Chapter 262
The next day I get up early, and after making sure Ethan is
changed and fed, I take him down to the office where I asked
one of the housekeepers to set up a playpen for him. They’ve brought out this little bouncy thing that I can strap him into and it has a mobile attached to it that plays music as it spins.
Ethan seems happy enough to lay in it, but I leave it close to where I’m sitting and angled toward the desk so we can see
each other.
Then I start digging into Roberts Corp files for the past seven months to make sure I didn’t miss something the first time I checked for clues about what’s happened to the project that was meant to be handed over to the military.
James joins me mid–morning, bringing a bottle for Ethan, who is almost due for his nap.
After I’ve fed him and he’s lulling off to sleep, James offers to take him up to his crib.
Ethan fusses a little when I hand him over, but James rocks and shushes him until he settles down again.
While Aaron and I were kept by the Council for all those days,
it seems James got the hang of looking after my son.
After they’re gone, I switch my attention back to the computer, combing through information about the various properties and land–holdings Robert Corp has in its portfolio.
I’m about to keep clicking onward when I notice something
weird.
One of the properties that’s meant to be condemned has a monthly budget for upkeep..
I’ve found a few weird financial things like this–it seemed my father and Liam had come up with all sorts of inventive ways to move money around in creative ways.
I decide to see if I can figure out where the money was actually going–probably into the Al tech program like the rest of it had been–however, it’s quickly apparent that isn’t the
case.
In fact, the money is still regularly being drawn down every month, no one ever put a stop to it after Liam died.
Even weirder, it does actually seem to be going into maintenance and utilities of the property–water, electricity, even food and other expenses.
Which makes absolutely zero sense if the property is really
condemned and abandoned.
Something is going on there, and I need to know what.
Another secret project of some kind?
Or is it possible I’ve just located where the Al tech got moved to, and whoever is now overseeing it?
I scribble down the address and have just jumped up from the desk when James returns from putting Ethan down for his nap.
“Whoa,” James says as he catches me rushing across the office. “Where’s the fire?”
“I found something!” I exclaim. I hold up the piece of paper with the address written on it. “And we’re about to go find out what that something is.”
It’s not until we’re in the SUV with James behind the wheel that he finally asks me what we’re going to check out, and I explain to him about the financial anomaly.
He agrees it seems weird, especially as the drive takes us into
remote woodland.
“Why would my father need property all the way out here?” I wonder out loud, even though I know James can’t answer the question. “There’s nothing around for miles.”
“Whatever it was, knowing your father, it was definitely
sketchy.”
I send him an unimpressed look, but he only grins back at me.
Fine. I’m ready to admit my father was flawed and didn’t have anyone’s best interests at heart when he made all the choices he made that led him to being killed by his own son for nothing other than greed.
A few minutes later, we turn into a long narrow drive. Halfway along it, there’s a tall chain–link fence with a gate blocking anyone from going any further.
James pulls up the SUV and we both get out, only to find the gate has an electronic lock on it.
“What the hell was my father keeping here?”
