Chapter 5
Lena stared out the window toward Emil's enormous vacation home bathed in security lights, wondering if she should wait four minutes—or maybe just three—before following after Nash.
His presence in the middle of her family drama had surprised her.
Maybe it shouldn't have.
She'd known Emil was shady. Of course people would be looking into him. But Nash said he worked for a private company. What if it was the type of firm her family hired? The kind that made business problems evaporate into thin air without explanation?
Not that she could prove her uncles or her parents had ever done anything illegal or paid someone else to break the law, but . . . She knew down in her bones that her family was as crooked as Emil. Or worse. She was just too chicken to find the proof.
How did she know Nash could be trusted? Simple. She didn't.
That's why she'd lashed at him just before he darted out. She was being cautious . . . not paranoid . . . wasn't she?
For a moment on the beach, and again in the kitchen, she thought he might be an ally. She was sure she'd seen genuine kindness in his blue-gray eyes. The thought tugged at her conscience.
She wanted to trust him.
Unfortunately, something cold and hollow reminded her she couldn't even trust her own family. Trusting a stranger? Out of the question.
However, if he could help her find Cassidy, he was worth talking to. She shouldn't shut him down completely. She'd keep the communication lines open. And keep him at arm's length. Just in case.
She slipped her phone from her back pocket to check the time. One more minute. Then she'd leave.
Looking at her phone reminded her of a certain video she hadn't deleted yet. It hadn't helped her the way she'd hoped, but Nash might be interested in it. Whatever kind of security company he worked for, he probably had resources—
Um, no. Definitely not. What was she thinking? Hadn't she convinced herself a few seconds ago that she shouldn't trust him? She didn't understand what was on the video, but it was probably incriminating. Which meant it was dangerous for her to have it.
She should delete it.
And she would.
Later.
She checked the time again.
"Come on, Nutmeg, let's find out what's going on."
She turned from the window, faced the front door, and paused.
It was probably safe to go back to the house, right? So why wouldn't her legs move?
Nash had seemed tense when he left. And he took a gun with him. A foreboding quiver snaked down her spine. Oh, stop it. You're overreacting.
He said he was a security agent. She wasn't entirely sure where that fell between mall cop and James Bond, but he probably carried a gun everywhere he went. His arming himself didn't prove that anything treacherous was lurking.
Besides, there were two security guards on the premises as well. She was safe.
Perfectly safe.
Which, of course, was why she used a fake name to gain entry into a house where she feared her cousin was in some kind of mortal danger. Because Emil Van Horn's vacation estate was so safe.
She took a deep, slow breath, wishing she knew a million things she didn't know. Wishing she controlled a million things she'd never control. Like her cousin's taste in men. Or her family's business ethics.
Apprehension glued her feet to the floor.
God, could you . . .
Oh, good grief, what should she pray? Did she really have the right to ask him for help now? She'd rushed after Cassidy, all the way to the Caribbean without consulting God.
And she knew perfectly well why. She was terrified of what he might want her to do. Like leave Cassidy in his hands and focus on the obvious problems at her family's business.
But that lion's den was more terrifying than chasing Cassidy and Emil to the tropics.
And she was a chicken. Even more so without Cassidy by her side.
So here she was. Besides, Cassidy did need her. Cassidy wasn't safe with Emil. Lena was sure of that.
The thought of Cassidy sprouted a new hope—thin as it was. What if Cassidy triggered that alarm? Maybe she somehow knew Lena had arrived and had come looking for her.
Not allowing any inner voice of reason to snip her thin thread of optimism, she forced her legs to march toward the door. "Nutmeg, for real this time, let's go."
Nutmeg raised his head but didn't leave the sofa. He'd found a very comfortable spot and didn't appear to believe Lena was offering a better option.
Lena picked up the leash.
That he understood. He zoomed to her side, but his 'I'm a seed in a popcorn popper' impression made it impossible for her to clip the leash onto his collar.
"Hey buddy, come on. Work with me here. I know you want to go out. Just hold still. Please."
