Vengeance (The Protectors 5)

“Your biological father?”

Tristan nodded and I saw his eyes fill with tears. “I…I found my great-aunt’s name and phone number when I was looking through my dad’s desk for some paperwork I needed for school.”

“Tristan’s adopted dads are Dom and Logan Barretti,” Brennan interjected. “Zane told me Dom was there that day in the hospital when Eli…”

Brennan’s voice dropped off and I didn’t blame him. I’d witnessed the entire horrific scene as Eli had been forced to admit to Dom that Dom’s own friend had raped him for several years when he’d been a teenager.

“So you found your great-aunt’s information among Dom’s things?” I prompted.

“Yeah…I’d always been curious about my biological father. My mom hadn’t ever talked about him. I called my great-aunt and she gave me his email address. I waited until I was at school to email him because I didn’t want my fathers to find out that I had reached out to him. They…they love me so much. I didn’t want them to think I was choosing him over them or something,” he whispered.

“They wouldn’t have thought that,” Brennan reassured him. “Dom and Logan know how much you love them.”

Tristan nodded and dashed carefully at his eyes with his injured hand since he was still petting Tink with his good hand. “I didn’t hear anything for a long time so I figured the email address wasn’t in use anymore. I called my great-aunt to ask her if she had any other information like where he might be living, but she got mad and said I should just leave it alone because he hadn’t wanted me when I was a kid and he wouldn’t want me now.”

Tristan paused, seemingly to collect himself. “I hadn’t known he’d told Zane he hadn’t wanted me. I decided to let it go, but then I got this email from him after the Christmas break.” Tristan snuck a glance at Brennan before saying, “That time was pretty hard for me, so I was actually glad to hear from him.”

I made a mental note to ask Brennan what Tristan meant by that, but then realized it wasn’t any of my business. My goal was to figure out who the immediate threat was and eliminate it, no more, no less.

“We started emailing back and forth. His name was Ray…Ray Andrews. He…he seemed really interested in my life and told me how sorry he was that he hadn’t been there for me when I’d been growing up. He said my mother had taken me away from him when I was a baby and that no one had ever reached out to him after she’d died.” Tristan shook his head. “I was so stupid…I believed everything he said.”

“You’re not stupid,” Brennan said, his voice firm.

But Tristan shook his head and continued as if Brennan hadn’t spoken. “I told him everything about me. About my fathers, what they did for a living.”

I already knew from the research I’d done on the Barrettis as part of the effort to find out who was hurting Eli that Dom and Logan Barretti were extremely wealthy, so I suspected the direction Tristan’s story was headed.

“The first time he asked to borrow some money, it was a really small amount. He said he needed to get his car fixed so he wouldn’t lose his job. My dads gave me money to live off of every month and I had some money saved up from when I used to work at this theater where the Seattle Symphony performed. It wasn’t much so I wired it to him.”

“Where to?” I asked.

Tristan’s pained eyes met mine. “Las Vegas.”

“He was a gambler,” I said.

“He said he worked in a casino. I…I didn’t make the connection.”

“What happened?”

Tristan dropped his eyes again and I resisted the urge to force his chin up so that he’d keep looking at me.

“He kept asking for more. All his excuses made sense to me. I told him I couldn’t afford it, but he was insistent. He kept saying how he wanted to save up enough money to come to New York to meet me.”

“You were going to school in New York?”

Tristan nodded. “At Julliard. I play the piano.”

“Did you send him more money?” I asked.

“Yeah, a few more times. I finally stopped answering his emails and phone calls. I didn’t hear from him for a couple of weeks and then I got a text saying he was in town and he really wanted to meet me. I knew it wasn’t smart, but I…”

“You were still curious about him,” I offered. “You wanted to know where you came from.”

“Yeah,” Tristan whispered. The shame in his voice had me following through on my need and I reached out to lift his chin up until his eyes met mine.

“You have nothing to be ashamed of, Tristan. It’s natural to want to know something like that.”