Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
SUMMER
“Oh, my God,” I said in a rush.
“Summer, what is it?" Evers asked, his eyes worried.
I looked up, stricken with guilt. "I am so sorry. I talked to my mom a few days ago, asked her if she'd seen my dad, and I forgot to tell you. I—"
I bit my lip, raising my hands to press my palms to my suddenly-hot cheeks. I could not admit to this roomful of men that I'd forgotten important information about my father because I'd walked in to see Evers wrapped around my movie-star boss.
How could I have been so stupid? How could I have let my emotions get in the way of something so important?
Lamely, I just repeated, "I forgot. I'm so sorry."
"Summer," Evers said gently, "what did you forget?"
"He was in Maine."
Cooper's head shot up, his eyes intent on me. "Maine? You're sure."
"My mom said about three weeks ago, he called her from Maine. She recognized the area code. He told her he was coming to see me, but I haven't seen him in months."
"Do you know why he was there? Or how long?" Cooper probed.
I shook my head. "I only know he was there long enough to call my mom."
Cooper sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, seemingly lost in thought.
"Someone has to go to Maine," Griffen said.
Slowly, Cooper picked up the phone and tapped the buttons. “Interesting you should say that. I got another call this morning. Hit my voicemail just after four A.M."
He hit the button for speakerphone and a woman's voice filled the room. She sounded about my age. Scared. Voice high-pitched, her words came fast, tumbling over each other as she spoke.
"This is Lily Spencer. I—my husband—my former husband—I'm a widow—uh, told me to call you if there was ever any trouble.
I live—we live—I live up in Maine, and we've had some break-ins. Uh, I think. The police haven’t found anything, but tonight someone got in.
Turned off the alarm. I don't know what to do.
I don't know if you can help, but he said if anything ever happened I should call you, so I'm calling.
Please, if you could call me back I'd appreciate it. Again, this is Lily Spencer."
She rattled off a phone number, then her name again, and the number a second time before she said a quick goodbye and hung up.
Evers looked at Cooper. "Who the fuck is Lily Spencer?"
Cooper tossed a manila folder in the middle of the conference table. Evers reached over to flip it open, and a woman stared back at us. I'd been right, she was about my age.
Deep, brown, almond-shaped eyes in a face of tawny-gold skin. She wore her dark hair in a long, sleek bob that brushed her shoulders, a prim strand of pearls around her neck, diamond studs in her ears, and what looked like a cashmere twin set.
She stood beside a man about her age with white-blond hair in a dark suit.
His arm was around her shoulders, his eyes relaxed and happy.
Though she wore a polite smile, her eyes were strained.
Worried. The picture had been printed from a newspaper article.
The caption below read: Trey and Lily Spencer at the Literacy Foundation Fundraiser.
Knox left the window and resumed his seat at the table, reaching out to drag Lily Spencer's file in front of him. He picked up the picture and set it to the side before flipping through the contents of the folder.
"Lily Spencer, recently widowed," Cooper said. “Her husband, Trey Spencer, was tied up with dad in this adoption business. And more. One of the shell companies comes back to him, in part."
"How did he die?" Evers asked, his brow furrowed as he watched Knox scanning Lily Spencer's file, his hand over her husband’s face, his fingers grazing her hair.
Something about the picture tugged at me. She looked… trapped.
I don't know why she struck me that way. Why that word jumped into my head. Trapped. There was tension in her eyes. Something about the set of her chin.
Cooper answered, “Funny thing, that. Car accident. Almost exactly like Dad's, except this time, they found the body."
"So we’re sure Trey Spencer is really dead?" Griffen asked.
"Very sure. And it looks like his widow is in trouble."
"I'll go to Maine," Knox said in a low rumble, his eyes absorbing the file, his hand still on Lily Spencer's picture.
"Fine. Go over anything you need to hand off with Riley before you make arrangements. I'll call Lily Spencer back and tell her we’re sending you up."
Cooper laid his hand on the table. He looked at Evers and me. "You two go track down Smokey. We need to find him before we run out of time.”
"I can't," I said immediately.
