LITMIR.BIZ

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to stare down at him.

      “Okay, okay,” he said hastily, raising his hands in mock surrender. “Here goes. Up until six months ago, our subject was holed up at the family estate, even though the staff had been let go months before that. Then, when the Feds finally came in, seized everything and locked the place down, she checked into the Markham Plaza. She was there for several weeks, until her credit card was declined and they found out it was no mistake. Word is she tried to make good with a check, but it bounced, too, and the management not so kindly asked her to leave.”

      Straightening, he consulted his computer monitor. “Her credit report shows two different apartment management firms checked her history the following week. Considering that she had an extensive collection of plastic, but that every single card was closed due to late or no payments, several with substantial balances, I’m guessing they passed on renting to her.”

      Considering where she’d wound up living, Gabe imagined he was right.

      “The interesting thing is, except for a small portion of one account, everything else was paid off a few weeks later. And she was making the bare-bones payment on that last outstanding debt until roughly sixty days ago, when she also started to fall behind on her rent.”

      Gabe frowned, trying to make sense of it. “What about bank accounts?” he asked, pushing upright and starting to pace.

      “Checking account was closed due to overdrafts. Nothing else popped, but then I didn’t have enough time to do much more than skim the surface. Does it matter?”

      “Probably not. It’s just that I thought—” incorrectly, it appeared, although it was still the main reason he hadn’t seen fit to check up on her before “—she had a trust fund, a substantial one. She says it’s long gone.”

      Cooper frowned. “You don’t believe her?”

      “I didn’t say that. But I want to be sure.” Despite the overwhelming evidence that Mallory was operating without a safety net, this time around he wasn’t assuming anything.

      “I’ll have another look.”

      “Thanks.”

      “Anything else?”

      “No. I’d say that does it for now.”

      Cooper drummed his fingers on the desk. “I take it that means you’re not done with Mallory? Even though, from the sound of things, she ranks you somewhere below foot fungus on the list of things she could live without?”

      “What’s your point, Coop? Assuming you have one?”

      “I do.” Never shy about stating his opinion, he met Gabe’s narrow stare straight on. “Look, I know how committed you are, not just to making this business a success, but to doing your best to ensure that the work we all do matters. That whenever possible, we do what we can to make peoples’ lives safer and better.

      “Because of that, I think you need a reminder that no matter what this woman said to you, no matter how hard she may have tried to guilt trip you, she’s not your responsibility—and you definitely don’t owe her anything.”

      “Believe me.” Gabe smiled sardonically. “That’s not the problem here.”

      Cooper looked surprised. “No? Then what—”

      “Leave it alone, little brother. I appreciate your concern, but I’ve been successfully conducting my own affairs for a whole lot of years now. If I decide I need help, from you or the rest of the family, I’ll be sure to let you know. In the meantime—” shooting his cuff, he glanced at his wristwatch “—the clock is ticking and I’m sure I’ve got a stack of things to take care of before I can get out of here.”

      “That’s it? You’re just going to walk?”

      “Pretty much.” Reaching down, he snagged his coat off the chair and deliberately steered the conversation in a different direction. “You going out to Taggart and Gen’s for dinner tomorrow?”

      To his credit, Cooper knew when to throw in the towel. “Are you kidding? Free, home-cooked meal along with Rockies Cactus League ball on the tube?” He sat back and again propped his feet up. “I’m there. What about you?”

      “Yeah, I’m in, too.” He headed toward the door. “You want to share a ride?”

      “Sure.”

      “I’ll call you tomorrow, we can hash out the details.” Reaching the doorway, he paused. “Hey, Coop?”

      “What?”

      “Thanks for the information. I appreciate it.”

      “Easy for you to say,” the younger man groused, but without any heat. “You’re not the one left hanging.”

      “I think you’ll survive,” he said drily. And with that, he headed down the hall toward his own office and what was sure to be a fat folder of items needing his attention, reassured by the knowledge that Cooper’s bad temper wouldn’t last past the next five minutes.

      Knowing as well that while his brother’s concern for him had been misplaced, the younger Steele had been right about one thing.

      Gabe wasn’t done with Mallory. Not by a long shot.

      Three

      “Are you all right, Miss Morgan?”

      Mallory dragged her gaze from the rectangle of paper clutched in her trembling hand to stare blankly at the man seated across from her. “What?”

      Mr. Cowden’s thin, intelligent face softened. “You seem a bit shaken,” the owner of Finders Keepers, the search firm she’d been contacted by the previous day, observed not unkindly. “Can I get you something? A glass of water? Some coffee?”

      “No. I…It’s just…” Embarrassed to find herself babbling, she pressed her lips together and struggled for composure. “Please, could you explain to me again where this came from? You said it’s a behest from a relative?”

      “Yes. According to the letter we received, the funds originated with—” he glanced down at the paper centered atop his glossy walnut desk “—one Ivan Mallory Milton. Your cousin, it seems, although most likely a distant one since it states here he was ninety-one at the time he expired. The family connection—” he adjusted his glasses and scanned further down the document “—was apparently through your maternal grandmother.”

      “But I’ve never even heard of him.”

      “Well, yes, that’s actually rather common with this sort of distant connection. And truthfully, as you might imagine, quite often inheritances go unclaimed for just that reason. In this case,” he said, tapping a finger against the paper, “it seems that Mr. Milton first realized the relationship after reading a newspaper article about your family.”

      Mallory winced. Given her father’s notoriety and the extensive press coverage he’d received, she didn’t imagine that anything her late cousin had read would have been complimentary. Not that that appeared to have made a difference.

      “The information was found among his belongings after he passed away, and since he had no other heirs, it was determined these funds should come to you. Although these days, with the popularity of the Internet, it is rather unusual for us to be contacted through the regular mail this way….”

      Even as she told herself she should pay attention to what Mr. Cowden was saying, Mallory’s gaze drifted back to the cashier’s check.

      Sure enough, right after Pay To The Order Of was her name, followed by the fabulous, wonderful, miraculous sum of four thousand, seven hundred, twenty-one dollars and forty-six cents.

      A year ago, that amount wouldn’t have qualified as her monthly shoe allowance. Now it meant she could take a deep breath for the first time in months. And she owed it all to someone she’d never met, and never would.

      Thank

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