Starting With You

4. Unlock a dead man's secrets.

Jensen

THE WARM SUN PEEKS BEHIND THE BUILDING that was once a booming mall on late Friday afternoon. Now instead of clothing stores, the space has been renovated into miscellaneous business suites. One such business is the office of my late Uncle Don's lawyer.

I spy my foster brother Sully pulling into the lot on his motorcycle, and I wait until he parks and walks over to me. His long, dark hair is ruffled from the helmet, and he runs his hand through it, trying to settle the rogue pieces. He nods his head at me, and we make our way inside the building.

"What'd Ike say? He know anything about what this is?" Sully's husky voice echoes in the empty hall of the converted mall.

"He was clueless. I guess we'll all learn what this is all about at the same time."

Just as we come to the office door, a voice shouts from behind us. "Hey, boys! Wait for me!"

My little cousin, JJ, runs down the hall, the click, click, click of her heels pronouncing her arrival. When she stops in front of us, she straightens her polka dot blouse and pencil skirt. "I almost didn't get off work in time. My prick of a boss is being a bigger prick than usual."

"You could always leave that shitty job and come work at the farm, you know?" I've been trying to recruit JJ to the team for years. Besides her brief employment as a teenager, she refuses to work at the farm.

"Save your breath, Jensen. You know how I feel about that. Besides, I don't hear you constantly bugging Sully about not working on the farm. You know, we can still be family and not work there, right?" She points at Sully, as if asking for backup. "Right?"

Sully's serious face slowly cracks into a smirk. "You know why he doesn't bug me about it, right, Double J?"

She rolls her eyes at the nickname, one she has made perfectly clear she doesn't particularly care for. "Ugh. Nevermind. I should know better than to ask you for help." With that, she slides between us to open the glass office door, not holding it for us to follow her.

Sully chuckles, seemingly ok with not being able to answer his own question, as we walk into the office behind my cousin. "What's the reason?"

"Huh?" Sully turns his attention to me momentarily as he makes his way over to our family congregated in the waiting room.

"Why don't I bug you? You know, about working on the farm? What reason were you going to give JJ?"

His eyes search our family before rounding back to me. "Because you know it's a waste of time."

Blowing out a breath, I nod at him, because I do know. Once Sully has made up his mind, there is no changing it.

He spent his teenage years on the farm, but then quit when he was offered an apprenticeship at a tattoo parlor a few towns over. We've been waiting for him to move back, open his own shop here in Lake Hope. I suspect, though, that he likes the few layers of separation from us and him. Although we've welcomed him into our family, treated him as one of our own, he's always held us at a bit of a distance, never truly letting us in.

I clap Sully on the shoulder as I move past him to weasel my way to the front of the waiting room. I check the clock and notice we're a bit early. I find an open seat next to Finn, who grunts at me in acknowledgement. "Ready to inherent a shit ton of money?"

"Doubtful, bro. Doubtful."

Just then, a door behind the reception desk opens and a portly man steps out. "Andersons, good afternoon. Whoa, look at that. I always forget how many of you there are." He motions with his hand to follow him. "Come along. Oh, and maybe grab a few chairs from the waiting room. Not sure there are enough in the meeting room."