Page 163 of The Billion Heirs Boxed Set
“Last I saw Joey, he was working for a freight company. Said he got a new assignment. A big one.” Curt flicks his gaze to me. “Who the hell are you?”
“Bodyguard,” I say. No way in hell am I telling him who I am. Or what I am to his daughter.
Curt grunts. “How’d he die?”
Sadie shrugs. “We don’t know yet.”
“Then why the hell are you here? If you don’t have money or something, we’ve got nothing to talk about.”
I set my hand on Sadie’s shoulder to remind her she’s not alone. I don’t want her in this fucker’s company a second longer than she needs to be, family or not.
“Did he leave any stuff here?” she asks.
I never thought of that. This place is tiny. An old miner’s shack or something. No way her dad and brother both fit in this place, especially if Rainey lives here too.
“In the garage. He left a pile behind. Not sure the condition it’s in.”
Sadie eyes her father, who’s lighting a cigarette of his own. “I’ll go see what he left.”
“Take it, otherwise it’ll go to the dump.”
Rainey climbs in Curt’s lap, her gaze never straying from me. She sticks out her tits—clearly outlined since she’s not wearing a bra—and winks at me.
Using my hold on Sadie’s shoulder, I turn her around and steer her outside. I ensure the door is shut behind us.
We both take deep breaths. We’ll have to wash our clothes to get the scent of smoke out.
“Back there.” She points around the back of the house.
I follow her down a dirt driveway to a building with a serious lean at the back corner of the property. I envision a vintage car stored in there, but I doubt anything but junk’s filled the space in years.
The door is a side-slide, rollers above that make the wood move to the left. Sadie tugs on the handle, but I move her out of the way.
“Careful. Watch out for rusty nails and splinters.” It finally gives and opens wide. Not sure if it’ll close again, but that’s not my problem.
Old tires, a lawn mower, and roughed-up boxes fill the space. A hole in the roof in the back corner has water stains down the wood walls. The floor is dirt, and the only light is from the sunshine.
Sadie enters, lifts box lids, tosses them aside. She pulls out an old football. Some clothes. I help her rummage for a few minutes. These things are clearly her brother’s.
She lifts a stack of papers, sets them on top of an unsearched box. I move to stand beside her.
“Employment paperwork for Racehorse Hauling. A handbook.”
I take it from her when she moves on. Based out of Billings. Nothing exciting.
“Here’s a notebook. This is Joey’s handwriting.” She moves outside to get better light, flipping through the pages.
“It talks about barrels and chemicals. I’m not a chemist so I don’t know what it means. Addresses.”
I look over her shoulder. “The zip code for all those addresses is where Bridger Ranch is.”
She runs her finger down the list. “Those aren’t addresses. They’re… I don’t know. Code or something.”
I look at her. “It connects your brother to the ranch.”
“There’s a phone number scrawled in the corner.”
I pull out my cell, type in the numbers she reads off.
