“Vega, still not making sense that someone who wants to fly that low would resort to murder and possibly bring major heat down on them.”

  “Douglas, Douglas, we have to get you to loosen up. Zero, my man, explain the good part.”

  “Couldn’t you have started with the good part, Vega?” Simon huffed.

  “Where would the fun be in that?”

  “Okay, here’s how it plays out. Grantham shows several sales in the last decade. These dummy corps being snatched up…someone’s paying for a name. A strict quiet business model. A way to do business without putting yourself out there. What Grantham is essentially doing is covering their ass by off-loading the now useless company with a pretty makeover and giving it to someone else who needs a cover for a short period of time. Travers doesn’t show that the company was sold to anyone. Grantham operates in non-extradition countries and offshore, mostly in international waters. They have several virtual addresses, PO Boxes, so there’s no physical location. It’s just all servers and nothing else.

  “So, say someone wants to do something shady, like, shall we posit a guess, perform a coup without seeming to. Hypothetically”—we all groaned at Zero’s amusement—“a group of politicians operate under this umbrella, nothing to connect them, not even paperwork. But people like to brag, especially rich, entitled people. Travers takes the heat, but since Travers doesn’t exist except with a very weak electronic data trail, there’s no one to prosecute.”

  “So you’re saying in your very long-winded conspiracy theorist way that hypothetically, a group of businessmen, politicians, or such, move all this money around, revitalize an area with luxury real estate, and sell for extreme profit, and clean any dirty money involved.”

  “God, you make it sound so boring, Graves.” Zero groaned, and Vega cackled.

  “They’re your friends, baby. I’m not claiming them.” I poured another black coffee from my separate thermos.

  “But in this case, we have corruption of the highest order. Your old man is up for re-election. The better the strip and Outreach are doing, the more his approval rating has tanked. I’m talking it can’t get much lower. His constituents are losing faith in his ability to hold to his campaign promises. It’s no secret that your parents would love to nuke the entire strip and do away with what they consider the pestilence of the residents. Also, with the new legislation for regulated sex work and the treatment-slash-fine changes for non-violent drug offenses is getting a lot of support. Old-fashioned eugenics, my friend. They make it look like crime is on the rise around the strip, and the efforts of the community activists are failing. It works two-fold, your parents and their partners, whoever they may be, make a ton of cash that can’t essentially be traced back to them, and they turn Winston Harbor into the moral jewel.”

  “I still don’t fucking understand it, though. My parents have more money than they know what to do with. My mother’s great-grandfather amassed a fortune that he passed down. My grandchildren would still benefit.”

  “Your parents are almost broke.” Zero piped up.

  “What?”

  “Yeah. They look rich on paper, but about a decade ago, they lost a good portion of their wealth and never recovered.”

  “Darner?”

  “Yep. Darner had this brilliant idea about a private investment just for an elite few. He said that they would triple and, in some cases, quadruple their money. But what Darner was actually selling was an empty promise and filling his coffers for his buy-in to the glamorous world of organized crime. Their money is locked into their portfolios, and the market is so unstable if they try to sell they’re going to take a huge loss, not to mention taxes.”

  “What about my money?”

  “That money and investments were transferred to you. It’s yours free and clear. Your grandfather’s will and specifications for your trust stated the money couldn’t be touched unless you had siblings. It would be divided equally, but as the only child, you received the bulk on your twenty-fifth birthday. You’re still a very wealthy man, but what happens when you die, Simon?”

  “All of my assets will be sold, and any proceeds will go to a few charities and the Outreach. My lawyer suggested that I put a stronger plan in place in the event of my death, especially being in law enforcement.” He cleared his throat. “Could you send me all their financials?”

  “Sure, you’ll have it in a few minutes.” She paused for a few seconds. “So they won’t get anything?” Vega asked.

  “I mean, if they have a life insurance policy on me, sure. But my assets? My attorney made sure it was iron-clad.”

  “When did that happen?”