Her words only excited him more. The difficulty with the leash should have frustrated her, but Nutmeg's antics had the opposite effect. She couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm. "Nutmeg, I do believe you're the happiest dog in the whole world."
When she finally secured the leash to his collar, she set his water bowl in the kitchen sink and walked out onto the landing.
She shut the door behind her and took only two steps before motion on the stairs stole the air from her lungs.
Nutmeg's ears perked. Then he resumed hopping with such glee that she worried he'd fall off the landing.
Her hand flew to her chest, and relief refilled her lungs when she realized it was Nash climbing the stairs.
Wow. She needed to pull herself together.
"What happened?" she asked. Hopefully, before Nash noticed how paranoid she'd been.
"Are you leaving?"
"Is everything okay at the house?"
"More or less," he said. "Do you mind staying a couple more minutes? I have some questions."
"No," she said. "I think we're done here." She inclined her head toward Emil's house. "Everything's safe, right? Who set off the alarm?"
He nodded. "Yes. Emil's assistant, Ed Chester, came to get something from the house and tripped the alarm."
Tension in his face told her there was probably more to it than that, but he wasn't offering any more explanation.
"Could we talk a few more minutes?" he asked. He reached the top of the stairs and stepped toward the door.
"No, we're done. I was about to leave before you ran out, anyway."
"OK." He stepped to the side, giving her a wide berth. "I'll pick you up at seven in the morning and take you to the airport, and I promise to—"
"No, I'm not going home. Not without Cassidy. But I’ll—I’ll hire you."
"What?"
"The private security company you work for—give me their contact information. I understand that you weren’t hired to find Cassidy.
But I can hire you or someone else from .
. .” She forgot the name of his employer.
Hoping he'd offer the name again, she waited in the near silence—ignoring Nutmeg's disgruntled whimpering at their delayed exit.
But he just stood there. All broad-shouldered and stoic. And completely unreadable. He stared at her for five long seconds before he said a word.
“You're right. Cassidy needs to be a priority."
His agreement surprised her.
He leaned against the doorframe. "You can hold off on hiring WhiteRock for now, though. It’s possible—if Emil took the jewels—that your cousin and the jewels are both on that yacht, so we may find everything we’re looking for all at once.”
“But if you find the jewels and not Cassidy, or if you become convinced Emil’s innocent, you’ll leave. You’ll stop looking. Right? What if she’s not on the yacht?”
Nutmeg huffed and flopped himself onto the landing, their conversation clearly exhausting him.
“Okay. Give me forty-eight hours," Nash said. "If, after forty-eight hours, we think this is two separate cases, or if we need more manpower, I’ll get you in contact with WhiteRock. Just be patient till then. And, like I said, we’re arranging a flight for you for first thing in the morning. I’ll keep in contact with you after you leave. We’ll let you know if we find Cassidy.”
Hot anger swirled in her belly. He wasn't listening. “No. You can’t make me leave. You have no authority to do that. I can stay here as long as I want. You’re a private security firm, right?”
“WhiteRock is. They’ve contracted out with me for this.”
“OK, whatever. You work for a private company?”
“Yes.”
“So you’re not the FBI. You’re not the police. We’re not even in the US." Her volume climbed, but she didn't care. "You have no authority over me. I came here to find my cousin. I’m going to find her with or without you.”
His jaw twitched.
She expected her words to irritate him. She expected him to yell back.
He inhaled a slow breath through his nose.
And an unexpected amount of compassion flooded his gaze.
“Look, Lena, I'm trying to help you. I’ve sugarcoated this because I don’t want to scare you.
The truth is, we've looked into Emil's past and his associates.
He's more dangerous than you think. My theory is that he did steal the jewels, and he's planning on selling them to a different dangerous individual. "
The tension in his face told her he was still holding back—still glossing over Emil's evil past for her benefit. Fear for Cassidy turned her mouth dry. “OK, well, all the more reason Cassidy shouldn’t be involved in this. She shouldn’t have come out here.
She shouldn’t be here. And I need to get her home. ”
"Agreed. But your safety is just as important. Please fly home tomorrow. I'll contact you when—"
A sincerity echoed in his words that she couldn't ignore.