Cooper narrowed his icy blue eyes on me, and the force of will in them had me halfway to agreeing to do whatever he wanted. It was clear that Cooper Sinclair was not used to refusal.
I kept my mouth shut. He wasn’t going to glare me into compliance. I wasn't an employee.
I already had a boss, and she expected me at her side every day for the next few months, not bopping all over the place trying to find my errant father.
"I can't leave Cynthia. I have a job. I promised her I’d be at Rycroft.”
“I’ll stay with Cynthia,” Griffen said as if that were the end of the subject.
"No, it's not the same. You can replace Evers, I guess, but I'm her assistant. You can't do my job. She needs me."
"She's going to have to do without you," Cooper said, obviously considering the subject closed.
"Cooper, I can't just quit my job with Cynthia." I turned to look at Griffen. "Why can't you go looking for my dad?"
"No. Griffen stays here," Cooper said.
This time his tone was so final I snapped my mouth shut, at a loss for what to say.
I was not going to be organized by Cooper Sinclair. I wanted to help, but I wasn't going to torpedo my career and let down my best client just because Cooper said so.
"I'll talk to Cynthia," Evers said. "It'll be okay. I promise."
I was almost willing to believe Evers could charm Cynthia into letting us leave for a few days. But I still didn't understand. “Why can't Griffen—"
"Griffen stays here," Evers said in the same final tone Cooper had used.
I glanced at Griffen, prepared to challenge him again until I saw his teeth grind together, his dark green eyes flat and cold.
Okay, Griffen was staying here.
Again, I was missing the subtext. I'd badger Evers into filling me in later.
“Evers, I need you to fix it with Cynthia. I don't want to run out on her. Partly because I don't want to screw up this job and partly because she's my friend and I won’t let her down."
Evers tugged my chair closer to his. The wheels shifted until they aligned, then rolled me easily toward him until we were right next to each other. He hugged an arm around me and kissed my temple. "I promise, I’ll handle it. Griffen can do this. I have to go, and I'm not leaving you behind."
"You won't leave me behind, but you’ll leave Cynthia with Griffen?"
"I think we proved last night that whoever's been breaking in wasn’t after Cynthia. They were after you."
"After my laptop," I corrected, "not that it will do them any good."
"You don't know that," Griffen cut in. "He would have been a fool to try to take you with the house that crowded. Who knows what would have happened if he’d bumped into you on a late-night kitchen raid?
No one else around, the house quiet. Maybe his plan was to take the laptop and phone and run.
Or maybe he was going to grab them, hide out in the house somewhere, and come for you later.
You should go with Evers. A moving target is harder to catch. "
I stared at Griffen, at a complete loss for words. I thought about my father, here and there and everywhere. Atlanta, Maine, Asheville, and who knew where else.
A moving target was harder to catch.
At the idea that the intruder might have hidden in a closet and come out in the dark of night to find me while I slept… I shuddered.
Resigned, I gave Griffen my sternest look and said, “Keep Clive away from her until we get back. I know she said she was going to meet with him, but that does not happen while we’re gone.
Promise me. You don't know him. He's got a silver tongue, and she’s still half in love with him. She’s not seeing him without me there. "
"I promise. I'll hold him off until you get back."
"And keep her out of trouble."
“Now that, I can't promise," Griffen said with a grin
“Try," I pressed. Griffen sat back in his chair, a laugh in his eyes, the dark look wiped away as if I'd imagined it. "I'll sacrifice myself to the cause if I have to."
"Poor Griffen, trapped in a castle with the closest thing to a princess we have around here. We all weep for you." Cooper said sarcastically.
Griffen laughed again and flicked a coffee stirrer across the table at his boss.
Cooper fielded it before it smacked him in the forehead.
Pushing back his chair, he said, “All right, let's get moving. Until this jackass gives me a timeline, we have to assume the hammer could come down at any minute. Axel, we’ll get you down to Florida this afternoon.
Knox, get ready to head to Maine. If Lily Spencer has any information we can use, we don't want whoever is after her to take her out before we get there.
And Evers, Summer…" He trailed off, searching for the right words. "Good luck."
Good luck. We were going to need it.