Chapter 4
Rowan, headphones on, shoulders hunched, sat behind one of his laptops.
"Hey there, Rowan," Knox said. "Where's Jason?"
The young IT genius pulled his headphones down to his neck. "Huh?"
"Where's Jason?" Knox repeated, purposely keeping the friendly smile on his face.
Rowan shrugged. "Said he'd be back. I think he's making some calls in his room. We didn't find anything interesting with our drone. He said you texted him. Said you guys are bringing some footage I need to work on? You found something?"
Knox had texted Jason about what happened with the drone. And he wasn't surprised that Jason decided to let Knox break the news to Rowan. Thanks, buddy.
"Yes, we have some footage for you. We need to ID four different men, if you can."
Rowan looked insulted at the word if. "I can probably do it. As long as the footage is decent."
"It's good, trust me." He set the white box on Rowan's desk and tapped the box. "And these are for you. We stopped by the bakery on the lobby level." He opened the box. "We didn't know what you'd like. So, we brought you a cinnamon roll, two brownies, and a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie."
Rowan eyed Knox with an appropriate amount of suspicion.
"And this is for you, too," Allie said. She set the Red Bull next to his Incredible Hulk mug, which sat next to his Iron Man mug.
"Um, thanks?" Rowan looked like he didn't know whether to be grateful or to test the treats for signs of poisoning.
Knox felt a pang of guilt. It probably wasn't good that his co-worker—no matter how young or how whiny he could be—felt so taken aback by a small act of kindness from him. Granted, it wasn't a random act of kindness. Knox was absolutely trying to mitigate the news he was about to deliver.
"Go ahead, man." He pushed the box closer to Rowan. "This isn't a prank. Truth is, I have something to tell you. And we thought some sugar would help the pill go down easier. So to speak."
Rowan looked from Knox to Allie and back to Knox like he was trying to read their thoughts. That's when his eyebrows shot up. "You broke the drone?"
Knox was impressed with the kid's intuition. "More or less."
Rowan's brow furrowed. "Just bring it to me. I might be able to fix it."
Knox eyed Rowan's treats, wishing he'd bought a cookie for himself as well. "Well, that's not possible. You're going to have to report it as KIA."
Rowan's confused face pivoted to Allie, apparently hoping for some clarity. Or to discern whether Knox was messing with him.
"The drone was shot down," Allie explained. "I don't know if anything is salvageable, but we can't retrieve it. The men who shot it down have it."
Rowan looked at Knox. "Day one? You got a drone shot down on day one? I thought this was supposed to be a low-key assignment. Just intel gathering." He shoved a hand into his thick brown hair and left it there. "I thought—"
"Listen, kid," Knox said, mentally kicking himself for breaking his streak.
He'd try not to call Rowan "kid" for the rest of the day.
Maybe he could make it forty-eight hours this time.
"In this line of work, there's always a chance for situations to escalate.
You should know that by now. You've been—"
Rowan held up both of his hands in an please-stop-talking-I-surrender gesture. "Okay, okay. So, I guess you know I'm the one who has to report the loss of the drone since the tech is my responsibility? Do you know how much paperwork that is?"
Knox pushed the bakery goods an inch closer to Rowan. "Hence the scrumptious gifts."
Rowan pulled the bakery box and the Red Bull out of Knox's reach as if he might take them back. "Okay, fine." He picked up a brownie and bit into it. "I'm assuming the drone footage is the first priority?" he said with his mouth half full of brownie.
Allie handed him the laptop. "Yes, it is."
He took it from her with a small smile. "Thanks for this," he said, pointing to the treats.
"Hey." Knox pointed to himself. "The food was my idea."
Rowan looked at him like he didn't believe that. Whatever. At least the kid was happy.
Knox's phone buzzed. He read the text from Jason and replied with a thumbs up. "Jason wants all of us to meet back here in an hour. He says he's having dinner delivered to the room for us."
"Sounds good," Allie said.
Rowan shrugged. "I'm not going anywhere." He opened the laptop they'd brought and slipped his headphones back on.
Knox turned to Allie. "I think that's our cue to leave."
She smiled. And he was reminded again how much he'd missed that smile.
Allie stood, arms crossed, in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in Knox's room. She'd stood in the same spot hours before. But now, she felt more prepared for the conversation.
Knox pointed to the small sofa in the generous-sized room. "Want to sit down?"
She shook her head. "I know I sound like a broken record, but . . . this view . . . it's breathtaking. It's calming and exciting at the same time. That sounds silly, but—"
"No, it doesn't," he said, walking over. He stood next to her and tipped his head at the view. "It's beautiful. Clear blue ocean to the left, dense jungle to the right, rocky cliffs in the distance. What more could you want?"
