He made his way to the bathroom and pulled out his cell phone as he moved. He could always ask Shae information about her past, but he had a much more effective way of getting details. He dialed Toni’s number.
After only one ring, she picked up. “Everything okay?”
“Pretty boring here,” he said. “I’m out to dinner was Shae Grant. I’m working to find out anything useful that I can, but I was hoping you could give me a rundown beforehand.”
“A rundown? What exactly do you want to know?”
Tristan knew Toni was fucking with him. Usually before a mission, she would tell him more random facts and trivia about the people and places involved than he ever wanted to know. But now she was playing dumb? “Come on, Toni. I know you know something.”
“Okay, fine. I know a few things, but I thought this would be a better operation for you to run dry.”
“Well, I not so respectfully disagree. Now tell me what you know.”
“Tell me what you know first.”
“I don’t have time for this.” Shae would be expecting him back at the table soon.
“Fine. Shae Grant is twenty-eight years old. She is a home flipper, and she works in various parts of Miami, Louisiana, and Georgia. From what I can tell, she’s on her tenth house. Each one has gotten slightly more expensive, which makes me think that she puts her entire life savings into every house that she’s working on. Ballsy, but maybe not the smartest move.”
Ballsy. Impulsive. Tristan thought back to how quickly Shae had run into the burning house and got to work putting it out. That sounded about right. That would also explain why she would run off to confront Blackthorne last night when any sane person would stay the hell away. “What about her history? Her family? I think she comes from money.”
“You’re not wrong. Her dad, Manuel Grant, is a banking executive from Miami. A real big shot, from everything I can see. After looking through a few social media profiles, it doesn’t look like they’ve been in contact. I could be wrong, but I’m not usually.”
Tristan was all too familiar with her propensity to be right. “Do you know what happened between her and her father?”
“I’m not a psychic, Tristan. Also, what does this have to do with your mission?”
It had nothing to do with his mission. Honestly, he was growing more and more curious about this woman. Unusual for him, but he supposed Shae was an unusual person. “Don’t worry about it. I can figure it out on my own.”
“Hey, all this is just from my preliminary searches on her. I’ll let you know if I find anything else.”
“Thanks,” he said hastily before he hung up the phone. He made his way back to the table, and Shae was scrolling through her phone. “Anything interesting?” He sat down.
She abruptly put the phone down. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to be rude. I just have a hard time sitting still. It’s a gift and a curse.”
“I’d say it’s more a gift. I’ve never been one to enjoy sitting around much either.”
She smiled at him. She looked grateful for his understanding. He thought back to what Toni had just told him about Shae. His idea about her coming from money had been proved correct. Toni had also said that she put her savings into every home she purchased. And she’d been working alone in the house all day, and during the drive had mentioned doing flooring. It wasn’t exactly a normal thing for a debutante to know how to install floors. He was guessing she wasn’t doing it purely for fun, but she also couldn’t afford a team to do it for her. Hell, with family money like that, she shouldn’t even need to work. He could see her maybe working on the homes for fun, but ten in a row wasn’t just fun. This was a job for her. So had Daddy cut her off? Had she left?
She seemed so independent. Tristan was going to guess that she was the one who broke off the relationship. That had to take balls. As someone who had started dirt-poor and found his way into money, he couldn’t imagine going in the other direction.
“So how long have you lived at Seaside Escape?” He figured he’d start with some easy questions and then work his way deeper to solve the mystery of Shae.
“Not long. I think maybe three months now. I try to get my houses done in six months.”
“You can’t put the same timeline on every house. Isn’t each project different?”
“Oh yes. I had some go as quick as two months, and some that have taken a year. The first house I did almost destroyed me. Everything took two weeks longer than I was expecting it to. I was just so new, and na?ve. I’m lucky I managed to turn a profit with it. I maxed out a lot of credit cards to get that house to where it was. But it turned out great and sold in less than a week.”
The pride was evident in her voice. Tristan was half tempted to share the first job that he’d managed to pull off seamlessly but knew that little conversation would be off-limits. He smiled at her, happy that she seemed happy.
“So tell me, Tristan, have you worked on any advertising campaigns that I might know about?”
“A lot of the stuff I can’t talk about. You know how touchy these businesses are about confidentiality.”
“Confidentiality and advertising? I thought you guys were all about bragging.”
“That’s the hardest part. All I want to do is brag and try to impress you, but I know I can’t.”
She let out a little laugh. “That’s so odd.”
“What? That I want to impress you? Or that I want to brag?”
“That you want to impress me. Why did you come over earlier today?”
Tristan knew he had to tread carefully. “I didn’t know I needed a reason to talk to a beautiful woman.” A soft blush crept up her cheeks that was evident even through her makeup. As pretty as she was, he had a feeling she didn’t get flirted with much.
“I mean, I was pretty far away when you started to come over. Could you even see me? And besides, I looked a mess. I barely got any sleep last night, and I’m certain the stress was showing.”
This was his chance. “What are you stressed about?”
She blinked rapidly, and he knew she was trying to think of ways to evade his question. “Just house stuff.”
“What house stuff? I might have some connections that can help out.”
“Nothing you can help with. It’s mainly... well... someone is trying to buy out the property and isn’t happy that I said no. I think he threw a brick through one of the windows yesterday, but I can’t prove it.”
Jackpot. Tristan leaned forward and put on his concerned face. “A brick? That’s terrible. Did you go to the police?”
Her gaze fell to the table. He knew she hadn’t gone to the police. She marched right to the source of the brick, ready to show them exactly who they were messing with. And he knew that hadn’t ended well for her. “I did talk to the police about it. They weren’t interested. It wasn’t like they were going to go all CSI on this small amount of property damage. I just have to let it go and hope it won’t happen again.”
“But you are worried it could happen again,” he guessed.