We’d jumped out of each other’s arms, but Lena left as soon as she’d come.
“Seems I’m not the only one who wants ye to stay.” Bull took my face in his hands and gave me a soft kiss. “Then it’s a date. I’ll come for ye later. Dress warm.”
“What are we going to do?” All the warmth in me came from him. He filled me up, this huge man with the biggest heart.
“I’ll drive ye north to do the vampire tour.”
I parted my lips in surprise. “I’d love that.”
“Maybe on the weekend, you’ll let me take ye to the hot springs and we can skinny dip.”
He had the best ideas. “Don’t be late picking me up,” I said.
Bull walked backwards a few steps, the sweetest grin on his face. “Never, lass.”
Then he was gone. And I had a life to straighten out.
It took almost an hour to listen to all the voicemail messages left by solicitors and the authorities. The gist of it was that a vast amount of money was still missing. Private investigators had been working behind the scenes to find the cash. The authorities were urging me to get in touch.
I stared at my phone. Was that who’d been in the house?
Dad and Tabby’s solicitors were desperate to speak with me, so I dialled the office and left a message. In the UK, it was another public holiday, so they wouldn’t be open until tomorrow. Then I sat back and thought about the mess my family had made.
I’d never stolen a thing in my life, but I’d unknowingly lived off the proceeds of crime. I’d spent Dad’s money. Everything I had came from him.
Just like everything Benjamin had came from Tabby. She’d set up a small savings account for him—I had the papers in our bags at Lena’s house.
That was one area I’d left uncovered.
“I need to go back to yours to check on something,” I said. Benjamin had played happily around me as I’d worked, and now, I put him on my hip. He could stay with me for this. “We’ll be back in an hour.”
Lena waved us off, and I hopped into her car and drove.
In the kids’ room in Lena’s house, I dug into Benjamin’s case. The pack of papers Tabby had insisted I brought were at the bottom, and I placed Benjamin on the floor then sorted through them. His birth certificate sat with his baby records. Then came a bound stack of greetings cards Tabby had been so keen for me to put into a scrapbook for him.
A printed statement in an envelope gave me the details of Benjamin’s savings account. It held a small fund; certainly nothing significant enough to cause us to be hunted.
I sat back on my heels, because this had got me nowhere.
At my side, Benjamin played with the pile of birthday cards, pulling them from the elastic band that held them together.
“Tum Tum!” he exclaimed, shaking a card from its envelope.
A slim piece of white paper fell out.
I snatched it up and narrowed my gaze. It was a legal-type document. I skimmed the words. A property address was referenced throughout. It appeared to be the ownership papers to a house.
I picked up the next. Another property was referenced. An apartment in Mayfair in London. Tabby didn’t own property. Dad only rented the house we lived in, as we’d moved around so much.
A sick feeling wound in my stomach. Was this where they’d hid the money? Through shady property deals?
Then I looked again at the letter on my lap. It was addressed to Mr B Phillips. Not Dad’s initial. Farther down the page, a trust was named as the property owner. The mystery deepened.
I opened every card, counting fifteen property purchases. All registered in the name B Phillips.
Then, from the last birthday card—one from me with a blue bunny on the front, a thicker set of papers came.
My hand shook as I read. It was the details of the trust. As I’d begun to suspect, the beneficiary was Benjamin.
My sister had used her baby’s name.
My sickness turned to anger, and I closed my eyes for a moment. Tabby had put him at risk for this.
But then, farther down the page again, listed against my sister’s name as the holder of the trust until Benjamin turned eighteen, I spotted something else. Another name that should be nowhere near this criminal evidence.
Mine.
Trustee: Autumn Phillips.
Immediately, I made a call to the authorities, to the head of the military police who had been investigating the crime previously. She’d interviewed me when I’d stood up to give evidence for the man whose job I’d lost, and she seemed fair and honest.
Of course, there was no answer, so I left a garbled message then hung up and stared at the pile of papers in front of me.
I’d run, taking Benjamin and all the evidence with me. No one would believe me. How could they? I wouldn’t believe me if I came back and said I’d been ignorant of it. The trustee papers held a good copy of my signature. A forgery, but close enough to mine.
Two options lay open to me.
I could plead my case with the authorities and hope they believed me. There was a possibility that they wouldn’t, and I’d end up in jail, and Benjamin… God, what would happen to Benjamin?
Or, I could embrace the life my family had made for me and be a criminal. I could hire a solicitor and sell the properties, and Benjamin and I could stay together and be well provided for.
I’d have to cut all ties. Not visit my sister, not that she deserved it. I’d have to leave Lena’s home and stay away, probably forever.
I’d never see Bull again.
Fat tears rolled down my cheeks.
Carefully, I tidied up the mess of papers and placed them back into the big envelope. I got together the suitcases Benjamin and I had come here with and gathered all of our things.
Then I went to the hall and readied to leave, my mind made up and my next steps perfectly clear.
I swung the door open to find two men on the porch. Under their dark suits, the men’s gun holsters protruded in a silent threat.
They were military police, without a shadow of a doubt. And they were here for me.
14
Lost
Bull
I spent the morning sorting. My life had stagnated after I’d moved into the apartment. I worked every hour I could and ignored the tattered state of the rest of my existence. I had boxes I hadn’t unpacked. Autumn hadn’t said, but she must’ve noticed the untidy state of the place.
Finally satisfied that my home was presentable, and safer for a wee lad to potter around in, I took a shower and dressed for our afternoon date.
I drove to Autumn’s home, my heart so full of a painful kind of hope that I had to rub my knuckles over my chest to ease the ache.
Lena and her daughter waited on the step when I pulled up. The wee lass was crying in her mother’s arms, and Lena’s eyes were red.
As she spotted me, she cried harder.
“Is something wrong?” I was across the yard in a second.
“It’s Autumn,” Lena burst out. “We came home and we thought she’d be here… Oh, Bull, I was hoping she was with you.”
“What happened? Where is she?” I barked.
“That’s just it. I don’t know. She’s gone. Both her and Benjamin. She’s taken their cases and left.”