Page 114 of Destiny

“Then who the hell is?”

I sigh. “Brendan, if I knew, I’d tell you.”

He pulls the band from his ponytail and then threads his fingers through his hair until he looks like a wild man. A wild beast.

A wild and sexy beast.

But I can’t be getting turned on now. Too much else going on.

“This is nuts,” he says.

“You think?”

“Ava, what are you telling me, exactly?”

“My grandmother. She told me to go to some dive bar in Grand Junction and ask for Mike. When I did that, I got a key to a storage unit. A big storage unit, one with a garage door instead of a regular door, so I was expecting to find… You know. Not good stuff. But this box was all that was there.”

He shuffles through the folders. “Western Slope Family Planning Clinic?”

“Yeah. I meant to go there today, but once I saw my name, I kind of cracked. So I drove to Denver. Demanded answers. Got none.”

“This is it,” Brendan says.

“This is what?”

“This must be where she’s storing her sperm samples.”

I drop my jaw then. “Sperm samples?”

“Your mother hasn’t told you?”

I shake my head. “Uh…no. I’ve been busy with Wendy, and… Jeez.”

“It’s a long story,” Brendan says. “I’ll fill you in, but we need to go to that clinic.”

“I will. Tomorrow.”

“And I’ll be going with you.”

I frown. “Wait a minute…”

“What?”

“You said you saw me hightailing it out of Grand Junction. What wereyoudoing there today?”

“Seeing an attorney.”

“About that letter you got?”

“About the letters weallgot, Ava. Everyone in Snow Creek whose property contains a lien held by the Steel Trust—and that’s almost all of us—got the same letter. They’re calling the liens. Hell, we don’t even know what the liens are for, or how much. They’re calling them due as soon as they send documentation on the amounts.”

“They haven’t done that yet?”

“Nope.”

I frown. “That’s strange. Why wouldn’t they tell you the amount?”

“According to our attorney, this whole situation is highly unusual. Most mortgage companies wouldn’t write loans on properties with any encumbrances, no matter how insignificant.”

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