once upon a romance 09 - hoodwinked by a wolfe by leclair laurie

Author:leclair, laurie [leclair, laurie]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Laurie LeClair
Published: 2015-12-25T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Silence wrapped around them as Logan walked down the hall behind Rach and away from the scene of the crime. Their steps, muted by the lush carpet, were rushed. Neither could comprehend what just happened.

Words stayed trapped in his throat. How could he have let things get carried away like that?

She practically raced down the stairs and then at the bottom, she halted abruptly and sank down.

Logan caught up with her there, dropping down beside her. “Rach. I don’t know what to say…”

“Maybe we shouldn’t even talk right now.” She glanced at him for a second and turned away. “The papers.” With her hand shaking, she unfurled the pages, smoothing them out on her raised knee. “These first ten or a dozen look like ledger pages.”

His heart jolted. Sliding closer, he peered at the neat letters and precision placement of figures in the squares. Grandpa’s writing! It caught him, hard and fast, in his belly.

“It’s accounting pages. Your grandfather’s? From his business?”

He swallowed hard when he latched on to the meaning—the jagged edges of the pages torn from the actual ledger book, the dates listed, and the titles of each column and the jarring amount of each entry. This is what was missing from his grandfather’s personal ledger. Years of wondering and debating flashed through his mind.

“What does this mean? And why would Grammy have it?” She fanned through the sheets and stopped at a hand-scribbled note. “IOU?”

Logan’s breath came out rough. “A promissory note. Between our grandfathers.”

“Ten thousand dollars?!” Her hand shook and she flipped back to the ledgers. “The years don’t match. I don’t understand.” She handed them to him. “Do you?”

Seeing them in real life made it more shocking than what he’d imagined. Mr. Darling spiraled out of control.

Something slipped from the pages when she gave them to him, dropping to the stair. She reached down and plucked it up. “A plane ticket.” Rach scanned it and stilled. “My grandfather…”

Gently, he eased it out of her clutched hand; her knuckles were white and stiff. In his heart, he figured it out before he even glanced down at the date.

“He wasn’t just dropping them off at the airport, was he? He was going to Vegas. To gamble. Again.”

“With the ten thousand dollars.” Pieces fit into place. His grandfather hadn’t known; he’d have never given him the money. Only her grammy knew the truth and kept it a secret all these years.

“That’s why he wouldn’t let me go to the airport. He wasn’t coming back that day.”

Logan’s heart ached for her.

“Funny, huh? His gambling saved my life.”

He skimmed over the ledgers and then the other papers tucked near the back.“Do you think Grammy knew? I mean then?”

“After. Not before. I’m sure of it.” Her grandmother was a keen, no- nonsense woman. She’d have never allowed this. But she hid it later. Guilt? Shame?

“The money…”

He dug deeper and near the bottom of the stack found the informal contract buried among the many papers. “It’s here,” he said. Stunned wonder raced through him.

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