“Nash, I hope you don’t mind me calling out of the blue.”
“I never mind you calling, Max. You did a damn good job of setting up those systems for me. Oddly enough, I was considering calling you just now.”
“I bet I can guess why. My sister is in New Orleans. Harlow and I just got back from a trip, and Mari texted a few minutes ago.”
“Mari’s the reason I was about to call you. Why don’t you tell me what you know? I’ll fill in the gaps. For starters, she’s fine. I offered her one of our staff condos, and she’s up there now.” Max grumbled something. “Look,” I added, “if you’re pissed I didn’t call sooner it’s because I literally just got back to my office. I’m not so sure she’ll appreciate me talking to you without checking with her first.”
Max’s sigh was heavy through the phone. “I’m sure she won’t. Her fucking ex. I don’t trust the guy, so I had one of our guys put a trace on his spending. I expected him to try to take advantage of Mari. My guy tells me he canceled her return ticket and left her high and dry there.”
“Exactly. Brett’s an asshole if you ask me.”
Max was quiet for a few beats. “Agreed on that count. Although part of me wants to say you should’ve called me the second you knew she was there, if you had, Mari probably wouldn’t have let you help her.”
“Don’t tell me you want me to keep it quiet that we spoke. I might not know Mari all that well, but I’m guessing that would piss her off good.”
Max chuckled. “You read her right. Mari does not appreciate me having an opinion about her life, especially her love life. I’ll call her and let her know we’ve been in touch. In the meantime, can you do me a favor?”
“Anything.”
“Keep an eye on her. Let me know if she leaves because I’m not sure she’ll let me know right away.”
“You two aren’t close?” I asked.
“Oh, we’re close, but the kind of close a brother and a sister only a year apart are. We get along now after driving each other nuts when we were kids. Mari gets touchy when I have too many opinions. I told her I didn’t trust Brett after the first time I met him. She wasn’t too pleased with me. Harlow tells me I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.”
I laughed. “I have a younger sister. I know how that goes.”
“Did Mari happen to mention how long she plans to stay in New Orleans?” Max asked next.
“She’s insisting she doesn’t want to take advantage of me.” Max couldn’t see me, but I rolled my eyes hard at that. “She can stay as long as she likes.”
“Good. Thanks for looking out for her, Nash. I’ll be in touch.”
After I hung up the phone, I took a breath, letting it out slowly as I leaned back in my chair and spun around to look out the windows. I’d have helped Max out no matter the circumstances, but I knew he wouldn’t appreciate it if he knew I’d kissed his little sister.
I didn’t even know what to think of that kiss. Mari lit a fire inside of me, and I wanted a chance to have more than a kiss with her. I was already restless to ask her out for dinner tonight.
Considering Max, I figured I’d better leave her to her own devices. I predicted she would be pissed at him, but I was relieved he’d initiated the call rather than me. Although I wouldn’t hesitate to tell her I was equally concerned. I had a bad feeling about Brett. For better or worse, I intended to make sure he at least paid a financial price for trying to fuck her over.
Spinning away from the windows, I tapped my phone, pulling up a local guy we used to chase down financials when we were assessing properties.
“Trent here,” he said, talking fast for a Southern man.
“Hey, Trent, it’s Nash Reynolds. How’re you doing?”
“Busy, busy. Yourself?”
“Same. I need to hire you for a not so typical job.”
“You know I’ll say yes. I love a change of pace.”
“Here’s the situation. A personal friend got screwed over by an ex. He maxed out all of her credit cards, although they were all in her name. I’d like you to do a forensic breakdown to see just how far it went and see if you can chase down any accounts connected to him.”
“You got it. I do this kind of shit all the time, but not usually for you. What gives?”
“Doing a favor for a friend. I don’t know if she’ll ever get her money back, but I’d like to make things uncomfortable for him. While we’re on the topic, you wouldn’t happen to know if there’s a way to slap charges on things like this, would you?”
Trent chuckled. “There’s always a way, but if they were shared accounts, it gets a lot more difficult. Best way to deal with it is for the person affected to file fraud claims on every card. If it’s enough money, they might get somewhere. If you willingly hand over or share an account, there’s not a whole lot to do about this kind of fraud. Is this a nasty divorce? Those are usually when I get called for things like this.”
“Nasty break up, but not a divorce. I don’t even know if it was that ugly. He just ran her credit cards up and took off. At least, that’s all I know for now.”
“Damn, people can sure be shitty. Unfortunately for me, that’s what pays my bills. Get me the deets, and I’ll chase it down as far as I can.”
“All right. I’ll give you a call later. I want to run this by my friend before I hand over all the info.”
Chapter 8
Mari
“What the hell, Max?”
“I knew you’d be pissed, Mari. For what it’s worth, I should apologize for telling you I thought Brett was an asshole the first time I met him. Even if he proved my point for me, I shouldn’t have done that.”
I wanted to throw the phone across the room, but this was my brother, and I did love him after all. I paced back and forth in front of the windows. “Oh yeah, Brett proved you right and then some.”
“I also spoke to Nash Reynolds.”
I could practically hear the trepidation in Max’s voice. “Nash called you?” I sputtered.
“No, I called him. If you’re gonna be pissed, be pissed at me. I know Nash because he hired me to set up the security systems on the buildings he manages in New Orleans. He’s a good man. I wanted to ask him to check in with you in case you needed any help. Sounds like he beat me to the punch on that one.”
I wanted to scream, but I bit my tongue. Hard. “Yes, Nash has been very helpful. I went to meet him when I realized Brett was gone. Brett left a note in his online calendar about meeting with Nash. Nash was dropping somebody off at the airport when I discovered Brett canceled my ticket for the refund.”
“Don’t be pissed at Nash. Be mad at me for being an overbearing older brother. Meanwhile, I’m gonna see if I can find Brett.”
“I don’t want to find Brett. I just don’t want my credit all messed up.”
Max said something in a mumble.
“What?”
Max’s voice came back to full volume. “Well, if—“ After an abrupt pause, Max began again, “That’s Harlow telling me not to be an ass. Would you like to talk with her?”