She could've stared at that view for an hour. But that's not why she was standing in Knox's room. She gave him what she knew was an I'm-ready-to-get-this-conversation-started look.
He rubbed his neck. Message received.
"Okay, Allie, look, I don't know why you felt the need to apologize earlier.
Like I said, no one blames you for what happened.
If anyone needs to apologize, it's me. I knew you'd probably show up that night, and instead of thinking through all the ways that could go wrong, I think I wanted you to come and see for yourself what your brother was doing.
You didn't believe my suspicions about him, and I didn't want to keep trying to convince you. I knew if you saw . . ."
She grabbed his arm. "Knox, you don't have to apologize. That was—"
He gently removed her hand. "Please let me finish."
She couldn't stand the remorse on his face. He didn't owe her that. She was the one who hadn't believed him. The regret in his voice squeezed her chest.
He took a half step back but never broke eye contact. "If I'd had the courage to convince you earlier, you wouldn't have been shot that night. But I hated the way you looked at me when I tried to tell you about Leo's crimes, so, like a jerk, I decided to let you see for yourself."
Tears stung her eyes. "I . . . I didn't give you a choice. I didn't want to believe Leo could do those things. It's not that I didn't trust you; I did. I just . . . I didn't want to believe that about my brother."
He took a step closer with an intensity in his eyes she'd rarely seen.
"Of course you didn't. I understand that.
" He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck again.
"And on top of everything else, I hated that I couldn't be there for you after you found out about Leo and he fled the country. I know that gutted you."
"Yeah. That's one way to put it. But Knox . . . all that pain, that was Leo's doing. He betrayed my trust, not you. I don't blame you for what Leo did."
He gave a slow nod, but he still looked like he carried a heavy weight on his shoulders. "I wanted to be there for you, but I didn't want to make things worse by upsetting your parents."
Oh, that. Her parents added a whole other layer to her frustration and pain.
She hadn't known how to deal with them while she was trying to heal, especially in those first few weeks.
They provided the physical help she desperately needed.
And she appreciated that. But their defense of Leo .
. . and their backlash at Knox's involvement .
. . all the drama still gave her a headache.
And then . . . there were the inconsistencies.
"I know. My parents were another reason I didn't try harder to see you. And you need to know . . . " Oh, how did she put this? It sounded so awful. She'd only said it out loud once before—and the words were painful to utter. But Knox deserved to know.
Oh dear God, please give me the strength I need. And please don't let this truth push Knox further from me.
Knox narrowed his eyes at her pause. "What's wrong? What don't I know?"
She took a deep breath. "I believe my parents were working with Leo. Maybe they still are. I don't know. I finally started picking up on things while I was recuperating at their house." She held up a hand. "And before you ask, yes, I told the FBI."
His eyes grew large. And his mouth actually fell open. "I didn't know that. We'd just started surveillance on Leo, then the FBI took over."
"I know." Her own voice felt small and distant.
She slumped onto the small sofa. This conversation was exhausting. And she hadn't told him everything yet.
He walked over and sat next to her. She faced him, wishing she could travel back in time and prevent some of this grief.
She took another deep breath. "You need to steer clear of them.
The FBI doesn't have enough to arrest them—or maybe the FBI is hoping to glean more information from them first—but the point is, my parents have connections and money, and they do not like you.
You don't want the full force of their resources against you. "
His eyebrows hiked, but only for a moment. Concern, worry, and something else swirled in his eyes. "Thanks for letting me know, but I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about you."
"I appreciate that. But don't be." She shrugged. "I've made peace with the situation as much as I can." She prayed he would understand. "I just don't want them to cause you any trouble. Please don't let them think you're investigating them or Leo—"
"I'm not. It's totally in the hands of the FBI."
"I know. But they know I'm working with WhiteRock again. I don't think they trust me. They think you used me to get information on Leo."
"What?! That's crazy."
"Doesn't matter. I'm just trying to help you see the whole picture."
He stiffened. "Wait. Are you saying you don't want to be in a relationship with me because of your parents?"
In a relationship? Did he still want that? How could he? Her shame pressed the air from her lungs.
"Knox, I . . . I couldn't bear it if they came after you. I don't want to give them any reason—"
"Now just hang on a second!" His volume rose with every word.
And looked like he regretted it. She watched him try to calm himself while he worked his jaw.
"You don't need to protect me from your parents.
Is that what you're worried about? Or is it just too hard to be with someone your parents don't trust?
Because, guilty or not, they're still your parents.
So, if their opinion matters that much—"
"Are you serious?" She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Knox, they don't trust me. Am I glad that they shredded my relationship with them? No. I wish things could be different. But their opinion of you doesn't affect me one bit."
A fist pounded on Knox's door. "Mr. Coulter! Mr. Coulter!"