Hearts and Aces (Kelsey's Burden Series Book 7) by Kaylie Hunter (dar e dil novel online reading txt) 📕

hundred grand into a million in assets that first year. I doubt he slept.”

“Bingo. Miguel was the one motivated to get his uncle out of the way.”

“Does that help us?”

“It might. It depends on what the real story is between Sebrina and Santiago.”

“If Tebbs manages to get his hands on Sebrina’s file, it will be classified. They won’t share it with me.”

“Okay. Well, the information you dug up helps. I mean it. Good work.”

“You’re acting odd. Since when do we thank each other?”

“I’m not acting odd. You helped me. I said thank you. It’s called being respectful.”

“What’s really going on?”

“I recently realized I’m an insensitive ass who needs to fix her personal life.”

“Why? What’s wrong with your personal life?”

“Rumor has it that Grady dumped me to get back together with his ex-wife Sebrina.”

“I wouldn’t believe whoever told you that rumor.”

“It’s kind of hard when the rumor came from Grady himself.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I know. I’m dealing with it. He should actually be at Headquarters soon. I need to take care of a few things before he arrives.”

“Do you need me? I can fly to Michigan.”

“You’re just trying to run from Kierson. You can’t use me as an excuse to bail.”

“You suck.” She hung up on me as expected.

Chapter Twenty-One

I walked inside and looked at Nicholas. “I need you to read the book on your nightstand for a little while. I should be back in less than an hour.”

“I don’t like that book.”

“You don’t like the cover of the book. You’ll like the story once you start reading it.”

“Ah, man,” he whined as he stomped toward his bedroom.

I whistled at the top of the basement stairs. Three Devil’s Players appeared. “I need a volunteer to babysit for me. One hour, tops.”

A guy named Farmer climbed the stairs and looked around. I hadn’t spent a lot of time with Farmer, but he was a friend of Whiskey’s.

“My son occasionally has exploding temper tantrums. They’re rare, but if you can hang out in here until I get back, I’d appreciate it.”

“Where is he?”

“In his room reading Treasure Island,” I said, pointing down the hall.

“Great book,” Farmer said as he moved over to the couch and sat.

I looked at Alex and then at Hattie.

“We’ll be fine, sunshine. Farmer and I are acquainted. We share an interest in botany.”

“That’s plants, right?”

“Yes.”

“Like ferns?” I said, trying to figure out the shared interest.

“Sure, dear.”

I shook my head. “Come on, Bridget. I need your special set of skills.”

“Happy to be of service. This body wasn’t made to sit behind a computer all day.”

I grabbed the keys from the kitchen hook and handed them to Bridget. We both knew she was a better driver than me. She walked around the SUV as I slid into the passenger seat.

“Do you know where Tech keeps all his spy craft toys?” I asked.

“He thinks I don’t, but yeah, bottom drawer of the file cabinet has the good stuff.” She backed out of the garage. “What’s the plan?”

“I need both Grady and Sebrina’s rooms bugged. The problem is, I don’t which rooms were assigned to them and we can’t ask or they’ll figure out what we’re doing. I hate putting everyone in a position of betraying Grady.”

Bridget had backed out into the road but hadn’t changed the SUV gear out of reverse. “I have an idea. Call Lisa.”

“Shit. I was supposed to call her hours ago about Abigail.”

As I called Lisa, Bridget reversed further down the road and then pulled into Lisa’s driveway.

Lisa answered her phone.

“Hey. I forgot to call you earlier. We moved Abigail to my house. The nanny, too.”

“Alex called and told me. He said you had a lot going on and would likely forget.”

“Sorry.”

“All good. Covering for each other is what we do. As long as my daughter is safe, I’m happy.”

“Great. Now I need to hand the phone to Bridget.”

Bridget took the phone, placing it up to her ear. “Hey, Lisa. I’m going to run inside your house and steal a few sets of new sheets. They’re for a project Kelsey’s working on.”

She uh-huh’d a few times, paused for a long moment while she listened to Lisa, then uh-huh’d a few more times.

“Cool thanks.” She ended the call and handed me back my phone.

“What are we doing?”

“The guys all bitch about the cheap sheets Jerry bought for the apartments. Lisa has a stockpile of new sheets. We’ll say we’re putting better sheets in Grady and Sebrina’s rooms.”

“Everyone will think I’m nuts if I put nicer sheets in Grady and Sebrina’s room. I’m more likely to leave spiders in their sheets.”

“I know,” she said, climbing out of the car. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

I watched Bridget pick the lock on Lisa’s door, followed by entering the code into the alarm panel. A few minutes later, she jogged out carrying a pile of nicely folded sheets. She pulled a set of keys from her pocket and relocked the door.

“If you had the key, why did you pick the lock?” I asked her when she got back into the SUV.

“Practice.”

I shook my head, refocusing my thoughts. “We need to work on this story before we go over to Headquarters.”

“No, we don’t. It’s a good story.” She reversed the SUV back onto the road. “You just can’t participate.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Where exactly will I be?”

“You’ll be covering for Lisa in the Bridal Room. Tech is prepping the equipment we need. Lisa will storm into Jerry’s office, insist he let us into the apartments, and then help me set the spy equipment. It will work because everyone knows Lisa’s crazy when it comes to things being just