“I won’t ask about it again.”
“You don’t have to. The blade is evidence now. It’s gone.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t get another.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” I said.
True words. That blade was my friend, and my friend was now gone.
“Miss Jade?” Donny interrupted us.
“Yeah, sweetie?” Jade said.
“I need a glass of water.”
“Okay, coming.”
While Jade took care of Donny, I went to my room and packed a few things to take to the guesthouse. I wanted to be with Bryce when he got home. He might need me. And if he didn’t? I needed him.
I quickly said goodbye to Jade and Donny and headed over to the guesthouse.
I let myself in using the key I’d had for ages and put my stuff in Bryce’s bedroom.
Then I walked to the kitchen to make myself a snack. The table was spread with papers. I glanced over them. They were the files Bryce had found at the cabin.
Curiosity got the best of me. I sat down and began sifting through the papers.
Nothing stood out to me. A lot of invoices for farm equipment, not that Tom Simpson had ever owned a farm that I knew of. Then again, there was still a lot I didn’t know about Tom Simpson.
I grabbed an unopened manila folder and peeked inside.
And nearly slid out of my chair.
A document stared me in the face—a document that Bryce clearly hadn’t seen yet.
It was a bill of sale for unspecified merchandise.
Tom Simpson had paid one million dollars for unspecified merchandise nearly thirty years ago.
To a man named Bertram Valente.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Bryce
I stopped myself from jolting in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“Cade. He likes to call himself the Spider.”
“The Spider isn’t some hacker he knows?” Though I already knew the answer.
Dominic guffawed. “Is that what he told you?”
“Then why…”
I couldn’t say anything more without telling Dominic how Joe knew Cade in the first place, and I’d promised Joe. Still, I wanted, needed, to know more.
“Why what?” Dominic asked.