Page 12 of Collin, Episodes 7-9 (The Residency Boys #3)

Collin couldn’t see much through the shades wrapped around his eyes. He went to pull them off, but Mr. Reevesworth put a hand on his shoulder.

“How did you get this footage, Ash?”

“It’s not footage.” Ash made fists at his sides. “It’s live. I’m saving it, but it’s live.”

Mr. Reevesworth stood up and rubbed his face.

“What is it?” Collin asked. All he could see was the outline of someone standing in a room that could have been a living room or an office.

“One of the federal investigators that questioned Ash,” Mr. Reevesworth said. “Why she’s in the room with the computer that’s watching your computer, I don’t know. Ash, could it be a trap?”

“It’s not a government location.” Ash sat down and typed some more, then pointed to a screen with a map on it. “And she’s not in there alone. That lawyer guy from yesterday is there too. See?”

The woman moved out of the shot.

“Huh.” Ash leaned forward. “That’s a little girl.”

“You two have class. Ash, I’m calling my private investigator in to look at this. Save everything. Can you step away, or do you have to stay here?”

“I’ll bring my laptop with and keep an eye on it, but I don’t need to DO anything.”

“Then class, both of you. Ms. Zhou is waiting.” Mr. Reevesworth walked out, phone already up to his ear.

Ms. Zhou was charming if a little stiff.

She was passionate about language, however.

She’d brought an entire presentation to show the history of Mandarin, but since Collin wasn’t supposed to be looking at screens for the day, she’d turned it off and explained the four tones of Mandarin Chinese.

For the first thirty minutes, Collin couldn’t hear the difference between shí and shī to save his life.

Ash, however, started to pick up on it more quickly.

“Most teachers start with hello and goodbye,” Ms. Zhou explained. “But Mr. Reevesworth said you are serious students and to teach you the best way. So, we will start with vocal drills and some simple writing. But this week, maybe no writing, yes?”

Collin chuckled wryly. “I’ll try to stay out of the hospital next week, I promise. Besides, I still can’t hear the difference between this “sh” sound and this “x” sound.”

“It’s okay. We do again.”

And so went the next hour.

“My brain hurts.” Ash rubbed his head as they emerged from the conference room.

“Mine too.” Collin sighed. “I better get back to Mr. Reevesworth. You need some sleep.”

Ash waved him off.

“At least drink water, Ash. Come on!”

Ash spun around on his toes and stuck out his tongue.

Collin groaned. That kid.

Mr. Reevesworth was not in his office, but Damian was.

Collin grinned to see him, then frowned at the empty chair. “Fuck. I really need him to be here right now.”

“Need this?” Damian held up a very familiar key.

“Well, that and someone to use it.”

Damian smirked, but he looked less than fully confident. “I’ve been deputized. Our boss is in a virtual court hearing in the videoconferencing room.”

“What?”

Damian shrugged. “It’s fine. Eleanor is in there with him, and they both know what they’re doing. Dana’s Reevesworth’s lawyers are trying to lock down Reevesworth Industries’ assets. They shouldn’t be able to. Eleanor and our team were all over this yesterday. So, am I an okay deputy?”

Collin flushed. “Yes, I accept your deputing.”

Damian flashed a grin. “Okay, kitten. Let’s take you to the litter box.”

Collin groaned and covered his face with one hand. “I’m so glad I shut the door!”

Collin ordered lunch to arrive at noon for the entire team of lawyers as well as Mr. Reevesworth, Ash, and himself.

Damian went back to the conference call since he was on the team for the case.

Collin checked on Carrie, who checked on him, having seen the news.

He answered a concerned text from his sister, who had spoken to their mother, and then Mr. Reevesworth’s private investigator, Gerald Paulsen, arrived looking a little worn.

He’d already been up for a greater part of the night looking into the essential oils attacker.

Collin escorted him to Ash’s domain and let the two of them talk.

They started discussing chain of evidence, and Ash looked white around the eyes about that, but he sat up straight in his chair and actually said yes, sir and no, sir to the private investigator’s questions.

Paulsen rubbed his face repeatedly and finally announced, “I’m calling in some colleagues on this one. ”

Everyone was late for lunch. Collin served Mr. Reevesworth and the lawyers in the conference room, where there were enough seats for everyone.

“Sit, Collin.” Mr. Reevesworth pointed to the chair by his side.

Collin blushed and joined him. Under the table, Mr. Reevesworth rested his hand on Collin’s thigh and squeezed it gently.