  “About a year ago.” I caught a frown crease Simon’s brow. “I met with my financial advisor. I live off what I make, so my money’s just been sitting there growing. The only purchases I’ve ever made are vehicles and my townhouse. There’s also my monthly donation to keep my programs going at the Outreach. And because I didn’t have any children, they suggested I make more definite plans.”

  “Do your parents know?”

  “Hell no.”

  “Is it possible they think they’re going to make a killing by you ending up dead?”

  “Vega.” I made sure the warning was clear in my voice as I saw the realization and horror on Simon’s face.

  “It had to be asked, Douglas. You have two people who are going through their reserves at alarming rates and living way beyond their means. It wouldn’t be the first time someone killed a family member for profit or did some pretty shady shit to cover up the fact that they’re running on fumes. Which his parents are at this point.”

  “The real estate is to refill what they’ve lost. The murders and threats are for one or both to remain in office and to keep their public persona intact.” Simon scrubbed his hand over his hair as he dropped his head back against the rest.

  “I didn’t say your parents were in possession of common sense by any stretch of the imagination.” The screen flickered, and Vega and Zero’s faces filled the screen. “Desperation makes people do stupid things.”

  “But taking out Mancini was a monumental mistake.” I heard it in Simon’s voice—he was just pulling straws and hoping he didn’t come up with the short one. His parents were in all likelihood prepared to kill him and demolish everything he believed in and treasured to the ground.

  “From what we learned, Mancini seemed to be getting increasingly paranoid. His drug use increased. What if he discovered what was going to happen? They were courting him as an asset but were going to burn him the second the deals were finalized. They catered to his pride and ego, promised him he was going to take Bianchi and Finnegan’s places at the top of the food chain. What if all this started way back with Darner? Is there anything you can think of that would have given this away?” I asked.

  “No. I see them for my weekly humiliation every Sunday. Other than the times I have to mix with them at parties and fundraisers, they barely acknowledge I exist. We do quite well avoiding each other. The only times they claim me are when they’re in front of cameras.”

  “Maybe something about your switch to the Cold Case Unit spurred them into some kinda action. Darner’s case was moved to Cold Case about three years ago. Since it was so high-profile, they kept up the pretense for a while. The unit is closing cases at an impressive rate in the last few years, the Fellows’s case, the kidnappings and murders. What if they were playing the long con, and we started making them nervous?” Vega arched a brow and took a sip off her energy drink.

  “There was no evidence in the Darner case. By the time his body was found, any evidence was too degraded to test. And it was pretty much written off as he’d crossed the wrong person. A lot of the people he fucked over were the who’s who of the Winston Harbor society page…no one wanted to attempt to accuse any of them of the murder.”

  “I liked this case better when it didn’t make any sense.”

  I stretched my arm out to massage Simon’s thigh as he became more miserable. There was a difference between accepting your parents’ neglect to finding out they possibly wanted you dead. I’d witnessed their disconnect at the hospital when they just ordered someone to tell Simon to call them and went back to their party. I wasn’t as close to my dad and my siblings as I had been when I was younger. Yet I knew that if I ever called, they’d drop everything for me…for Savvy. There’s no way I could understand what they were doing to Simon. Savvy was always my number one. To Simon, Amber and Savvy were everything he wanted. He wanted kids and family.

  “We’re still digging. They have tighter encryption the closer we got to Grantham. We’re hoping to find a money trail that leads back to any one of our players, but I will say we’re fucked if they hit one of those cushy little tax havens.”

  “Thanks, Vega.”

  “Not a problem. Enjoy the wheezing, and we’ll check in later.” She cut the video feed, and I shook my head as the volume on the computer returned to the audio from inside the house.

  “Are you okay?” I asked as I raised my hand to pinch his chin and turn his head until he looked at me.

