Gabriel Allerton nodded as if he hadn’t expected the agent to say anything differently.
Reaper would kiss both men’s bare ass if they hadn’t met before.
“Mr. and Mrs. James, I hope the same can be said for you?”
“Yes, Thank-you.”
Reaper was proud that Ginny didn’t call him sir.
“Perfect. Is everyone in agreement that we can cut right to the business we need to discuss?” Patronizing in his question, Allerton focused on Ginny, not anticipating anyone daring to naysay him.
“Mrs. James, being a personal friend of your mother and father, I was delighted to share in their joy when the FBI contacted them about you being found alive after you purchased an ancestry kit. I’m sure you were devastated to find out the true details of your past.”
Reaper kept his eyes trained on Allerton but couldn’t help to think, What the fuck?
“I was,” Ginny agreed.
“May I ask what prompted the search for your ancestral ties?”
“My brother gave it to me as a Christmas gift. My adoptive father never hid that I was adopted. I didn’t see the need to search for a family whom I believed deserted me.”
“How did you come to be placed with your adopted family in Kentucky?”
“The man who found me had chartered a private yacht. He was the sheriff in Kentucky. He contacted the local authorities, then left me in their care. However, he made calls to check on my welfare. When no one came forward, I was made a ward of the court. A friend of his offered to adopt me, and from there, I ended up in Kentucky when his application was approved.”
“Funny, none of your paperwork has been located.”
The sarcastic fucker didn’t have a funny bone in body.
“I don’t find it funny,” Ginny said sharply. “As much as I love my adoptive family, I’m looking into legal action that no intensive search was made before I was adopted. I can only assume the social worker was overly burdened and was just relieved to have one less child to keep track of. The DNA was entered into the data bank. In case my body had been recovered, they would have a sample to match. I’m sure it was a surprise when instead of being informed all that was recovered were my bones, they were told I was very much alive.”
Reaper found it difficult to keep a straight face at the misdirection of the true facts. Blending crafted lies and the truth, if he hadn’t heard the truth from Trudy’s lips, hell, he would have believed the lies she was telling.
Unfortunately, Allerton didn’t look like he believed anything coming out of her mouth, which could only mean one thing—once the FBI had informed her parents that she was alive and they told Allerton, no rock had been left unturned to uncover her past by him.
“I find it a big coincidence that your sister Trudy was thirty minutes away and both of you were unaware of each other being so close.”
“Are you insinuating I’m lying?”
Allerton didn’t deny the charge. “Like I said, it’s a big coincidence.”
“Not really. I was only three. The earliest memory that I can recall is me tumbling down a hill and a rock cutting my forehead. As to my sister, I did meet her several times when I was in my late teens through a woman I worked with. She was introduced to me as T.A. I never knew her given name, and by the time she met me, I was no longer the three-year-old sister she remembered.”
The last part, Reaper thought, had such a ring of truth that he even glimpsed a brief expression of uncertainty in Allerton.
“T.A. certainly didn’t expect her wedding singer to be the sister she lost at sea,” Ginny continued. “Nor did I expect my former boss from the tour company to ask me to do her a personal favor by singing at T.A.’s wedding. I try not think about my sister being so close without my knowledge. It’s been deeply hurtful for me, as I’m sure is to T.A., that we spent the time apart unnecessarily. While at the same time, I love my adoptive family and consider them my true family, and I wouldn’t take back the time I had with them if the whims of fate hadn’t interceded.”
“Fate?” Allerton countered snidely. “Excuse me if I don’t believe your disappearance had anything to do with the vagaries of fate.”
Reaper tightened his hands on Ginny’s shoulder at the overt way Allerton was perceptibly disparaging. The condescending fucker was about to have his ass handed to him on a platter if he wasn’t careful.
Ginny interrupted his plan to reach across the desk and use the fancy tie to strangle him when she reached up to pat one of his hands, as if saying she had this under control.
Relaxing his hold on her shoulders, Reaper let her storytelling play out. He just hoped like hell that Allerton chilled with the snide comments before the fucker was forced to scream for help from his security, which Reaper was sure were watching from the camera mounted high in the corner of the office.
The outdated camera was a fucking joke. The sophisticated equipment layered throughout their bungalow in was top of the game where surveillance was concerned. The camera in the office was from the Ice Age. Reaper reasoned it was meant for those less tech savvy, to give the assumption Allerton didn’t feel the need for more sophisticated equipment on his island. If they bought that, Reaper had some swampland to sell.
“I can certainly understand your skepticism. After the FBI asked me to fly to Sherguevil Island to meet my parents, I was appalled to find out about your accusation that I am a thief, that I had stolen something of importance from the island.
“It isn’t an accusation when I have the proof.” Allerton’s expression became even more condescending.
“I would love to see the proof, as I have no memory of the incident, or what was taken.” Ginny dropped her hand from his to splay her hands out in confusion.
Again, Reaper heard the ring of truth in her voice.
“Maybe, if I could see the footage or am told what I’ve been accused of taking, it would help spark a memory.”
“There is no footage. Unfortunately, the incident happened out of camera range. And what was taken is a historical artifact that I am not at liberty to disclose, which was pilfered by you.”
“I’m unable to deny the allegation, as I do not remember the incident. I wish I could. However, unless something changes that does spark my memory, I’m at a loss as how to make amends. If you want money for it, I can give you my lawyer’s phone number, and we can work out a figure that would make you happy.”
“Why would you offer to pay for something when you don’t believe you took the artifact?” Allerton asked, trying to corner Ginny into admission.
Ginny tilted her head to the side. “Obviously, you have to have some proof. Why else would the FBI have sent a team of men to escort me?” Ginny swung back, placing the ball again in his corner. “I’m a law-abiding citizen. It makes me sick to my stomach that apparently I once was so lacking in morals as to steal. I am a Christian. It goes against my faith to steal. You say I stole a historical artifact, many have religious meanings. If I stole something that does, I would be devasted. Money won’t make up for what is stolen, but even if I did steal it, which I truly hope I didn’t, the artifact is missed by the person it was taken from, and maybe they can purchase another copy or something else that has the same meaning when we come to an agreeable price.