“Unfortunately, one of the men took ill four days ago. In lieu of caution, we determined their isolation be extended.”
“You didn’t feel the need to extend the caution to yourself?” Reaper asked as they entered the elevator.
Pressing the elevator button, the door closed. “I had a separate bungalow. I let the other two men handle the shifts, watching your bungalow during the day and evening. I took the night shift. My contact with them was over the phone.”
“Which agent became ill?”
“Agent Clark.”
“I hope he gets better soon,” Ginny spoke up, breaking the stare down that Reaper and Agent Collins had been engaged in.
“I’ll extend your well wishes.”
The elevator doors opened to reveal a waiting room with a mock waterfall cascading down one wall. A man Gavin’s age rose from behind a desk to greet them.
“Agent Collins, Mr. and Mrs. James, I’m Ethan. It’s a pleasure meeting you.” He motioned them toward two oversized doors. “Mr. Allerton is waiting for your arrival. May I get you a drink?”
“No, Thank-you,” Ginny refused politely.
Reaper propelled her forward before she was given the opportunity to give the attractive assistant a smile. Disregarding her glare at his rude behavior, they accompanied Agent Collins through the double doors.
Unlike his secretary, Gabriel Allerton remained seated. “Please, come in and have a seat.”
Reaper didn’t sit, and instead chose to stand behind Ginny with his hands proprietorially on her shoulders.
As the distinguished man stared at him from over his desk, Reaper didn’t flinch from the condescending gaze that assessed his casual appearance before nodding toward Collins.
“Agent Collins, I trust your stay has been enjoyable?”
“Yes, sir. Thank-you. Extremely comfortable.”
Gabriel Allerton nodded as if he hadn’t expected the agent to say anything differently.
Reaper would kiss both men’s bare ass if they hadn’t met before.
“Mr. and Mrs. James, I hope the same can be said for you?”
“Yes, Thank-you.”
Reaper was proud that Ginny didn’t call him sir.
“Perfect. Is everyone in agreement that we can cut right to the business we need to discuss?” Patronizing in his question, Allerton focused on Ginny, not anticipating anyone daring to naysay him.
“Mrs. James, being a personal friend of your mother and father, I was delighted to share in their joy when the FBI contacted them about you being found alive after you purchased an ancestry kit. I’m sure you were devastated to find out the true details of your past.”
Reaper kept his eyes trained on Allerton but couldn’t help to think, What the fuck?
“I was,” Ginny agreed.
“May I ask what prompted the search for your ancestral ties?”
“My brother gave it to me as a Christmas gift. My adoptive father never hid that I was adopted. I didn’t see the need to search for a family whom I believed deserted me.”
“How did you come to be placed with your adopted family in Kentucky?”
“The man who found me had chartered a private yacht. He was the sheriff in Kentucky. He contacted the local authorities, then left me in their care. However, he made calls to check on my welfare. When no one came forward, I was made a ward of the court. A friend of his offered to adopt me, and from there, I ended up in Kentucky when his application was approved.”
“Funny, none of your paperwork has been located.”
The sarcastic fucker didn’t have a funny bone in body.
“I don’t find it funny,” Ginny said sharply. “As much as I love my adoptive family, I’m looking into legal action that no intensive search was made before I was adopted. I can only assume the social worker was overly burdened and was just relieved to have one less child to keep track of. The DNA was entered into the data bank. In case my body had been recovered, they would have a sample to match. I’m sure it was a surprise when instead of being informed all that was recovered were my bones, they were told I was very much alive.”
Reaper found it difficult to keep a straight face at the misdirection of the true facts. Blending crafted lies and the truth, if he hadn’t heard the truth from Trudy’s lips, hell, he would have believed the lies she was telling.
Unfortunately, Allerton didn’t look like he believed anything coming out of her mouth, which could only mean one thing—once the FBI had informed her parents that she was alive and they told Allerton, no rock had been left unturned to uncover her past by him.
“I find it a big coincidence that your sister Trudy was thirty minutes away and both of you were unaware of each other being so close.”
“Are you insinuating I’m lying?”
Allerton didn’t deny the charge. “Like I said, it’s a big coincidence.”
“Not really. I was only three. The earliest memory that I can recall is me tumbling down a hill and a rock cutting my forehead. As to my sister, I did meet her several times when I was in my late teens through a woman I worked with. She was introduced to me as T.A. I never knew her given name, and by the time she met me, I was no longer the three-year-old sister she remembered.”