Page 39 of Hartley

“Would you stop doing that? I don’t want Rory in here.”

I nodded so he’d drop his hand. “You think Jordan is going to be pissed at Sheldon?”

“Of course he is.”

“Then why did Sheldon give it to you? He had to have known Jordan would be angry when he found out Sheldon handed it to you instead of him.”

“Good question.”

“Forest, do you know why Sheldon gave it to you?”

“No, do you? He should have given it to you or Vail or fucking Jordan.”

“You don’t know him well, but I think this was Sheldon’s version of showing he trusts you and was hoping he’d earn your trust in return.” I couldn’t say because Sheldon was obviously attracted to my brother. I thought it was more than that. This could get Sheldon fired, which meant I had to protect him too. Fuck’s sake. I did not need to be on Jordan’s bad side.

“Well, I feel like I’m carrying around a fucking grenade with it in my pocket.”

“When did he give it to you?”

“After we landed.”

“Jesus,” I muttered. “He must have found it in the house. I wonder if Ollie knows too.”

“He does but only him. Sheldon said it had to do with my family and he knew I’d do the right thing. But what is the right thing? What the fuck was Pop doing borrowing money from them, and when is this from?”

“It could have been from decades ago when they lived here, or it could have been more recent. And to circle back to him being killed. Wouldn’t the coroner’s report have it listed?”

“Why would they do an autopsy if he died from cancer? It wasn’t like he suddenly passed, and they needed to know why. Pop was sick.”

“Shit. So, he could have died from something else, but the Everharts weren’t here. They were hiding elsewhere.”

“Doesn’t mean they didn’t hire someone to carry out their business for the debts owed to them.”

I had to think like Jordan and not feed into the wild theories my brother had rattling around his head. Yes, they would want a debt settled, whether it was their money or a body. Maybe since they were running out, they hired someone to collect the money owed to them. They couldn’t do it themselves. But to kill my grandfather? He wouldn’t even put up a fight.

It was bad enough thinking about him dying of cancer alone, but this… To wonder if he was murdered before the cancer could take him… That was too much.

“We need to know how old that paper is,” I said to my brother. “Then we can trace it back. Maybe there’s another Everhart.” Okay, I was grasping at straws.

“I searched online.”

I groaned. “Seriously? No good will come from that. It’s like if you have stomach pain and don’t know what it is, so you do a search. It always points to disease or death. Every. Time.”

“Please, like you wouldn’t have done the same thing.”

“I probably would have,” I grumbled. “But I also would have told Jordan. He has people who can figure it out much faster. Plus, he would know exactly what to do about it.”

“What’s there to do, Hart? Pop’s dead, and this is obviously an old note. If they had him killed, then they settled the debt that way.”

“Until they saw his grandson is in a relationship with their fucking enemy. This is all the more reason for them to go after us. What better way to get the money owed than to try to get Jordan to pay it or else threaten harm to us.”

“They won’t come here.”

“You think that? If you were running low on money and someone owed you enough to live on for a while, wouldn’t you try to collect? Who knows what other kind of late fees they tacked on after he got the paper? Pop could have owed them a mil for all we know. That could be bill one of thirty.”

I folded my arms on the table and dropped my head down. What were we supposed to do? We had to tell Jordan, that was a given. But the note added another layer to this shit with Lane’s family.

My head snapped up. “Lane. We need to talk to him without Jordan around.”

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