She shook her head. “You sure can’t tell to look at me. I’m damn near six feet tall.”
“Were you ever small for your age?”
“Nope, always the tallest girl in the class. God, it was painful before the guys in school shot up. And even after, I was still taller than half of them.”
I smiled. “You were always the most gorgeous too, I bet.” But I had to change the subject yet again. “I know this is a hard topic for you, but what exactly do you know about your mother?”
“I don’t know a lot. At least not firsthand, because I don’t remember her. I’ve seen pictures of course, and I look a little bit like her, though I have my dad’s coloring, same as the boys, but my face is shaped like hers, and my lips.”
I nodded.
“I know she was troubled. I mean, why else would she have killed herself?”
I nodded again. Marj was probably not the best person to be asking about Daphne Steel. The boys remembered her and would be able to tell me more. But so far, they had been tight-lipped about anything concerning family.
“Crazy,” Marj continued. “So I was supposed to die?”
“Yeah, and I’m sure glad you didn’t.”
“Me too.”
We laughed together and drank some more wine.
“Out of curiosity,” I said, “I also checked out your parents’ marriage certificate. The official version in the Colorado database says your mom’s maiden name was Warren, like you guys always thought.”
“That is curious.”
I swallowed a mouthful of wine. “I don’t really know what to make of it all. Somebody somewhere got into the records database, probably a long time ago, and made those changes in the permanent records. It had to be someone pretty high up in the government to have that access.”
“Or my father paid for that access.”
I had wanted to say that, but I was glad she had. “I have given that a bit of thought. Especially since I’m pretty sure Talon paid off Toby’s Tattoo Parlor not to work with me.”
“Well, I’m not particularly proud of it, but one of the benefits of having this kind of money is that we can afford to buy certain things.”
Felicia opened the door and stuck her head out. “Dinner is ready. Is Mr. Talon coming home?”
Marj sighed. “Beats the heck out of me, Felicia. I think Jade and I will have our dinner out here, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. I’ll bring it right out. You want some more wine, ladies?”
Marj giggled. “Of course.”
Felicia brought us two plates of spaghetti and meatballs along with the bottle of wine we had opened and left in the kitchen. I inhaled. Mmm. Rustic tomato and beef. Nothing better.
We dived into our meals and were chatting about nothing in particular when Felicia came back.
“Pardon me, Miss Jade, but there is a Col
in Morse here to see you.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Talon
“What is it, Tal?” Jonah stood in his house, wearing nothing but a pair of swim trunks. “I was just about to take a dip.”
“Great. I’ll join you. We need to talk.” I walked past him into the foyer and through the kitchen out to his backyard, where his kidney-shaped pool was waiting.