Page 40 of Loss Aversion

Flynn answered, “Tati said it was my father who put it there. He referred to it as ICE and told her to find it, if and when he died.”

Shaking her head, Flynn clarified by saying, “In Case of Emergency.”

She rubbed her forehead and then latched on to Lucas’s arm. “Angus brought the trunks down from the attic the day we moved out of this house. Mentioned something about Marshall instructing him to be sure to get them before he passed, but Angus forgot. And then remembered them when it was time to pack. At the time, I thought it was weird. But that was when Mia went missing, and I found out she went on a wild-goose chase to find you. I remember for a moment thinking Marshall had bought all of us, including Angus, a full set of luggage. Which we used during all of our trips. But, for whatever reason, he had instructed Angus to fetch those hulking steamer trunks that had been in the attic for decades and never used. Where did they even come from?”

Flynn surprised them once again, having answers to her question. “They once belonged to Pearl’s grandmother. Marshall was storing them for her because she wanted someone she loved to have them.” Flynn looked back and forth between Lucas and Birdie. “That’s what Marshall told Tati.”

“You know a lot of things about my departed husband that I didn’t know. That he never shared with me.”

Lucas considered that. Why would Marshall hire and confide in a P.I. but not Birdie?

He took a seat next to her on the lounging sofa, his warm, capable hands rubbed her lower back, the world turned small and somehow more malleable, shrinking down to where his hand was on her spine.

“From what I’ve learned about Marshall, I wouldn’t assume his actions came anywhere other than a place of good intentions. Maybe, he wanted to help you avoid any more pain by shouldering it all for you.”

Birdie seemed to agree. “You could be right. Marshall had been so grateful to me for what I had supposedly done for him and Pearl. Which always seemed strange considering he adopted Mia, funded her education as well as mine, and helped me kick-start my fledgling business. Yet he still seemed hell-bent on protecting me from any more pain or cause for concern. As if it were his singular job to maintain a steel spine so the people he loved didn’t have to.”

Her eyes took on a shine that, for once, wasn’t from tears. “I think I know a way we can bring Errol down.”

Lucas glanced at Flynn for any discomfort. Which the man responded to with a mere nod.

Birdie continued, “It seems he and his mother have a rather interesting fetish.”

Lucas’s eyes darkened, his hands turning into fists. “What do you mean?”

“I’d tell you, but I signed a rather threatening NDA.”

Flynn’s spine straightened as if mimicking the father he wasn’t permitted to know. “Well, I didn’t sign an NDA.” He addressed Lucas resolutely, “My mother and brother enjoy a disturbing role-play scenario where he’s a young boy seduced and readily punished by a sexy Hollywood siren, his virtue saved by my heroine of a mother, with some rather uncomfortable cuddling between them at the end.”

He said that last part rather quickly.

Lucas pinned Birdie with dark eyes. “Let me guess, you have been cast as the sexy Hollywood siren?”

“It’s not all bad. I get to inflict capital punishment on my arch enemy.”

Flynn disavowed her of his earlier astuteness when he said, “Yes, but my brotherlikesto be spanked.”

Lucas’s eyes bored into hers. His fingers now clutching her side, he asked, “Does he touch you, Bird?”

“No. Trust me. He doesn’t seem to be nearly as interested in me as he is with Ariana.”

Lucas blurted, “That’s fucked up.”

“I know. But that’s good, right?”

Flynn interrupted with, “I recorded it one night.”

Lucas’s head jerked up, envisioning a whole production set scenario where Flynn was behind a camera yelling, “Annddd… Action!” while Birdie walloped on Errol’s pale ass.

“I’m not in the video,” she quickly inserted. “Flynn hid in a wardrobe one night and recorded Errol, Ariana, and a paid escort without anyone knowing. It’s the same weird scenario every time. As if the scene requires a lot of takes.”

Lucas’s entire body deflated, his fingers no longer unconsciously gouging her side. He responded, “With the thumb drive as evidence, we should have enough to bring in the authorities for a full investigation. I’m assuming that what they do behind closed doors is fucked up, but not a crime. I won’t know for sure until I talk to Grant and Tatiana.”

Flynn added, “But what they do behind closed doors is without Birdie’s consent. Isn’t that against the law?”

“Depends,” Lucas said. “I’d have to read the language in the NDA. Maybe have an attorney look at it.”

“No,” Birdie said. “No attorneys.”

---