Chapter Thirty-Seven
LILY
Knox opened the door to reveal a cluster of people on his front porch. Strangers. A cold pit of nerves opened in my stomach. Wiping my suddenly sweaty palms on my hips, I stepped aside to let the invaders in.
A tall man with icy blue eyes and the same thick, dark hair as Knox spoke first. “What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were coming straight to the office.”
“We were getting there,” Knox said easily. “Did something happen? You can't wait an hour?”
Taking in his scowl, I guessed this was Cooper. He didn't answer Knox's question, just glared at us, his face and build so like Knox's own it set me back for a minute.
From behind him stepped a petite woman, shorter than me and tiny. Not just slender, but built on a small scale, her bones delicate, almost birdlike.
Curious eyes of sky blue were framed by lush, dark lashes. Her mouth was a cupid's bow of red, her hair black as night and chopped bluntly at her chin. She wore a full-skirted dress embellished with cherries and could have stepped straight out of a poster for a nineteen fifties sock-hop.
With a sweetly mischievous smile, she held out a hand to me. I shook it gently, surprised by the strength in those slender fingers.
“These lunks have no manners. I apologize on their behalf. I'm Alice. You must be Lily. It's so nice to finally meet you.”
I'd pictured Alice as taller and tough as nails.
Looks must be deceiving. No way a pushover could handle the Sinclair brothers and the rest of the guys who worked for them.
This cheerful, quirky, sprite of a woman was the last thing I'd imagined, but beneath the warm welcome in her eyes, I saw a hint of steel.
“If there's anything you need, let me know. If Knox isn't around, I can help.”
“Thank you,” I said sincerely.
The man behind her held out a hand, studying me with friendly eyes the same ice blue as Cooper's. “I'm Evers, one of Knox's brothers. The other one is Cooper, not that he bothered to introduce himself. It's nice to meet you, Lily.”
“Nice to meet you too, Evers,” I murmured, flicking a quick glance at Knox, his arms crossed over his chest as he glared at Cooper.
Alice followed my gaze, and her mouth twisted into a scowl. She poked Cooper sharply in the side, interrupting his glare-off with Knox. Cooper looked down, the irritation in his eyes a mirror of hers. He raised an eyebrow in haughty query. She cleared her throat and sent an exaggerated look at me.
Cooper's eyes rolled to the ceiling before he nodded at me. “Lily, I presume?”
As if he didn't already know. I nodded back.
“Cooper,” he confirmed. No handshake. That was okay. I wasn't sure I wanted to get close enough to Cooper Sinclair to shake his hand.
He looked down at Alice and raised that dark eyebrow again. I could practically hear the words, Good enough?
Alice harrumphed and mumbled something under her breath that sounded like stubborn ass. The two of them didn't seem to get along, but, according to Knox, Alice had been running their office for years.
I couldn't see Cooper Sinclair putting up with someone he didn't like, especially in such a key position. Then again, hadn't Knox said they had a love/hate kind of thing? Something like that. There was no time to jog my memory.
Cooper took charge. “Now that the introductions are over, we need to get to work. We had eyes on Tsepov in Vegas an hour ago. Everything is quiet here. This is the best time for you two to make a run at LeAnne Gates.”
“We just got here, Cooper,” Knox protested. “As you know since you practically chased us through the door.”
“He's been driving all day,” I protested, crossing my own arms over my chest and staring down Cooper. “He needs a break and lunch before anything else.”
Cooper raised that eyebrow again. So much snottiness in one dark arch. “My brother doesn't need a mother hen. And he doesn't need some woman telling him what to do.”
Oh. My. God. That autocratic know-it-all tone dug right under my skin. It was the same tone I'd heard from my father for way too many years. I'd hated it then, and I hated it now.
I wasn't always good at sticking up for myself, but this wasn't about me.
This was about Knox. Lifting my chin, that stubbornness my mother bemoaned leading me into trouble again, I said, “I'm not a mother hen, I'm looking out for him.
That's what you do with people you care about. Or maybe you didn't get that memo.”
Cooper's eyes narrowed on me for a long moment during which I deeply regretted every word I'd said. Knox was silent, but wrapped his arm around my waist, molding me to his side. He didn't need words to say whose side he was on.
Cooper's eyes softened, and he shook his head in resignation. “We brought lunch. Let's sit down, get some food, and we can talk about what to do. Is that acceptable?”
This last part was aimed at me. My voice stuck in my throat, I gave a jerky nod. The men dispersed to the kitchen, clearly comfortable in Knox's house.
Alice hung behind. “I'll run out to the car and bring in the food. Lily, do you want to help?”
I joined Alice, following her to another of the ubiquitous black Sinclair Security SUVs.
