Free Unraveled by Jennifer Estep Page A

it from him. But even if he did know about the resort and pressured her to sell it, it’s not the kind of thing that you can just take down to the corner pawnshop and hock for cold, hard cash.”
    Well, hiding assets certainly sounded like something that Deirdre would have done. Even when Tucker had tied her down to a chair and tortured her, she’d still been scheming how she could turn the situation around to her advantage. Mama Dee had always been plotting something , so it didn’t surprise me that she’d squirreled away some assets for a rainy day. But an Old West theme park? I would have never expected that from her. It just didn’t fit in with Deirdre’s diva personality and addiction to the finer things in life.
    â€œShe actually talked to me about the resort a few times,” Finn continued. “Before . . . everything that happened.”
    I waited, but he didn’t elaborate, and I realized that I was going to have to pry it out of him. “And what did she say?”
    Finn bit his lip and shifted on his feet. He looked past me, staring out the vault entrance and into the hallway, focusing on the spot where Deirdre had tortured him with her magic. His green eyes darkened, and his shoulders tensed, remembering the cold, horrible Ice burns that she’d inflicted on him. His hands curled into fists, and a faint, almost imperceptible shudder rippled through his body before he was able to stop it.
    â€œFinn?” I asked again in a gentler voice, trying to shake him out of his painful memories. “What did Deirdre say about the theme park?”
    He blinked, snapping back to the here and now, ­although he dropped his head and started drawing a line on the floor with his black wing tip, instead of looking at me. “Deirdre thought that the Old West theme was rather quaint. She told me that she bought the park on a whim decades ago, that it was one of her very first investments. The park itself is all cowboys, all the time, just like you said, but there’s also a hotel on the grounds, also named Bullet Pointe. Deirdre said that she’d focused all her efforts on the hotel. It still has the same Old West look and feel as everything else, but she claimed that she’d slowly turned it into a luxury resort. She bragged that folks come from all over the country to stay there and take advantage of the spa, the golf courses, and the lake that rings it and the theme park. Here. See for yourself.”
    Finn took the sheaf of papers from me and pulled out a slick, glossy brochure, which he passed back over to me. I opened it up and scanned through the pages. He was right. The Bullet Pointe hotel looked like a swanky place with just the sort of insanely expensive, over-the-top luxury that Deirdre had indulged in. Still, I wondered why she had left it to Finn and especially why the deed had shown up now.
    Usually, the wheels of estates and inheritances ground much more slowly, especially in Ashland. Most of the time when somebody died, long-lost relatives and second cousins twice removed came out of the woodwork like hordes of termites, with each and every one demanding a piece of the dearly departed’s money pie, no matter how large or small it was. But here was Finn, a scant two weeks after Deirdre’s death, deed in hand, with this shiny, new significant real estate to his name. It was all a bit convenient and far too quick and easy for my tastes. Something was going on here.
    â€œSo what do you plan to do with your new windfall?” I asked.
    â€œWell, that depends on you.”
    â€œWhy me?”
    â€œBecause I know what you’re thinking—that this all happened way too fast and way too easily. And I totally agree with you. It’s definitely fishy. I didn’t even think that it was real, at first.”
    â€œBut?”
    â€œBut the second I got the deed, I started calling around, making sure that it was legit. The lawyer who did