Chapter 37

Jack pulled Chase, Piper, and Alex aside the next day while everyone else was out with Jack and Jessie’s kids by the barn and the animals.

Jack handed each of them a photograph. Each of them different. “He goes by Max Smith.”

“You found him,” Alex said.

“I did.”

Chase felt Piper’s hand on his arm.

He tapped it as if to say he was okay with the news as he stared at a picture that looked a whole lot like he would if he grew a full beard.

“He’s had a colorful life. It took some digging, but we found his records from foster care. The first family that had him lasted less than a year, then he was put back in the system. By the time he entered school, he had three semipermanent placements but ended up back at group homes for long stints in between.”

“Oh, God.” Piper whimpered.

“How does that happen?” Alex asked.

“I don’t know, darlin’. When I saw the report, it made me sick.” Jack took a breath and continued. “He has a not-so expertly sealed juvenile record.”

Chase wasn’t surprised. “Do we want to know how you obtained that?”

Jack shook his head. “Probably not.”

“Deniability is important,” Piper said.

“He ran away, dropped out of school, came back . . . and eventually aged out of the system.”

“Damn,” Piper said.

“What does that mean?” Alex asked.

“It means he was never adopted,” Piper answered.

“How do you know that?” Chase asked.

“I went down the rabbit hole of what happens to children who end up in foster care and aren’t adopted. If the foster parents don’t adopt, and there isn’t family who steps up, they ‘age out’ of the system at eighteen. Do we know what he was arrested for?” Piper asked Jack.

“Juvie record was all about theft, breaking and entering . . . assault.”

“On women?” Chase asked.

Jack shook his head. “Other boys in the homes, from what I can tell. Good news is, we didn’t find anything as an adult. He was on probation into his early twenties where he earned a GED. No college.”

“What does he do for a living?”

“A little of everything. Trades mostly. Currently working with a concrete coring company. Whatever he was doing when he was younger doesn’t seem to have followed him into adulthood,” Jack said.

“That’s a relief,” Alex muttered.

“Where is he now?” Chase stopped looking at the picture and squeezed Piper’s hand that had slipped into his.

“Palmdale, California. Not too far from you.”

“Married, kids?”

“Nope.”

Chase reached out and patted his sister’s back.

“He looks like you.” She tried to smile.

“I guess we have a road trip in our future.”

“Everything you need to know about Max is in the file.”

“Thank you, Jack,” Alex said.

“Don’t thank me yet, I got more.”

Chase lifted his chin. “The mother?”

“No. Not her. Gatlin.”

Chase’s eyes widened. “You put a PI on Floyd?”

Jack tapped a pencil on his desk. “Yeah. I did that shortly after your visit. My dad and I didn’t like how quickly his name came up when we asked you who you were concerned with. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Hell no, we don’t mind,” Alex said. “What did you find?”

“Snake in the grass, darlin’. He’s met with Melissa twice and three of your board members in private.”

“Do we know what was said?” Piper asked.

Jack sat forward. “There was a common thread. He is working on gaining board support to remove you both as CEOs.”

“He can’t do that, we have the majority of shares.”

“He’s not convinced you do. That was fed from Melissa.”

“I knew she knew something,” Alex muttered.

“She doesn’t know everything, or she’d have played that card. She’s putting suspicion out there to open an investigation. She is one bitter widow.” Jack paused, took a breath. “And to add to that, Gatlin is telling the board members that the company has suffered since you’ve taken over. That the board needs to act to save their own investment.”

“There isn’t one person on the top floor that wasn’t aware that the company has been struggling for a while. Long before Aaron Stone died,” Piper told them.

“That’s not how Gatlin is spinning it. He’s added to the fire by suggesting that the bad media PR is bringing down the Stone name.”

Chase and Alex exchanged glances. “Is he behind the press?” Chase asked.

“Don’t have confirmation, but it sounds like it.”

Alex let out a breath. “Then we fire him.”

“Hold up there, spitfire. First, my report isn’t going to make it into an HR file. I told my investigator to avoid doing anything illegal, like bugging phones or . . . places. But he doesn’t always do as he’s told. Second, you’ve heard the saying ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’?”

“Yeah,” Chase said.

“You need him to bury himself. You fire him now, and the board will believe his claims. When your board turns against you, you have bigger problems on your hands, especially with a struggling company. No, you keep Gatlin close. You catch him feeding gossip to the media or fabricating untruths to make you look bad, the board will back you, not him.”

Alex looked at Chase. “He’s right.”

“I don’t like it.”

Piper squeezed her hand that held his. “You found your brother. Let’s concentrate on that. Make sure his shares don’t make it into someone else’s hands.”

“Listen to your fiancée, Chase.”

Chase found himself smiling on Piper’s new title.

“Melissa and Gatlin are a tomorrow problem,” Chase concluded out loud. “We’ll handle them. Max is first.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Jack said.

A collective sigh went over the room.

“This is above and beyond. Tell me what I owe you,” Chase said.

Jack shook his head. “No, no . . . that’s not how we do things.”

“Jack.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to say you owe me one and then ask you to break someone’s legs. This isn’t business. This is family. We don’t charge family for favors.”

“We can’t thank you enough,” Alex told Jack.

They stood and started toward the closed door.

“I’ll be waiting to hear how it turns out,” Jack said.

“You’ll be the first to know.”

Alex hugged Jack, and then Piper took a turn.

“Congratulations again,” Jack said.

“Thank you for everything. This weekend, finding Max. Warning us about Gatlin and Melissa. Calming my parents,” Piper said.

Jack shook his head. “Parenting . . . it’s the hardest and most rewarding job in the world. A job that never ends. Your mom and pop just want what’s best for you . . . and they still think they know what that is. It will all work out.”

Piper kissed Jack’s cheek. “Thanks all the same.”

Chase reached out, shook Jack’s hand. “I’ll never forget this.”

“You’d do the same for us.”

“I would.” Chase felt the conviction of his words. His world may have expanded exponentially after his father died, but his friendships tightened into a small circle of trust and respect. Two things he had for the Morrisons.

Later that night, still buzzing from the excitement of slipping a ring on Piper’s finger and learning where his brother was, Chase watched Piper as she brushed her hair out before they climbed into bed.

“It’s strange to realize that it took my father dying to find the love of my life.”

Piper dropped the brush onto the vanity of the guest room of the Morrison Ranch on their last night there and turned.

Chase sat on the edge of the bed.

Piper walked over and stood in front of him.

He traced the outline of her belly and dropped a kiss to their daughter.

“I sometimes wonder if one day you’re going to break down,” Piper told him.

“Because of my father?”

She nodded.

Chase shook his head. “I lost my father a long time ago. Peeling back the layers of his life reminds me every day why he wasn’t in mine. The only thing I’m grateful for is how he led me to you. Not the money, not the company . . . none of that. Only you.”

Piper kissed the top of his head. “If the day ever comes where you need to mourn his loss, even if it’s twenty years from now, I’ll hold you.”

Chase felt a strange twisting in his gut, as if Piper had given him permission to feel all the emotions he didn’t want to feel.

He pulled her close. “I won’t make my father’s mistakes. I will never be like him, Piper. I will always put you—both of you—first.”

“I know that.”

“I want a home like this. Filled with love and laughter, kids and family.”

“You won’t have to wait long for that wish to come true. You’re doubling your siblings, and she’s going to be here before you know it,” Piper said, patting her belly.

Chase pulled away enough to look at her. “And you. Forever.”

She waved her left hand in front of him, his ring glistening on her finger. “I said yes. My tomorrows are all yours, Chase Stone. From here until my last breath.”

Chase drew her close and lost himself in her arms.