Nathan saw it.
“What was six hundred dollars for?”
Thomas looked toward the door.
“Protection.”
Nathan laughed once.
“From me?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“Victor.”
Nathan became still.
Thomas continued.
“I found duplicate rail manifests.”
“How?”
“I negotiate rates. Numbers stopped matching.”
Bella understood.
“What did Victor offer?”
“Money.”
“You took it.”
“Yes.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
Thomas quickly continued.
“To buy time.”
“Why?”
“I was copying everything.”
“Where?”
Thomas looked at Nathan.
“Your father’s old hunting lodge.”
Nathan frowned.
“That’s abandoned.”
“Exactly.”
Thomas had hidden records there.
Then Victor learned.
Poison appeared.
Thomas drank Nathan’s whiskey by accident.
He survived because the dosage was intended for Nathan’s larger body.
Nathan’s face changed.
Bella caught it.
Thomas continued.
“When I woke, I ran.”
“Why not come to me?”
“Because the poison was in your bottle.”
Nathan stared.
“You thought I poisoned myself?”
“No.”
Thomas hesitated.
“I thought someone close enough to you controlled everything.”
“Victor.”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
Thomas looked toward Bella.
“Now I think he controls less than he believes.”
Bella frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Thomas looked at Nathan.
“You think Victor is the top.”
Nathan’s expression changed.
“He isn’t?”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
“Who?”
Thomas swallowed.
“Your mother.”
The room went silent.
Nathan stared.
“My mother is dead.”
Thomas shook his head.
“She is not.”
Bella turned toward Nathan.
His face had emptied.
Again.
Just like people whose histories suddenly tore open.
Nathan whispered:
“My mother died twenty years ago.”
Thomas looked terrified.
“I met her six months ago.”
Nathan stood so quickly the chair tipped backward.
“No.”
Thomas flinched.
Bella rose.
“Nathan.”
He ignored her.
“My mother died in a hotel fire.”
Thomas said nothing.
Nathan stepped closer.
“Twenty years ago.”
Thomas swallowed.
“I don’t know what they told you.”
“Who is they?”
“Your father.”
That word changed everything.
Nathan stopped.
His father.
Dead now ten years.
Built Drake Valley.
Feared.
Brilliant.
Cruel.
A man Nathan rarely discussed.
Thomas continued.
“Her name now is Eleanor Voss.”
Nathan stared.
Bella saw disbelief becoming something else.
Memory.
Questions.
Maybe things that never fit.
Nathan whispered:
“Where?”
Thomas gave an address.
Montana.
A small ranch outside Bozeman.
Bella looked at Nathan.
He did not look back.
His entire life had just shifted.
And Victor Hale was somewhere on his ranch.
Working.
Waiting.
Possibly poisoning him.
Bella understood something.