It took the bite out of her tone, but it didn't change her mind.
"No," she said. Softer this time. "I'm staying.
I don't want to argue. You don't understand.
I have to get to Cassidy. This is something I have to do. I can't go home without her."
The emotion in her voice seemed to pain him.
He shoved a hand through his dark hair and rubbed the back of his head.
"OK, stay here at the house tomorrow, keep playing your dog-sitting part, hang out with Nutmeg.
But don't do anything else—like peeking in windows.
Don't go snooping around. Don't call attention to yourself.
Let me use my resources and see if I can locate Cassidy.
If—and I'm not saying I can do this tomorrow or even the next day—but if I find Cassidy and arrange for you to talk to her, will you go ahead and leave the island? "
"You mean whether or not she agrees to leave?"
His silence answered her question.
She knew she couldn't make herself leave without Cassidy. But she'd say anything to get this seemingly capable man to cooperate with her. "Yes. I'll leave. If I can talk to her first. In person."
Tagging on the "in person" clause made his jaw twitch again.
She didn't care.
A phone call wasn't going to cut it. He might as well know that now.
"OK, let's take this one day at a time. Tomorrow, stay around the house with Nutmeg. Stick to dog-sitting. I'll look for Cassidy. And I'll let you know if I find anything."
She'd prided herself on not trusting anyone for the last couple of years. Shedding her na?ve faith in others had felt like an accomplishment. And she wasn't about to make an exception for Nash Stone. But his firm confidence convinced her to try it his way first. For now.
Partly because her alternative plan was to charge onto Emil's yacht tomorrow morning all by herself, and demand to see Cassidy. Which wasn't much of a plan.
And partly because . . . well, something about that unwavering confidence in Nash's gaze . . .
"Okay. I'll stay here tomorrow, but you better update me on something by tomorrow evening or I'll—"
He held up both hands. "You will hear from me tomorrow. You have my word."
"Thank you."
Nash felt like he'd just negotiated an international peace treaty. Or, more accurately, a surrender.
Lena wasn't hopping on a plane tomorrow, like he'd wanted. But the fact that she was still talking to him gave him the courage to push for more information.
"Is there anything more you want to tell me? About Cassidy? Or Emil? Anything that might be helpful?"
The fierce determination in her eyes mellowed. She lifted one shoulder. "My family associates in the same circles as Sebastian Ruben and Stanton Hightower. They smile together for the cameras at fundraisers and call each other friends, though, I doubt any of them have any real friends."
"Wow. That's harsh."
The side of her mouth quirked with a weary sigh. "No. Not really. It's just the way things are. Anyway, I don't know anything specific about how the jewels were stolen. I just know Cassidy didn't do it."
"I doubt she did, but you said Sebastian Ruben accused her?"
"Yeah, after she and Emil left. He told several people that he thought she stole the jewels.
" She rolled her eyes. "You need to understand that Sebastian is a petty man.
He asked Cassidy out not long ago. She turned him down.
Hard. His ego couldn't take it. He's lashed out at her several times since then.
So his accusation wasn't a surprise. He may not even think she took the jewels.
He may just want to spread the rumor to make her look bad. "
"Okay. Noted."
She narrowed her eyes at Nash. “Do you think Emil took the jewels?”
Nash held up both hands again. “We don’t know that. But I can tell you that the owner of the jewels, Stanton Hightower, hired us to investigate Emil, and we’re happy to do so. Maybe he’s innocent, maybe not.”
“Doesn’t it bother you that the owner didn’t want to report the theft to the police?”
“Normally, yes, it would. But he did a good job convincing my bosses that the only reason he didn’t want to report it to the police was because he didn’t want the story in the news.
A theft of this magnitude would be very bad for his business, and he’s right about that.
Whether there are other reasons he didn’t want to report it to the authorities, I don’t know.
But, like I said, we’re just here investigating Emil.
If he didn’t take the jewels, we’re just going to let him be. ”
Lena stiffened. “But you’re going to look—"
"Yes, we're going to find Cassidy. I told you, you have my word. I'll do everything I can to help you find your cousin."
God, please help me keep that promise.