“Your name came up. He said I should call you. How do you two know each other?”
Hailey laughed. “My firm deals with all the Bond businesses on the island. Most of them go through the same bank and when Seth was named the new president a few years ago we had a meet and greet. Not to mention we’ve had some dealings.”
Which of course she should have realized but didn’t really get involved in her cousins’ businesses. She liked working for someone else and getting her paycheck. The last thing she wanted to deal with were those complications.
Of course she was still dealing with one now.
They finished up the call with Hailey and she took a few deep breaths. “The first step is done,” her mother said. “Hailey is going to lock up your social security number for you and take care of that right away.”
“No one is going to be able to access anything with my number,” she said. “But like Seth said, maybe they have other cards coming or are sitting on them to use now that some of them have been maxed or frozen for nonpayment.”
“Let Hailey deal with it. She knows what is best. If there is a way to track this person, Hailey and Griffin will do it.”
“Griffin?” she asked. “Is that the name of the guy that follows Eli around in the shadows at night?”
Her mother laughed. “That’s him. He’s some ex-military person. Eli says the guy would jump in front of a bullet for him.”
She shook her head. “I get Eli needs security, but that guy’s kind of scary when he stands around with his arms crossed in a suit like Eli and never says a word. And why does Eli need someone following him around like that?”
“Eli has always been a wild and smooth one. He traveled the world looking at different casinos to make his dream come true. When you’ve got money behind your name, sometimes people target you. Who knows with Eli? And no one asks. Could just be more a show for him too.”
Which was more likely the case. “Do you think that happened to me?” she asked, looking at her mother staring at her. “I don’t have much that anyone would want to target me.”
“You have enough and you just don’t know. This could be random. It could have been a hack on your computer. It could have been a lot of things and we may never know, but the first step is to take a step. To take charge.”
“I know you’re right. I already feel better. My bigger concern now is I might be stuck living in my condo in Plymouth when I start working here in June.”
“You can move in with us and you know it.”
“There comes an age where staying at your parents for more than a few nights crimps everyone’s style.”
Her mother sighed. “I know you’re going to be difficult about this but come June you might not have a choice. Rental properties aren’t that easy to find and if you try to rent from someone that isn’t a family member they will run a credit check on you.”
“Urgh. This is horrible,” she said, ready to bang her head against the table. “It’s so embarrassing on top of it. Hailey made me feel like I could have prevented this when it never crossed my mind.”
“I don’t think she wanted you to feel bad as much as she wanted you to be aware and make others aware. Let’s give it time and get things in place. Until then, I’ll keep my ear out for places to rent for you. Drew might know of something when you’re ready to talk to him about it.”
“I’ll reach out to him soon. I promise. But for now, I’ll call Seth and see if we can come in to get that account set up for you. I’d rather he do it than us go in together and have someone see us.”
“And if he can’t do it and has me meet with someone else, then that is exactly what I’ll do. Maybe I’ll go do that while you meet with him and get what Hailey needs. We don’t even have to walk in together. I’ll go in before you or after.”
“That’s probably best. No reason to raise any red flags.”
“That’s my girl,” her mother said, patting her hand again. “You’ll get through this.”
“I know. It’s going to take time, but I’ll need it to fix my bruised pride.”
6
Clouds Of Worry
Two weeks later, Seth was walking through the grocery store with Adele while he got his weekly food. With spring break next week, he’d need more snacks and lunch food in the house. His mother was going to watch Adele on Monday and Tuesday and then he had the rest of the week off.
Mary Young was going on a much-needed cruise with friends and would be returning the following week.
“I want tomato soup,” Adele said, walking next to the cart and holding onto it. He didn’t like her far from his sight. “With grilled cheese. Make sure we have that for lunch.”
Her new favorite. She’d latch onto something and eat it to exhaustion and then he’d be stuck with it in the house forever when she decided it wasn’t her favorite anymore.
“I’ll get enough for next week,” he said.
“But I want more than five cans,” she said when he put them in the cart. “I’m going to eat it every day for a month.”
“We’ll be here next week to buy more if that is the case.” He started to push his cart more but noticed Adele wasn’t moving from her spot. He turned to tell her to come on and bumped into someone. He started to apologize when he noticed it was Ava. “Hi,” he said. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine,” she said. She had a small basket in her hand with a few items.
He hadn’t seen her in almost two weeks. The first time they’d met, she’d left his office and
