Page 20 of Claimed
I shook my head, bringing myself steadfastly back to the moment, slightly ashamed that all it took was an intense expression from sexy Jasper Christmas to take me out of it. I hit the high points of the message Kylie had sent me. I told him abouthow his brother, Asher, came to be known on his college campus as Santa Claus because he made and sold drugs to students. A number of students supposedly had overdosed on his drugs. Kylie couldn’t get anyone on the record to confirm those overdoses, but a boy named Benjamin Dow was paid off to take the fall.
“Dow supposedly had done some prison time, and after he was released, he was paidhandsomely for his sacrifice. You were supposed to have been behind the entire arrangement.”
Jasper looked completely baffled and disturbed by what he had just heard.
I sighed heavily, deciding to not stop but continue relaying the details, which steadily got worse. “Kylie wrote that Benjamin was given enough compensation to purchase a house in San Francisco that cost $3,789,999and a luxury car, and he maintained a bank account that was upwards of sixteen million dollars, but he had no job. But you really don’t know anything about this?”
The amount of control Jasper maintained was impressive. “No, Holly, I had nothing to do with this.” He sighed as he pressed his lips together. “Did you check out any of this information?”
I shook my head, thinking. “No.”
“Why not?” There was a hint of disapproval in his tone that I had not expected.
“I was working a different angle, a more effective one,” I said defensively. “I mean, we’re here because of my discoveries.”
He nodded. “That’s true.”
The tension in my body released as I remembered to take a breath.Goodness.Questioning my professional instincts had hit a nerve, perhapsbecause my profession was the one thing that made me someone other than the daughter of two con artists.
“Thank you,” I said, feeling my eyes gleaming with gratitude. With two words—That’s true—Jasper had just once again conveyed that he’d seen me, the real me.
His smile was mild yet sincere. “You’re welcome, babe.” Then he quickly shifted in his seat as his grimace returned. “Butseriously, how well do you know Kylie Roberson?”
I hesitated as my muscles went rigid. “We’re friends.”
“How well do you know her professionally?”
I scratched the corner of my eye. I felt as if my entire body was in the midst of a crisis. Part of me wanted to bark at Jasper and shout,Why are you asking me this?The other part of me had come to know him very well. If he wasquestioning me, there had to be a pertinent reason behind it. So I was determined to answer honestly, and that meant searching deep within my memory bank. My eyes shifted from left to right as I recalled the first time I met Kylie. We’d had a conversation at the airport. We exchanged business cards. She emailed me to congratulate me on the acclaim I received after publishingThe Howsley Project. When I thought about it, she was the one who kept our communication alive. I was never good at making friendships grow and evolve, even though I’d always wanted to be better at it. But then I remembered how Kylie came to my aid after Arthur Valentine left me so rattled. Whenever she called, we would stay on the phone for hours, talking about the stories we had just finished or were working on andwhat we’d encountered while fact collecting. Sometimes we’d gone to some of the same cities or towns and spoken about our experiences with certain establishments and people. Sometimes our conversations would turn personal. She knew a little about my father, but other than that, I kept my personal cards to myself. I always knew Kylie was one of those people whose goal was to get more informationout of someone than she gave in return. Truthfully, I couldn’t say I was much different. Revealing as little as possible about ourselves was just our way.
“I know her well,” I answered. “Listen, Jasper. I know there’s a lot of tension between the two of you. I mean, you’ve legally stopped her from investigating your family.”
“Yes, because she went too far, Holly.” He sounded irritatedthat I had chosen to stand by my friend.
“Yes, she got caught paying off a coroner. If he’d been able to get her that information, it would’ve been factual and valuable. It’s not about how she gets the information—it’s about whether or not she gets it.”
Jasper’s eyes narrowed to slits. If looks could kill, I would have been six feet under. “That is not the point, Holly.” He enunciatedevery syllable.
My goodness, he is pissed.
I didn’t feel like letting him off the hook. If he was going to sully Kylie’s reputation, whatever shit he had on her had better stink to high heaven.
“I believe in a strong and free press, but Kylie is a dangerous journalist who will do whatever the hell it takes to get the desired results.”
I threw my hands up. “Prove it.”
He nodded once vigorously then rose to his feet. My arms were crossed as I watched him walk to the file cabinet and press a number on a keypad to unlock it. Then he opened a drawer and searched through tabs until he found what he was looking for.
When Jasper returned to the table, he calmly sat a thick folder in front of me and opened it. “Go ahead. Read it.”
I swallowed nervously.Jasper wasn’t the kind of guy who made accusations he couldn’t prove. I was almost too scared to discover who Kylie really was. But I also had to know the truth.
