” Especially if it involved cops.

Albert shook his head. “Sounds like you might have a fight on your hands.”

I leaned forward. “And it isn’t your fight.”

Albert scoffed. “Think when they get your bitty piece they won’t come after ours? We’ve got quadruple yours.”

“What?” I nearly echoed Albert. “But—”

“Oh, the farm only has eight, but we own another hundred we rent out, as it’s mostly protected farmland. It’s actually separated from this lot by your place, as once upon a time it was all one piece. Moira’s father left it in a trust for her.” He took a sip. “Not sure what to do with it, to be honest, not having family to pass it on to.”

I had no idea what to say. But a hundred acres and my place in the way would be exactly the incentive needed to get rid of me. It made so much more sense and I needed to tell Rawlings. I was surprised Danny hadn’t found it, though.

“Well, I don’t miss having a family,” I settled on. I never knew my grandma or grandad on either side. There had been some falling out on my dad’s side, and they were both dead now. I’dlooked them up when I was home on leave in my second year. My mom’s parents had died when I was a toddler. They were both only children. I’d been done with my parents the day I graduated and had never gone back.

He gazed at me. “Sometimes you have to make your own family. I denied Moira that.”

I waited, but he didn’t continue. “You said you could never adopt?”

He nodded. “I was stupid when I was younger and had to lie low. Got involved in one of Dad’s schemes. I thought it finally meant Dad was interested in me, but the group Dad got involved in were into some heavy stuff.”

“How old were you?” I asked, remembering what Danny said.

“Twenty. The whole thing was a mess.”

“What happened?” It sounded serious.

He put his glass down on the small table next to his chair. “Dad got into debt with some seriously bad guys. The DEA threatened to put me away for life if I didn’t tell them what I knew, so I came here after the trial.”

I blinked. “You’re talking witness protection.” I was stunned. No wonder he had a clean record. That hadn’t been what I was expecting at all.

“Grandad died when I was fifteen and it only took Dad five years to just about destroy everything and get into debt up to his eyeballs. But the family he was involved with smuggled in cocaine and Dad was storing it. Dad decided to help himself to some and it all went belly up. It’s over forty years ago now, and obviously Moira knew before I married her, but no foster agency is going to place a kid in a family under witness protection.”

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