“Marshall bought a piece of land by the Canadian border,” Jed began. “He bought it for Macon because the owner wouldn’t sell it to your father. We don’t know the reason. Maybe because he was a shifty asshole. We do have record of the sale to Marshall. We also have a contract Macon signed with the intent to purchase the land from him.”

I stilled because what he was saying was fact. I knew all this because I’d finalized that deal the night before. Got Julian to ensure the funding was wired to Marshall. I’d done it not to make Marshall happy, but to see where Jed stood. If he’d walk away once the job for his boss was done.

Turned out, that wasn’t even his actual job.

“You know what I’m talking about,” he said, studying me.

I nodded, licked my lips. “Yes. That’s not illegal.”

“No, it’s not. It’s what Macon planned to do with the land that we’re interested in.”

“Any land Wainright Holdings purchases is for conservation. It would have been donated to a land conservancy group.”

Jed leaned back against the rail once more, slowly shook his head. “Our intel says he’s planning to lease the land to a logger. Then to a company that strip mines.”

“No. No, that’s not true. He can’t do that. There are laws.”

“The FBI investigates white collar crimes and public corruption,” he repeated.

I bit my lip. Considered.

“You knew Macon better than anyone. Don’t you think this is something he’d do?”

It sounded just like him. “I’m the head of the company’s philanthropy. I know nothing about this.”

“What he was planning wasn’t very philanthropic,” he countered.

The calmer he got, the more riled I became. This had Macon written all over it. He’d kept me in the dark, because I would have fought him on it. “Fine. He’s dead. None of it matters now.”

“Except if he made the deals with government officials and those loggers on the condition the land was purchased.”

Oh shit.

Had I just set in motion the destruction of hundreds of acres of pristine wilderness?

“I knew nothing about that,” I said, refusing to tell him that I’d closed the contract with Marshall. The purchase wasn’t illegal, especially if I did actually donate it to a conservation group.

I hadn’t seen the contract with the loggers or whatever the company was. It hadn’t been in the pile Julian had given me the day before. I could only imagine where it was and if Macon had a secret stack of deals he never wanted me to know about.

Of course he did. I’d have to find it and ensure this one was never signed because the land was to be preserved, not destroyed.

“I know,” he said.