Tate couldn’t help but notice the guilty look exchanged between Zack and Cooper.
“What? There’s something you’re not telling me.”
Zack cleared his throat before replying.
“We haven’t actually mentioned this to anyone else in the family. We weren’t sure it would amount to anything, and we didn’t want to raise anyone’s hopes only to disappoint them later.”
This sounded like something Zack might do, but Cooper? He’d kept many secrets over the years, but they’d all been about him personally, not about their mother.
“You didn’t tell them? We’re the only ones who know? Not even Sam?”
“Not Sam, Frankie, or Piper,” Zack confirmed. “You can tell me I’m wrong if you want to.”
“Okay, you’re wrong. Cooper, what are your thoughts?”
“I told him it was a mistake,” Cooper said. “But I also said that I wouldn’t tattle on him. But if they find out and they’re pissed, I’m totally throwing him under the bus. There’s no question about that. He’s toast. Frankie might kill him.”
“I’d be more afraid of Piper,” Tate replied. “She fights dirty. Seriously, big brother. You thought this was a good idea?”
“I didn’t want to have them get hurt,” Zack explained.
“We’re all already hurt,” Tate shot back. “You playing games like Dad isn’t going to make this any better.”
“Ouch. You’re comparing me to Dad?”
“Yes, he’d say the same thing. I can hear him now telling us that he was only trying to protect us, and he was doing it for our own good. Sound familiar?”
His older brother had the good sense to look ashamed. Zack wasn’t usually this thoughtless.
“I didn’t want them to get emotional,” Zack finally admitted. “I didn’t want to deal with their emotions and mine, too.”
“Luckily, you and I don’t have any emotions,” Cooper joked. “Telling us was no big deal.”
“We have to tell them,” Tate insisted. “Not this second, but today. Nothing good is going to come from keeping secrets. They’re going to be pissed that they didn’t get to come with us.”
“I’ll take the fall,” Zack said. “I’ll tell them it was my fault.”
“Good, because it is,” Cooper replied. “Piper is going to kick you straight in the balls.”
When they’d been kids, and Piper had been the littlest, it had been her go-to self-defense move. She’d once kicked Sam so hard, they’d all been sure his grandchildren would feel it.
To be fair, Sam had been acting like a dick to Piper and deserved some retribution. Whether a goal kick was a “proportional” response could be debated, but it had stopped Sam from teasing his little sister for a long time.
Piper had gotten in trouble, and Sam had gotten a frozen bag of peas for his groin area. Everyone else in the family received a lesson in what their sister was capable of. Lesson learned.
“I hope Piper has grown out of that behavior,” Zack said. “As kids, it was kind of funny. As adults, it’s assault and illegal.”
“You would have your own sister arrested?” Tate asked.
“No, but she doesn’t need to know that.”
After they looked through all of the boxes with clothes, they moved on to the others. A few were filled with receipts, and a few years of the family’s tax paperwork.
“This can all probably be shredded,” Zack said. “This is long past any retention rules for the IRS. Did Dad not want to store any of this in his office at home? I see that it’s only personal taxes. There’s nothing for the business here.”
“Why wouldn’t Dad just store it at the office?” Cooper queried, his brows pinched together in a frown. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“You’re right,” Tate agreed. “It doesn’t make sense. That’s what makes this so interesting. If Mom brought these particular years of tax papers here, she did it for a reason. Where can we find a forensic accountant? Maybe Dad was up to something, and Mom put this here for evidence.”
