Page 75 of The Billion Heirs Boxed Set

And it begins.

“I know that’s what you think.”

“That’s what I know, Carly.” He rises and comes around the table to sit next to me. “This will be difficult for you to hear.”

“Whatever you say won’t change my mind about working there. Or about Austin.”

He shakes his head and takes a fortifying breath. “You can’t say that. Not until I tell you the truth.”

“I can say that, Daddy. I understand Mr. Bridger cheated you, but the brothers will make that right. I’m sure he cheated others, too. He probably broke the law. He probably did any number of things, but that was the father. Not the sons.”

“Carly,” Dad says, “have you ever wondered why you were abducted?”

I jerk in my chair. I spent a lot of the past two years asking myself that question, and I’ve finally come to terms that it doesn’t matter because I can’t change it. I can’t erase the past. I can only move forward.

So I sure didn’t expect it to come up in this conversation.

“I’ve been trying to figure it out since you disappeared, and a week ago, I finally got some relevant information.”

I gulp. “Just say it, Daddy. Please.”

“I’ve been working with an FBI agent since you went missing. Not much has come up since you returned, but we still talk. Last week, he called with some information that finally came across his desk.”

“And…?” I whisper the word, unable to get it to come out any louder.

“He found the document naming all the individuals who visited Derek Wolfe’s island. It was classified, but he got his hands on it two years after the fact. Most of them were fake names, including one the agent thought I’d be interested in.” Dad pauses, threads his fingers through his graying hair. “It was an alias used by Jonathan Bridger.”

A rock lands in my gut, and nausea begins the slow ascent up my throat.

“You don’t mean…”

He nods once. “Jonathan Bridger had a connection to the place, Carly. He’s most likely the reason you were taken.”

22

AUSTIN

I slept the whole flight to Seattle. For once, I was a passenger instead of a pilot. I admit, the Bridger jet is fancy and very convenient. The seats are plush and ridiculously comfortable. Maybe I’ve just worked too hard lately trying to be a cowboy. Our latest fun was getting wet and filthy breaking up that dam that Vance is having a coronary about. It was a great time after screwing his daughter this morning.

While we were tossing logs and hefting river rock, Chance explained about water rights and that ours date back to the 1800s. The Bridgers’ rights are the oldest in the area, meaning we have first dibs on water access, but we also aren’t allowed to block off water flow completely for downstream properties.

The Bridgers obviously aren’t beavers and we have no control over nature and how the animals decided to block the flow. I know that well enough with weather and flying in the Pacific Northwest. But I appreciate how Chance wants to stay on Vance’s good side, and even more to be a good neighbor.

So we spent a few hours decimating a dam in a creek. Only then did we head to the local airport and fly to Seattle.

I never expected to return home with my brothers in tow, like two pieces of oversized luggage. Yet here we are, at my mother’s house and being fed mass quantities of homemade fried chicken. She knows it’s my favorite, so she didn’t skimp.

“Eat up, boys. I don’t know where you’ll put it, but I assume you’ll be like your half brother and have hollow legs.”

We’re seated at her kitchen table, which is tight with the four of us.

“It’s really great, Ms. Lovering,” Miles says, waving a perfectly fried wing in the air. “Is there a hot sauce in the batter?”

She smiles and points her fork at him. “You bet there is.”

I grab the bowl of potato salad and scoop some onto my plate. I hold the bowl in my mom’s direction, silently offering her some, and she puts her fingers together indicating a small amount.

I’ve only been gone about two weeks, but it seems like a lifetime. Montana’s grown on me, though more like a fungus than anything else. But Chance and Miles aren’t the total assholes I expected them to be. They’re loyal and protective, smart and… well, annoying.