Eleanor, a sharp-looking woman with blonde hair wrapped up in a bun on the back of her head, cracked open her glass water bottle and shot Mr. Reevesworth a reassuring look. “That went well, sir.”

“Thanks to you.” Mr. Reevesworth motioned to the entire team. “You had an answer for every question and questions they didn’t have answers to.”

There was a general chuckle from everyone in the room.

Eleanor drank and resealed her water bottle.

“There’s still a chance for some asset control restrictions to be handed down but nothing like the full lockdown they were asking for.

We were able to prove to the judge’s satisfaction that such a move would be injurious to both parties.

Which makes them look suspicious or just stupid. ”

“I’m afraid at this point they look more stupid than suspicious.” Damian spooned yogurt over his curry and rice. “What we need to know is who this Dana Reevesworth person is.”

Collin set a file on the table and pushed it toward Damian.

“Mr. Paulsen said to give this to you. It’s everything he was able to find on her since the call yesterday.

Someone with her name was registered as born in London nine years ago.

Her birth certificate was updated last month with Barrett Reevesworth listed as her father. ”

“My uncle died over twenty years ago.” Mr. Reevesworth leaned forward, snagging the file and opening it. “He couldn’t have fathered a child.”

Eleanor pressed her lips together. “These days, there are ways. This could potentially put us into an untested area of law.”

“What do you mean?”

“Either Dana Reevesworth is being propped up and is a fraud, or she’s actually a blood child of Barrett Reevesworth. If someone had stored viable sperm…”

“Then she’d be a direct descendant.” Mr. Reevesworth pressed his fingers against his forehead. “This would be a new area of the law.”

“Exactly.” Eleanor’s eyes were sharp. “Still unlikely to hold water in court since vacating inheritance more than a decade settled in favor of a person who didn’t exist before would make a lot of inheritance law unstable.

For one, we would need to prove that Barrett Reevesworth consented to having his DNA used to father a child. ”

“We don’t even know he had sperm donated.”

“It might not have been. It could have been taken.”

Collin swallowed. That was a whole new area of things to be scared about he would have much rather never considered. Part of him wanted to grip his dick through his pants. Luckily, he was locked up.

Would that be enough? Not likely. He smothered a nervous laugh.

“I’m sure you’ll all want to rip into this new information and what the judge said today,” Mr. Reevesworth said.

He closed the folder and picked up his sandwich.

“Let’s eat and then get back to work. Like I said before, we’re not going to let this case sidetrack everything else.

Hire more associates if you need to, Eleanor, Damian, but let’s not drop any balls.

I still think they’re aiming for distraction. ”

Collin followed Mr. Reevesworth back to his personal office. “What do you think they’re trying to distract you from, sir?”

“One of my companies is buying its way into the railroad market. We spoke about this before. I’m specifically looking to link this city and the state capital to the south together. People like Bernstein are opposed to it though they’re not coming out directly to say so.”

“Why are they opposed?”

Mr. Reevesworth sat down at his desk and tugged Collin forward until Collin had no option but to tumble into his master’s lap. Mr. Reevesworth turned him sideways and held him.

“It’s money. But it’s also habit. The rail project will disrupt a lot of presuppositions about both cities and how they function.

His company makes massive amounts of money on freeways.

They own tollways from here to the Atlantic.

I want to link walkable cities to each other so someone who can walk here can jump on a train and go to another walkable city and walk there, never driving at all. ”

“That’s hard to imagine.”

Mr. Reevesworth smiled and stroked Collin’s cheek. “When we visit Ami in Japan, as I’m sure émeric will want to do not too long from now, you’ll see it. Or perhaps when we are in London.”

“You’re taking me with you to London? Am I ready?”

“You have the raw makings. And I want you with me in London though I don’t know if London will happen next week or not. I’ll have others with me as well. You’ll be there more to learn. And because I don’t want to leave you behind. I rather like having you here.”

Collin blushed. “You mean, here, here , don’t you, sir?”

“Hmm…that is one applicable definition.” He nuzzled Collin’s hair.

“And you’re really not worried about this lawsuit and the hacking and…well, the threats?”

Mr. Reevesworth leaned back in his seat. “The first time I demolished a defunct factory, the local labor unions sued me. When I opened a new factory in the downtown, for a product that was actually in demand, I became the town savior. Every visionary has to weather a little bit of resistance.”

“You helped them, and they still got mad at you?”