She yawned, rubbing eyes. “Right now? You know what I think of him. He’s a sleaze, and he’s unethical. What else is there to know?”
“He’s missing the pinky toe on his left foot, right?”
She nodded. “How did you know that?”
“Marj just told me. And I want to know why you didn’t.”
She blinked her eyes a few times. “Why I didn’t? Why would I? It’s not really anything to talk about. It doesn’t really come up in conversation. So he’s missing a toe. Who cares? Why do you care?”
“Suffice it to say that I do care. That little fact is important to me.”
“Why?”
“You said you’d be patient with me, Jade. I’m asking for patience now. I’m not ready to tell you why that’s important. But I need you to tell me, right now, everything you know about your boss.”
She yawned again and then took a drink of water from the glass on her nightstand. “This is obviously very important to you, Talon. So we can talk.” She turned on the lamp on her nightstand and then squinted against the light. “I don’t know much about him, but I do plan to do some investigating when I get into the office Monday. But in the meantime, there is something I know about Larry. It hasn’t been confirmed, but I’m pretty sure he’s your half-uncle.”
Chapter Nineteen
Jade
Talon’s eyes widened. “What the fuck?”
Quickly I told him the story about the birth certificates I’d found for both his mom and Larry. About how the name on Daphne’s birth certificate had been changed from Wade to Warren. And how someone had to have had big-time access to make those changes.
“That can’t be true,” Talon said. “And if it is…” His eyes were far away, and a mixture of rage and sadness laced them.
“If it is, what?” I asked.
“You say you got a creepy vibe from him, right?”
“Yeah. I suppose that could just be because he’s such an unethical attorney, though.”
“No, I trust your judgment, Jade. If you say he’s creepy, the guy’s a creep.”
“Like I said, I don’t really know that much about him. I plan to remedy that on Monday.”
“Goddamnit.” Talon stood, raked his fingers through his tousled hair, and paced around my room. “Goddamnit all to hell.”
“Talon, you’re freaking me out. What’s going on?”
He didn’t respond, just kept pacing, and then left my room. Since I didn’t have any clothes here, I was wearing my pullover top and my underwear as pajamas. I didn’t want to walk around the house that way, so I went next door to Marj’s room—she wasn’t there—and grabbed one of her robes.
Then I left in search of Talon. He was back in the office, sitting at his computer.
“Where’s Marj?” I asked.
“Over at Ryan’s, last I saw her.”
Why the hell was Marj at Ryan’s? But I didn’t ask. Talon was clearly on a mission of some sort. He was focused on his computer screen.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m going to find out who the hell Larry Wade is.”
“Why don’t you wait until Monday? I have all the state databases at my disposal at work. You won’t be able to find anything or do anything more than a Google search from here.”
“Not true. I have my ways.”