“She’s sober now,” Grayson reported. “Her other children are adults. They don’t seem to visit her much.”
If Savannah wondered how Grayson knew that, she didn’t give any visible sign of it. “It might be nothing,” she said. “The slips. KM. It might not matter. We should stop.”
But she’d already told him she was tired of should.
“I’ll look into it,” Grayson told her.
Savannah’s eyes narrowed. “Gigi still hadn’t come home when I left. Whatever this is—the withdrawal slips, whatever laws Dad may or may not have broken—Gigi doesn’t need to know.” Savannah’s light gray eyes locked on to his. “She doesn’t, but I do.”
The sound of the elevator opening down the hall alerted Grayson to the fact that they had company. Xander stepped out, followed by Nash.
Nash was carrying a limp Gigi.
CHAPTER 57
GRAYSON
Grayson’s heart froze inside his chest. She’s so still. Then Gigi turned her head toward them, a loopy smile on her lips. “What’s black and white and black and white and black and white,” she said, happily slurring the words. “And black and white and black and white and—”
“The answer is a penguin rolling down a hill,” Xander stage-whispered.
Gigi wriggled in Nash’s arms and made an attempt at poking Xander. “No spoilers!”
“Are you drunk?” Savannah asked her sister incredulously.
“As a skunk!” Gigi agreed amiably, then her eyes went very wide. “Hey! I’ve got a new one! What’s black and white and black and white and—”
Grayson met Nash’s gaze. “I can take it from here.”
Nash set Gigi on her feet, and she wobbled slightly, then started cracking up laughing. “Whatever you say, little brother,” Nash drawled.
Gigi pointed a finger at Grayson. “Is he ticklish?” she demanded.
“Grayson?” Xander replied innocently. “Very.”
Gigi crept toward Grayson in what she appeared to think was a very stealthy manner, her hands held aloft, fingers wiggling midair.
“Don’t even think about it,” Grayson commanded.
Gigi hid her hands behind her back—for about half a second, then continued her pursuit.
“Thanks for that,” Grayson told Xander darkly. He was, in fact, very ticklish. So much so that he was having difficulty not reacting to Gigi’s slow progression.
“Tickle… tickle… tickle…” she said, creeping closer. Then she paused. “I would have made an excellent little sister.”
Savannah stepped toward her twin. “I’ll take her home.”
“Nope,” drunk Gigi said cheerfully.
“Yup,” Savannah replied.
Gigi shot Grayson a mischievous look. “Savannah is also very ticklish.”
“Must be genetic,” Xander replied. He—and Nash, for that matter—were enjoying this way too much.
“I will put away the tickling fingers when you agree to negotiate with tickling terrorists!” Gigi declared. “Or terrorist, I guess. Singular. Just me. I want to see the photos from the box. I was thinking: What if they’re decoys? Like, someone looks in the box and thinks, Oh, this Sheffield Grayson guy was a tortured soul wracked with grief for the son he never knew, cursed to parent only daughters, but really… the photos are a clue!”
“A clue to what?” Grayson had the feeling that he was going to regret that question.
“Exactly!” Gigi said.
A sound escaped Nash’s mouth.
“Do not laugh,” Grayson told him.
Nash shrugged. “It’s possible that my younger siblings are also a handful.”
Grayson had fought thinking of the twins that way, as being to him what he and Xander and Jameson were to Nash. But it was all out in the open now. He could almost see the way it could have been if things had been different. If it weren’t for the secrets he was keeping. The ways he’d betrayed them.
And would betray them still, if that was what it took. Protect Avery. Protect them. Family first.
Gigi bounded to Grayson’s side. “Do you have the pictures in your pockets?” she asked, patting him down and realizing belatedly that he was wearing only a swimsuit. “You don’t have pockets,” she said slowly. “Only abs.” She frowned. “Brothers should not have abs.”
“I agree,” Xander said solemnly. “Put on some clothes, man!”
Grayson was going to kill his brothers. He’d been very clear with Nash about not needing assistance.
As if he’d heard that thought, Nash rocked back on his heels. “Tree house rules.” What happened in the tree house stayed in the tree house—and none of them could kick the others out.
Grayson’s eyes narrowed. “You may note that this is not, in fact, our tree house.” Before Nash could reply, Grayson turned to Savannah. “You should take Gigi home.”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here.” Up until now, Gigi had been—predictably—a very cheerful drunk. But she didn’t sound particularly cheerful now. “And stop acting like I need other people to make decisions for me. I am an autonomous person! A dynamo of good decision-making. I am… an autonymo!” Gigi declared. “Show me the photos.”
CHAPTER 58
GRAYSON
Drunk Gigi was remarkably determined. Grayson ended up letting her into the black-card suite. Savannah followed, and Xander and Nash made themselves at home.
Grayson opened the briefcase containing the photographs. He flipped one over without allowing himself to even register the age he’d been when it was taken. “Date written on the back,” he said, his voice controlled. “Nothing else.”
He checked a second photo and a third—the same. Gigi began to spread the photos out.
“What if Dad’s trying to tell us something?” she said.
“What if he left,” Savannah countered, “because he doesn’t care?”
“Don’t say that,” Gigi implored. “Do you really think that I’ve been looking for answers, looking for Dad, for me?”
Savannah’s expression was very hard to read. “Geeg.”
“You,” Gigi replied, “were everything he wanted in a daughter.”
Savannah looked down. “And it still wasn’t enough.”
Grayson looked away from the two of them.
“On the way here, I told myself that if there was even a small chance Dad was innocent, I was going to prove it,” Savannah said. She swallowed. “But maybe I just want to understand. Why he left us. Why nothing was ever enough for him.”
Gigi enveloped Savannah in a hug, then her blue eyes narrowed. “Prove Dad innocent of what?”
Grayson waited for Savannah to lie to her. She was the one who’d insisted that Gigi, like their mother, needed to be protected.
“Embezzling from Grammy. Emptying Mom’s trust.”
Gigi took in that info. “I am starting to feel distressingly sober. I think I need another mimosa.”
“You got drunk on mimosas?” Nash asked mildly.
Gigi held up a single finger.
Xander interpreted. “On one mimosa?”
“And four cups of coffee,” Gigi admitted.
Savannah’s eyes narrowed. “Oh dear lord.”
Gigi looked at her twin. “I forgive you,” she said, and the fact that the words came out of nowhere seemed to make them hit Savannah harder. “You were just trying to protect me.” Gigi turned toward Grayson. “And I forgive you, Lord of Lies, because you need me in your life.” She glanced at Xander and Nash. “He takes himself way too seriously.”
“I do not,” Grayson grumbled.
Gigi moved like lightning and tickled his side. “Now, about those photographs…”
Grayson swatted her hand away and jumped back when she went in to tickle him again.
“We don’t need the photographs.” Savannah took pity on Grayson and distracted her twin. “We already know where we’re going next.”
CHAPTER 59
JAMESON
The sound of church bells broke through the air. Branford made it to the door first.
It was unlocked.
Jameson let the others clear out, then turned to Avery and softly murmured directly into her ear. “We’re looking for smugglers’ caves. They’ll be ocean-side, obviously. We’ll make sense of the rest of it once we find the caves.”