Page 51 of Noble Hops

“I’m sorry?”

Cam glanced at Nic for confirmation and caught just a glimpse of Nic’s pained expression before he directed his gaze out the window.He’d take that as a yes, then.One answer, a million more questions.

Cam cleared his throat and shook Garrett’s hand.“Special Agent Cameron Byrne.”

“You work with Nic?”

“I do.”

“We live together too,” Nic added.

Garrett’s hazel gaze whipped back and forth between them.“You’re together?”

Nic stepped away from the window and leaned a hip against his desk.“We are, which is why I called him down here.He needs to be brought up to speed, professionally and personally.”

Cam was both comforted and annoyed.“Heis still in the room,” he sniped, then added more civilly, “but thank you.”Nic nodded, and Cam returned his attention to Garrett.“You’re here about Curtis?”

Garrett looked to Nic for guidance.“Everything?”

“Yes, everything.”

“All right, then.”There was a Southern twang to his voice.Not like Jamie’s drawl—Cam would bet Garrett wasn’t raised in the South—but he’d lived there long enough to pick up some of the accent.“I’m here about Curtis and my and Nic’s sister.”

All thoughts of accents vanished.“Yoursister?”

“My mother, Victoria, was pregnant when she left Curtis.”

So that’s why Victoria had finally had enough and packed their bags to leave that day.She’d had another life to protect.

“On Nic’s graduation day,” Cam said.

“He’s told you?”

“Some of it.”Crossing his arms, Cam moved next to Nic, worry of a different sort filtering through his investigator’s mind.“So you’re here now to collect?”

“Cam,” Nic admonished.

“I’m here aboutyou.”Cam wanted both men to be clear who his priority was in this scenario.

“My father was providing a stipend for my sister.”

“The offshore account?”

Nic nodded.“And Nicolette is also provided for in the will.”

“I’m not here to collect,” Garrett said.“We don’t need Curtis’s money anymore.Mom never wanted it in the first place.”

“But you took it?”

“I did.”Not even Cam could deny the heavy regret in Garrett’s voice.“To pay for her college and to buy an extra life insurance policy that would pay out if I was killed in combat.I was recruited into MARSOC.That’s?—”

“Marine Corps Special Operations Command,” Cam said.“My brother’s a sergeant.”

“Then you understand how dangerous it is.”

“To a degree.”

“I had a risky deployment coming up, and Nicolette had just been accepted into a prestigious arts academy.Mom and I had scraped together all our money to pay for it, but we were still short.If anything happened to me, then it would have been a massive shortfall.I didn’t want Nicolette’s dream to die.So I paid for and insured it the best I could.”