  “Well, the knowledge my parents want me dead should’ve come with a little more shock on my part. My parents’ careers and appearances mean everything to them. To be viewed as lesser than, would kill them. Generations of my family were all independently wealthy. I could’ve been the typical trust fund kid, but I wanted to work my ass off. I always sensed they could cut me off at any time. I didn’t even know the full extent of my trust fund until I received it.”

  “This isn’t on you, baby.” I leaned to the side until I could brush my lips to his. “Any mistakes they made was their poor planning.” I gave him a small smile as he stroked my bearded cheek with the backs of his fingers.

  “I know. But when I think they can’t treat me any worse than shit on their shoes, they prove me wrong. I didn’t ask to exist, Marcel.”

  “Don’t do that. Think of what you have. Savvy and Amber, me when I’m not annoying the fuck out of you. You got friends…family that would choose you any day of the week.”

  He tilted his chin down and rested his forehead against mine, and I listened to the weariness of his sigh.

  “We’ll take care of this, and it’ll be back to life as normal.”

  “That’s what I’m scared of, Marcel. My normal wasn’t at all happy. When this ends…” He gave me a quick kiss. “Is there still an us?”

  “Oh, baby, you’re not getting rid of me. You’ll be back in Cold Case, and I’ll be sneaking down from Homicide to find a corner of our own. Let’s take care of what we need to do, and then we’ll go home to sleep. When we wake up, we’ll go get our girls and have a family night for a bit a de-stress.”

  “I’d really like that.”

  We separated, and I turned the volume up as we listened to the silence between his parents, the berating of the staff by both Mr. and Mrs. Graves. And I tried to imagine Simon growing up in a house that seemed nothing but cold. But he hadn’t. It had been nannies and boarding school, and then college. No wonder he was insecure about whether I wanted to keep him or not. He’d never been put first, not even by his parents. He had no idea what a loving family was. Until the Cold Case Unit and the Outreach, he’s mostly spent his life alone. Simon may take a bit more effort, but he was worth everything I had to do to prove that he was mine. He deserved everything, and I was going to make sure I gave it to him.

  37

  GRAVES

  There’s a lot you can do when you have the right help. After an evening spent with Marcel and the girls, my head was clearer. I’d put somewhat of a plan in place, and after a week of working out the details, I was ready to close the case. When you had a friend who bordered on anti-establishment and worked as a lawyer, and a hacker with a gray moral fiber, there wasn’t much you couldn’t fake.

  I knew my parents were on the edge of foreclosure on the family home that they’d remortgaged two years ago to cover some of their debt. Right now, I had paperwork that I’d bought the debt. The glitch would disappear after twenty-four hours.

  “You ready to go this far?” Gladys asked as we pulled into the horseshoe drive of the pretentious house that I was raised in for the first five years of my life.

  “I just need to bluff to make them lose their cool and send someone after me. If I hit them out of blue, maybe the panic at losing status and all that will make them mess up.”

  “You know I’ll do anything for you. You’re family. And you do know as soon as DA Graves sees me, he’s going to be on high alert. We’ve never had a polite interaction.”

  “I know.” Even before I knew Gladys was Robert’s ex-wife, I’d heard her name enough when my father would complain about her.

  She worked for one of the most prestigious firms in the state, and her win rate on her pro bono cases was out of this world. She terrified most of the people in the DA’s office when they realized they had to argue against her.

  “Gladys, um, between you and me, this might be my last case.”

  “Because of Amber?”

  “Yeah. I mean, I have my law degree. I just have to get my license to practice. As a single dad, I don’t think I can leave every morning, even in the Cold Case Unit, and be worried about coming home to her.”

  “As far as I know, you’re not single. You have a very sexy boyfriend, which, to be honest, kinda shocked all of us. Douglas isn’t exactly…one of us. He’s very much rules and regs, and we look at how to bend said rules and regs a lot.”

  “He’s not so bad, but we were forced into this close proximity. What if it doesn’t last beyond the case? I love Savvy and…” I sighed as I turned to look out the window.

  “Does that love extend toward her dad?”

