“Are you all right?”
“Sure,” Cavan said. He sounded like the same guy I’d known years ago, but his voice was older, wiser. Probably like mine. “I’m fine. Things are just weird right now. I read some crazy thing about an inheritance.”
Devon’s billion-dollar inheritance was partly Cavan’s, assuming Cavan came out of hiding. Devon had hired private investigators to look for him, with no results yet. “Yeah,” I said. “It’s true. You should call Devon about it.”
“I’m not calling Devon,” Cavan said. “Not now.”
“Why not? He wants to hear from you.” Devon would be beside himself to hear that his brother was alive.
“I’m not,” Cavan said again. “I’m calling you, Max. You’re saying the money is for real?”
Fuck, did he need money? What for? “Yes, it’s for real. But you have to claim it.”
“You mean come to California.”
“Yeah, I mean come to California.” I kept my voice calm. “You should come here anyway, man. Your brother wants to see you.”
“I really doubt that.” Cavan sounded bitter. “Shit. This might be complicated. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Why is it complicated?” I asked. Behind me, Gwen had sat up and was listening. She knew from Olivia how badly Devon wanted to find his brother.
“There’s a woman,” Cavan tried to explain. “She’s in trouble. I’m trying to help.”
“You have a girlfriend? A wife?”
“No. She isn’t my girlfriend. She’s… I don’t know what she is. Like I say, it’s complicated. We can’t come to California yet. I have to get her out of trouble first.”
“Cavan, I don’t get it. You aren’t making sense.”
“It won’t take long,” he said. “It’s just a quick stop. And then maybe we’ll come. Or maybe I’ll come alone. I don’t really know. Just tell Devon that, okay? Tell him I’ll come when I can.”
“Cavan—”
“Tell him,” Cavan said, and hung up.
I stared at the phone. The number he’d called from was there, but it was either a pay phone—if those still existed—or a burner. I knew it already.
Gwen put a hand on my shoulder. “Oh, my God,” she said softly.
“I have to call Devon,” I said. “Cavan Wilder is alive after all these years. And he’s coming to California.”