Falling for the Brother

Placing a hand on one of hers, he said, “How about if I bring Grace down here to visit you?” The idea had just occurred to him, but he knew it was a good one. “She really wants to see you…”

Gram’s hesitation didn’t seem to be caused by fear, but she was frowning. “I don’t know, Mason…”

“Just for a few hours. You’ve been friends for practically your whole lives. What could it hurt?” Unless she was afraid that Bruce would find out? “She’ll only be able to come if she agrees not to say anything to anyone.”

Gram didn’t seem convinced, but she was no longer shaking her head. “It’s just…she wants me to do things…”

Finally. “Like what?” Get away from Bruce? Grace had already told him as much.

“Skydiving, for one.”

“Skydiving?” He studied her. Was she losing her mind?

Gram nodded, her lips pursed with disapproval. “She read an article on the internet about a woman who went skydiving for her ninetieth birthday and she couldn’t let it go. She said we had to do it together. Kept going on and on about it…”

Grace had never mentioned skydiving. Mason shook his head. “So…if she promises not to talk about skydiving?”

Another few seconds passed and then Gram’s eyes lit with decision. A look he recognized from when he was a kid and was about to be told what to do.

Funny how some things lost no effect at all as you aged.

“I’m okay with her coming if you’ll do something for me.”

He felt a surge of relief flood him—more emotion that didn’t normally invade his days. “What?” He’d pretty much do anything for her. She had to know that.

Unless it involved contact between her and his brother…

“My car’s due for an oil change. I was scheduled to take it in yesterday.”

And she couldn’t ask Bruce to do it for her. She still saw to her own car maintenance. As the independent woman she was.

She was thinking ahead—about driving and living an active lifestyle in the near future.

“Of course I’ll get your oil changed,” he told her, pleased that he’d gotten off so easily.

“There’s a coupon in the glove box,” she said, seeming more relaxed than he’d seen her in recent days. “It’s good for half off and expires this week, which is why I don’t want to wait.”

Gram was counting pennies? The woman had enough money to live two lifetimes.

Unless…whoever was hurting her had been taking her money, too?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

MASON’S MEETING WITH Gwen was completely unproductive. She swore, looking him straight in the eye, that Bruce had nothing to do with her showing up at his house the other night. Swore that she and Bruce had not spoken in over a week.

She also assured him, quite insistently, that she wasn’t going to tell him how she’d found out about Gram’s abuse and his private investigation. He could guess, though. O’Brien had probably called her in for a talk, on the QT. As Bruce’s only regular partner when he wasn’t on undercover duty, she’d be the one most likely to know if there’d been changes in his behavior. O’Brien would have to be certain that he wasn’t putting people at risk by keeping Bruce on the job while Mason did his looking around.

It all made sense. He just didn’t like the fact that O’Brien hadn’t told Mason that Gwen knew.

He also didn’t like that the woman had nothing but praise for his brother. Translated: she wasn’t being honest with him. No one was that perfect.

Pushing aside an almost constant desire to call Harper, he moved through his tasks. From meeting Gwen to getting the oil changed in Gram’s car, which gave him an excuse to have another look through her house, homing in on her room. And Bruce’s. And the home computer, downloading the hard drive to a large-capacity storage disk to peruse later. He couldn’t access his brother’s personal laptop. He didn’t have a warrant, and Gram’s permission to search her home wasn’t enough. Still, nothing stood out immediately as different or in any way alarming.

If you ignored the filth of his brother’s lifestyle during Gram’s absence.