network had always been good, but the addition in the past year of Gen and Lilah, his sisters-in-law, had definitely kicked it up a notch.
“Yeah. Pretty scary, huh?”
“You could say that. Is Lilah all right? No surprises at the doctor’s?” Leaving the windows, he walked back toward Coop’s desk.
“As far as I know, she’s as good as a woman six months gone can be. Dom, on the other hand, may not make it.”
“No news there.” Their brother, Dominic, a former Navy SEAL, had been the embodiment of the brash, tough, never-let-’em-see-you-sweat warrior until he’d signed on to rescue a pretty blond socialite from the banana republic where she was being held prisoner. Now he and Lilah were married and expecting their first child, and he was as overprotective as a five-star general with a troop of one.
“I guess that’s true,” Cooper conceded. “But still…Lilah mentioned today how much she’s enjoying working on some big charity ball, and you could practically see Dom’s teeth start to gnash. It seems like the closer she gets to her due date, the harder it is for him to pretend he doesn’t want to haul her off somewhere and wrap her in a nice safe protective bubble.” He sighed. “If it wasn’t so funny, it’d be pathetic. He used to be such a player.”
Gabe’s dark mood lightened fractionally at his brother’s mournful expression. He shrugged. “Love makes people crazy.” One of the excellent reasons why it wasn’t for him.
“I’ll say.” Sliding the keyboard onto the desk, he turned his attention back to Gabe, his melancholy vanishing as quickly as it had come. “While we’re on the subject of crazy, was the divine Ms. Morgan really working as a waitress?”
“Hostess,” Gabe corrected.
“And she actually called you an egotistical, scum-sucking sonofabitch?”
“She may have. I wasn’t exactly taking notes.”
“And?”
“That about covers it. As noted, she called me a few choice names, refused to seat me, then left when her boss tried to smooth over the situation.”
“Huh.” Cooper eyed him consideringly. “So what did she say when you went after her later? Was she still pissed?”
“Who said I went after her?”
“Please.” Cooper sniffed. “You canceled your afternoon appointments, you asked for a Morgan family update, and it’s been obvious ever since you walked in here you’re tweaked about something. Plus Dom says you two have always had a thing for each other…”
A vision of Mallory’s robe drifting south and exposing her smooth, velvet-skinned shoulders flashed through Gabe’s mind.
“So yeah,” Cooper concluded. “You went after her.”
He thrust the vision away. “You’re right. I did. And yes, she wasn’t exactly thrilled to see me, which given the circumstances is no great surprise. As for the rest of what we discussed…”
He thought about Mallory’s attempt to act indifferent about her situation while foolishly insisting she was doing just fine, and once more felt frustrated, impatient, annoyed—and yes, although he couldn’t quite figure out why—touched.
“It’s none of your business.”
“Aw, come on. Don’t tell me you’re going to stone-wall your favorite sibling.”
“Hell, no. But then, last I checked, Deke’s still in Borneo.”
“Ouch.” Cooper gave him a faux-wounded look. “You could’ve just said no.”
“Like you’ve ever let that word stop you? Give me a break.” Leaning over, he planted his hands on his brother’s desk. “And as much as I’d love to share my innermost feelings, hear all about your and Dom’s riveting take on my love life—” with each word his voice acquired a little more bite “—it’s after six and I have plans for tonight. So what do you say you just tell me what I want to know, and we leave the rest for another time? Say, the next time you girls have a slumber party?”
Cooper made a reproachful face. “No need to get surly.”
Silent, Gabe continued 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