  “Yes, I think, I don’t know. I’m forty-three, and he’s the first person I’ve ever been intimate with. He says the Asexuality isn’t an issue, and I believe him, but I’m just, I don’t know.”

  “You’re scared. Most people are at the beginning. You think Shine and I had it easy? Hell, I was scared for over a year about giving myself away and facing the rejection. She made the first move. Over thirty years of marriage, and even Robert had never kissed me like that. We have our issues, she’s dealing with her trauma, and I’m being supportive, and she gets mad that I don’t get mad or frustrated with her. I was married to a cop. I had plenty of anger and frustration to last me a lifetime.”

  “But you and Shine fit so well.”

  “I think so, too. But I’m just saying it wasn’t easy. She’s the first woman I was ever attracted to, and I grew up in a home where being LGBTQ-plus wasn’t acceptable. I had my own issues to get over, but Robert falling in love with Remy helped a lot with that. You and the rest of the unit have this weird way your brain processes stuff. You just have to let it do its thing, and it’ll all work out. Let’s go take down one of my least favorite people and end my day on a high note before I go home to my woman.”

  I nodded and got out of the driver’s side, and I rolled my eyes as Gladys didn’t wait. She never did, but it was ingrained in me to try to open the door. She straightened her expensive suit and smoothed her nearly flawless bun of silver hair, and we slowly made our way to the door. I raised my hand to knock. Even I was supposed to be announced by the housekeeper.

  It had taken me forever to get used to just walking into a friend’s place when I found the door unlocked. The austere housekeeper, Mrs. McWhorter, opened the door and gave me a disapproving snarl.

  “Young Mr. Graves, I was unaware you would be visiting. Are Mr. and Mrs. Graves expecting you?”

  “No, but if you could announce me, I have some business to speak with them about.”

  She reluctantly motioned us inside but told us to wait by the door.

  “Such a warm welcome,” Gladys muttered.

  “Every damn time.”

  The housekeeper returned moments later and told us to follow her. We were led to the formal living room. Just being in the house made me uncomfortable, especially wearing my faded t-shirt and jeans with my boots. I was out of place. Gladys looked like she belonged there more than me.

  We were told to have a seat and that my parents would be in shortly. I knew what they were doing. They’d make me wait in order to build up tension and keep me on edge, but that wasn’t what was happening that day. I held the manila envelope in my right hand with the fake paperwork inside.

  They’d arrive any minute in their perfect evening wear like some Dynasty couple, the woman lazing around strewn with diamonds and the man wearing a smoking jacket and his customary scotch. I swear I couldn’t wait to see them in their newest fashion of lock-up orange.

  “Simon, I’d say this was a pleasure, but we weren’t expecting you or a…guest.” My mother came in decked out in a white silk pants suit.

  My father was next, but he didn’t say a word, and, yes, there was the crystal rocks glass of scotch.

  “Let’s cut the shit. Your home went into foreclosure seven hours ago. I bought the home for the price of the mortgage outright. You have twenty-four hours to leave the property. I think this will explain everything.”

  I tossed the envelope on the coffee table as my mother dramatically collapsed onto the couch, and my father stormed over and set his glass down to pick up the envelope. I held my breath. This had to play out to keep them off-balance, and I couldn’t have them thinking clearly.

  “What the fuck is this?”

  “As my client has said…”

  “You’re a criminal attorney. You don’t know shit.”

  “I beg to differ. But as you dared to interrupt me, I’ll repeat myself. It has come to our attention that your accounts were emptied to pay for an excessive amount of debt that you’ve seemed to ignored. Your creditors have grown tired of your failure to make good. Simon has bought the family home to keep it in the family. With a growing family with two daughters, he really does need more…space for them. I’m here to represent his interests, and his wishes are that you are to vacate the premises within the allotted time, or we will file for an order of eviction. Either way, you’re broke, and lawyers expect payment, unless you’re going to represent yourself, but you’re just a lowly criminal attorney, wouldn’t want to chance it.”