Page 108 of Shephard

“I know some people,” he told me. “Let me handle it. You handle the woman.”

I couldn’t help but smile to myself. In the last two weeks, the woman had taught me a hell of a lot of things. Granted, I’d taught her a few things as well. We might not be a match made in heaven, our bantering continuing, but what we shared was pretty damn special.

“So which house?” Hunter asked.

“What?” He broke me away from a few filthy fantasies I’d been shifting toward. “What do you mean?”

“Now that the living room has been repainted at her cabin, which house will the two of you live in?” he clarified.

Laughing, I dropped the file on the thief, lifting a single eyebrow as I looked at him. “She’s fiercely independent. I don’t think she’ll budge on giving up her place. Plus, I have a feeling I’m getting on her nerves.”

“A match made in heaven.” Jagger grinned. It was interesting that I’d spent more time with the man since the incident with Boris. He wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

“You know what? We are,” I agreed.

The sharp knock on the door had me rolling my eyes. What now? When our assistant flew in after not waiting for one of us to answer, I could tell she was bothered. All three of us figured out why almost instantly as Pops stormed into the room.

“That’s all, Alicia,” he told her as if the man was still in charge.

She looked at me first, her mouth twisting in obvious frustration. “It’s okay, Alicia. We’ll be fine,” I told her.

Dad slammed the door after her and I moved onto the other side of my desk. This should be good.

“First of all, you’re not going to interfere with my retirement. Your mom and I are headed to Florida then to the Caribbean and we don’t need to deal with any shit. You boys got that?”

There was the father all three of us remembered. Hardnosed. But we were just like him.

“No worries, Pops. We have a handle on the resort,” I told him. The truth was that we did. It was amazing what you could accomplish when you allowed teamwork to occur.

He seemed put off by my statement, opening his mouth twice before retorting. “Good. Glad to hear it. Now, listen up, boys. I’m only going to say this once and we’re never talking about this again.”

Jagger threw me a look, his brow furrowing even though he was grinning.

“Fair enough,” I also answered.

“I was a young guy working at a boxing joint, getting in a few rounds whenever I could. I thought I was going to be the next Muhammad Ali, which was bullshit. But I was an aggressive kid with too much testosterone. I got noticed by a couple guys who came in every so often. They offered me a job.”

“As an enforcer,” Hunter filled in.

Pops started laughing. “No, kid. As a glorified gopher. Sure, I was given a wealthy man’s wardrobe because that’s what they required. I even had a nice car and for a kid from the other side of the tracks, I thought I was a fuckin’ king. Anyway, I moved up from there to other positions, finally making it to the executive level. Did the shit the company did always follow the rules? Nope. I ain’t gonna lie because your mother tells me it’s a sin.”

It was obvious he wasn’t willing to tell us the name of the company or many details. That was fine by me at this point. I was finished with a complicated life.

Or so I hoped.

He glared at each one of us, daring us to challenge him. The other two remained quiet as well. “We made money hand over fist. So much fucking money we were idiots with it. I’d already met and fallen in love with your mother. If she hadn’t stopped me, I would have spent it all on shit. We bought a house with the perfect yard like she wanted. Then you came along, Shep, and I learned to be more cautious with our funds. Meanwhile, the other members at the company were becoming reckless, breaking law after law. Your mother begged me to get out before it was too late.”

“So you did, but in your way,” I suggested. “You provided information to the Feds?”

“Not like that! Hell, no.” Pops shook his head. He looked stronger than normal, the limited time off good for him. “I was already walking away, the payout I received from the other executive team providing me with significant funds that would keep your mother and me happy for the rest of our lives. Then the shit happened, the CEO and his family slaughtered. I met with the others one last time and we all agreed to disband the company before anyone could pick it apart. Not that they cared at that point. We went our separate ways.”

“That’s when you fled to Montana,” Hunter said.

“I was no fool. I had a feeling there were more targets on the list. So I left and your mother always loved the west so we moved to start a new life.” Pops was daring one of us to challenge him.

The story was awfully neat and tidy, but I decided it was best for the family to leave it alone.

Jagger was the one who wasn’t in the mood to buy his story. I could tell by his wry expression. “How much money did you get at the time?”