Page 96 of The Hardest Hit

“That only gets her halfway home,” Aiden said.

“I think,” said Jackson before hesitating. “I think it’s enough. The pictures with Olivia in them are double blackmail. They make Evan and Olivia break up, that’s a win for Taggert and if he threatens to go public with the photos, she can counter with her photos. I think Eleanor believes that will be enough to keep Taggert off her about the healthcare bill and that Evan will go back to being how he was and everything will be back to normal.”

“I don’t fucking want normal!” bellowed Aiden.

“Breathe, Aiden,” said Dominique. In response, Aiden made an inarticulate growl and turned back to the window.

“How bad are they? The photos, I mean,” asked Dominique.

“From my perspective, not that bad. But for the average member of the public, S & M is not generally acceptable.”

“God, I didn’t want to know that,” said Aiden.

Dominique sighed. “Poor Evan. I really did not understand how badly his father screwed him up.”

“S & M is not screwed up,” objected Jackson. “Some people enjoy that and there’s nothing wrong with it.”

“Is there something we need to know about you?” asked Aiden, and Jackson exhaled in frustration.

“I’m just saying that S & M is not an automatic problem—unless you’re Evan and you’re using it to punish yourself. Anyway, Evan used to go to a club. He quit going a couple of years ago, and these pictures appear to be from that time frame.”

“No,” said Aiden, taking an angry lap around the couch. “Just no. I have known Grandma all my life. There’s no way she would be caving to Taggert. She has to have something up her sleeve. And how did whoever took these photos know about Ralph Taggert anyway? Why go to him? Why not go directly to Grandma? If you’ve got photos of Evan, you go blackmail his wealthy and powerful family. You don’t go to his girlfriend or his girlfriend’s family. Something is wrong with this whole setup.”

“You got there really fast,” said Jackson, impressed.

Both Dominique and Aiden exchanged glances. “Meaning that you’re there ahead of us?” demanded Aiden.

“Yes, but it took me several hours,” said Jackson. “In my defense, I was trying to talk to Grandma, and Evan, and text Pete at the same time. But yeah, I’m slow.”

“Jacks,” said Dominique, looking at him sternly. “What do you know?”

“Lots of things. I know that I’m a very suspicious bastard and I know that Eleanor should never have invited me to be in charge of security if she thought that she was ever going to try and go around me. I pulled her phone records. I pulled her cash expenditures and last, but not least, I pulled the GPS off her car.”

“What did she do?” demanded Aiden.

“Are you acting as my lawyer right now, Aiden?” asked Jackson.

“Fuck,” said Aiden. He closed his eyes and then opened them again. “Yes. Yes, of course, I am.”

“OK, then tell me when Evan asked you about public records requests.”

Aiden stared at him for a long moment. “Um… November? I don’t remember. Um, yeah. It was before Thanksgiving. Why?”

“We have all noticed that Evan has been somewhat distant this year. The truth is that Evan has been avoiding us because of something troubling that he found in the storage unit.”

“Oh, shit on a shingle,” said Dominique. “I don’t know what it is, but I swear to God, I will dig up Randall and Owen and kill them all over again.”

“Funny you should say dig up.” Jackson cleared his throat and looked at his cousins.

“Don’t keep us waiting,” said Aiden. “I’m about to start drinking straight from the bottle out of anxiety.”

“Randall had Henry dug up and autopsied because he thought Eleanor offed him.”

“Oh,” said Aiden. “Oh, whew. I thought it was going to be something horrible.”

“Thatisgenerally considered horrible,” said Dominique.

“Well, so was Grandpa. Who cares?”