~~~
"Twelve sixty-one Elm," Liam told Erica as he sat in the passenger seat of her car. "It's right...here."
Erica pulled to the side of the residential street while Liam set down the list of addresses they'd printed out from Brennan's customer database. He grabbed a stack of the bright orange flyers Erica had printed advertising her physical training services.
"Take it easy this time," Erica advised him. "It won't help our case if you break your neck."
Liam threw her a grin. "I didn't fall, did I? Made it over the hedge and even missed the dog."
A short laugh escaped her. "An easy jog to distribute the flyers is good enough. Olympics-style hurdle jumping is not required."
"Be right back." Liam jumped from the car and, despite Erica's warning not to, sprinted on his way to the front door of the address on Brennan's list. There he stuck an orange flyer under the doormat. He then jogged to the next house up and set a flyer by that front door, too.
Erica had already sent the same flyers in the mail. She and Liam had decided hand-delivering a second batch would be a good idea. People might notice an ad stuck under their door better than they'd notice one mixed with a pile of competing envelopes in their mailbox. Furthermore, driving door to door this way provided an opportunity to hit a bunch of other houses in the vicinity of each target address.
As Liam left the front door and the advertising flyer, he was aware of Erica waiting in the car. Even from this distance, he could sense her anxiety. She wanted to show the judge she could build a going business.
Liam kept his face turned away from the car as he jogged past it to distribute flyers to the houses down the street. He felt bad about Erica's anxiety. He felt bad that she probably feared he was anxious, too.
Okay, he was anxious, but not about becoming destitute or—highly unlikely—scooped up by Child Protective Services. He knew neither of those things was going to happen.
He had an ace up his sleeve.
Panting, Liam made it back to the car. "Okay. Ready for the next location."
"Great. I got it on Google Maps right here." Erica handed him her phone with the next location mapped in. "You navigate."
The determinedly brave smile she flashed toward him sent an additional stab of guilt through Liam. The braver Erica had tried to act over the last week, the more frequently Liam had felt these guilty arrows. He was letting her feel afraid and anxious on his behalf when she didn't have to. Liam had a solution to the problem the judge had posed them at the hearing.
It was money the judge cared about. She wanted someone, preferably a family member, who didn't have a possible financial stake in the matter of administering Liam's money. Well, Liam had a sterling candidate for that position, someone with enough money to erase any fear of misappropriation. The guy was an attorney himself, for God's sake, one with a multi-million dollar business of his own.
"Left on Eucalyptus," Liam instructed Erica, forcing his concentration toward the map. "And then five miles. We're headed to the other side of town."
"'Kay."
Liam bit his tongue and gazed out the side window at the gathering dusk. Alex Carmichael was an unassailable candidate for conservator of the estate. Wait, no. He was using a different name now. It had been absurdly simple to figure that out. All Liam had had to do was search the state's website for applications to legally change a name. The result had yielded Alexander Carmichael's transformation to Alexander Wayland. Heaven knew how he'd come up with that fake surname. They had no relatives or ancestors on either side of the family named Wayland. Probably lifted it from a phone book.
Liam silently snorted. Alex had obviously wanted to cut all possible ties to his family. Too bad Liam had proved his father right and figured out a way to locate Alex despite his effort to disappear.
"I got a guy call me from the flyer yesterday," Erica told Liam after making the left onto Eucalyptus. "Wants to meet with me tomorrow for a trial session. That's a possible lead out of only putting out twenty-five flyers."
"Hey, just the start of bigger things." This was another reason Liam was keeping his mouth shut about Alex. Erica wanted to prove herself. She deserved a chance to do that.
Or was he just making poor excuses for lying by omission?
"Oh, and how could I forget?" Erica briefly took one hand off the wheel to smack her forehead. "Also, a lady from the north side. Says she has bunch of friends who are interested in a group session. Unfortunately, she can't meet until after next week, but if I impress her, that would make ten clients at once."
"Fantastic," Liam enthused. It was okay to keep mum about Alex, he assured himself. Yeah, his oldest brother might look like a financially stable candidate for conservator of the estate, but who said Alex would be willing to take on the job? He'd left, hadn't he? Left and never come back. He'd gone so far as to change his name.
Liam had no idea why his father had been so set on Liam contacting the guy. Alex obviously didn't return the sentiment.
"Five miles goes fast in this town," Erica muttered. "Do I turn left or right at Idaho?"
"Right and...stop at the end of the block." Liam grabbed another stack of flyers. He was out the door before Erica had even pulled to a complete stop. It didn't do any good, though. His memory of that day when he'd been alone in the hospital with his father followed him into the cool night air.
"Promise," his father had said, lying helpless on the white sheets. With a hand of skin as thin as parchment paper, he'd held Liam's hand and squeezed. "You promise to find Alex? Swear?"
"Sure, Dad," Liam had told him. He'd have promised his father the moon at that point. "I swear."
Now Liam's lips pressed together as he bent to stick a flyer under the woven doormat before a heavy, paneled door. He turned swiftly and ran at top speed toward the next house over.