“Don't mind Cooper,” she said in a low voice.
“He feels responsible for everything going on with his father.
He's worried about his mother, and what happened with Evers and Summer, and then Knox takes off and comes back with a ready-made family—” She shrugged a shoulder.
“He loves his brother. If Knox is happy, he'll be happy. He just needs a little time to get used to it.”
I didn't know what to say to that except, “Thanks.”
“I got lunch for Adam,” Alice said, her head buried in the backseat of the car.
She passed me a brown paper bag filled with wrapped sandwiches and bags of chips.
“I wasn't sure what he'd want so I got grilled cheese and peanut butter and jelly.
But, if it's okay with you and he can wait, maybe it would be better to feed him lunch after the rest of us eat. You might not want him in on the conversation.”
I realized what she meant and knew she was right. Again, I said, “Thanks, Alice. And thanks for that hotel suite. And for thinking of the beach. It could have been an awful few days, but you helped make it fun.”
Alice straightened from the back of the car, her arms loaded with bottles of iced tea and cans of soda. She winked at me, her cherry red lips curved into a grin that proved the mischief I'd seen before had not been a phantom.
“You're very welcome. Lucky they had a cancellation—there wasn't much else available in Bar Harbor. Not on a summer weekend. I need to get up there myself someday. It looked fantastic.”
“It was beautiful,” I agreed, “and the lobster was out of this world.”
“Bet Knox liked that,” she said. At my surprise, she went on, “There's not much I don't know about these guys. I've been running the office for ages.”
Slanting me a confidential look, she said in a low voice, “Long enough to know the number of women who've crossed the threshold of this house… Single digits. I might even be able to count them on one hand and have some fingers left over.”
I didn't know what to say, not ready for the cool relief spreading through my chest. Knox hadn't talked much about past relationships, and I hadn't asked. A man like him must have had a ton of women. I didn't want to know.
“It's been fast, but—”
“Knox knows his own mind. He always has.
And he's not one to be stupid over a pretty face.
I've never known him to get personal with a client.
Ever. And believe me, he's had the opportunity.
Knox is strictly business. Always. Cooper will get over it.
Try not to hold it against him while he's being an ass.
I know it's tempting, but he's a good guy underneath.”
“I'll take your word for it,” I said, still working through the idea that Knox didn't usually bring women into his house. That he never got involved with clients.
I'd known what we had was different. Special. Hearing it from Alice made it real.
Knox said he loved me. I knew I loved him. I'd put up with a lot for that. An annoying older brother didn't even factor. Besides, Alice's friendly assurance went a long way to helping me let it go.
I followed Alice back into the house with the bag of food and met the others at the beautifully beaten-up farmhouse table on the far side of Knox's kitchen. He didn't appear to have a dining room, but the table was big enough to seat everyone with room to spare.
I set the bag of sandwiches on the table and turned to Knox. “Adam can stay upstairs while we talk. Is the car locked? I want to go get his Legos and bring them up to keep him busy.”
With a smile, Knox kissed my cheek. “I'll get them. I had a few more bags to grab anyway. Be right back.” He disappeared. A second later, the front door opened and shut behind him.
I expected Cooper to jump on the chance to warn me off, or something equally irritating and archaic. He didn't. Surprising the heck out of me, he changed the subject completely.
“Let Knox do the talking when you're at Gates'. When she realizes who you are— Let Knox take the lead. The woman is poison. Way over your pay grade.”
“You know her?” I asked carefully.
“I do. I dealt with her on similar business a few months ago. Let Knox handle her,” Cooper repeated.
I opened my mouth to protest that I could speak for myself.
Cooper held up a hand to stop me. “I'm not implying that you can't handle yourself. I'm saying Knox is going to want to protect you. That will be a lot easier if you don't engage.”
“He's right,” Evers put in. “It would be better if you stayed here—”
“I'm not staying here,” I said before he could finish.
“That's why I didn't bother,” Cooper said, annoyance creeping into his voice again.
Wryly, Alice chimed in, “You can't expect her to stay home. We're talking about her son.”
It was nice to have an ally. “I'll keep my mouth shut, okay? I need to know what happened, what that woman has to do with Adam. He's my child. But that doesn't mean I'm going to barrel in and screw everything up. It's too important, and I trust Knox.”
I squirmed inside under the weight of two identical sets of ice-blue eyes. I wasn't sure I could keep my mouth shut, but I was going to try.
Knox and I wanted the same thing. If the best way I could help was to sit there with my mouth shut, that's what I would do.
If I'd had any idea what I was getting into, I would have made a different promise.
I would have promised to kick LeAnne Gates' ass.
Straight to hell.