Page 179 of Titus

Fuck. My jaw tightened. This wasn’t good, and not just because federal agents were moving. Because Marcus had spent the last six weeks tracking unusual inquiries connected to my father. The kind of inquiries most people never notice, such as requests for archived financial records, old property transactions, dormant holding companies, and conversations with individuals who should have remained buried in the past.

It was nothing substantial or actionable, but it was just enough to make experienced people uncomfortable.

The ultimate problem had been that nobody had been able to determine where any of these inquiries were leading. Marcus was fucking stumped, and my legal teams were just as perplexed by their findings. Even Jim and Spencer’s investigators ran into the same dead ends.

It was as if someone had deliberately buried whatever they were looking for beneath layers of misinformation and missing records. If I had to guess, it was probably another mess left behind by my old man—some precaution he’d taken to conceal whatever bullshit he’d been involved in while running the company.

There was no use in giving any of that thought now, not while federal agents were on the move. The question was… why?

“What’s the destination?” I asked.

“We’re ninety percent certain they’re on their way to you.”

A slow breath escaped me. The remaining ten percent chance that they weren’t coming for me existed only because Marcus hated being wrong.

I watched as Catalina shifted beneath the blankets. She had one hand tucked beneath her cheek, completely unaware that federal agents were driving toward us somewhere between Los Angeles and Montecito.

“How many vehicles?”

“Four.”

Three days ago, I would’ve called this bad timing, but today it felt personal.

“What are we looking at?”

Marcus was silent for long enough to tell me he already knew the answer.

“Whatever they’ve built, it’s tied to your father’s history with the company.”

My eyes closed briefly.

Fucking son of a bitch.

Of course this shit was tied to my bastard of a father. He was the only one in the family stupid enough to conduct business as if he were above the law.

If I were brutally honest with myself, I’d been waiting for someone to attempt this for twenty years. Not because I’d done anything that warranted federal agents knocking on my door, but because nearly everything my father had done while building this company… had.

The reason I knew I was now someone’s target was simple: powerful men create powerful enemies. Unfortunately for me, some of those enemies never learned the difference between the man who committed the sins and the son who inherited the consequences.

“Any indication who pushed for this?”

“Nothing concrete.”

“I want your opinion, Marcus.”

Marcus didn’t hesitate. “Christian Jameston, possibly his father as well. The timing is far too suspicious.”

My grip tightened around the phone. It was the same conclusion I’d reached weeks ago. Everyone knew the man had been circling my businesses like a vulture for months, and despite Jim and me both having our security teams, tech departments, investigators, and attorneys all looking into it, none of us had been able to figure out where the bastard planned to nail me.

Turns out, the leech had found something to grab onto, and now agents were on their way to retrieve me.

The funny thing was, all my concern over the bastard who’d been fucking with me had somehow led me to the only woman I had ever loved. I half-smiled at that reality.

“Is Jim Mitchell aware of the agents on their way?”

“Yes, sir.”

Out of all of us, Jim probably hadn’t slept more than four hours a night since the inquiries into my company started.