Chapter Thirty-Two
Alex, Hawk, and Chase stood outside Stone Enterprises with the press pointing cameras their way.
She gave them the information Fitzpatrick had approved and answered their questions. Alex even went so far as to chastise her stalker for terrorizing an eighty-five-year-old woman. It was almost like kicking a box filled with puppies.
She stretched the truth and suggested the authorities were narrowing down their search, and she was confident that they’d be caught soon.
When the three of them stepped out of the media lights and were in the elevator, Hawk grasped her hand and laced her fingers with his. “You poked the bear.”
“Good. I hate playing defense.”
Chase glanced at her, looked at her hand in Hawk’s, and turned to smile at the closed elevator door.
All day her phone rang. Board members expressing their concern. Old colleagues from Regent. Friends of the family ... aka Aaron Stone’s golf buddies. And several new members of their life from Texas.
Jessie, Jack Morrison’s wife, asked if there was anything she could do.
Katie, Alex’s new stepsister, offered her marksmanship skills if they were needed.
And Alex’s mom and Gaylord checked in from their honeymoon. “Who do I need to bring down?” Gaylord had asked.
“As soon as we know, you’ll know.”
It took some reassurance that she was safe and for them to continue to celebrate their marriage.
It felt good.
All of it. The support and genuine concern.
The best part was the man typing away on the computer, trying to connect the dots.
They’d made love like they were dying of thirst in the desert. They’d held each other briefly after, before Alex kicked Hawk out of her bed with a tease and a tickle.
And she’d finally slept.
The world wasn’t tilting as hard as it had the day before. Even with the new threat ... or a reoccurrence of the old. Hawk was the rock she wanted to hook her anchor to.
He’d opened up to her, which was huge.
On the way to work, Alex had asked him to tell her when something happened that triggered a nightmare or a memory.
Then they could talk about it, make it less.
And once they were safe to truly deal with the trauma, he promised to get in touch with the help that had been given to him when he’d left his federal job.
But that wasn’t today.
Alex went back to work in silence until Dee pushed through an unexpected call from Melissa.
Alex put her on speaker for Hawk to hear.
“Alex.”
“Hello, Melissa.”
“I’ve seen the news,” she said.
Alex used silence as a tool.
“I suppose I can expect another visit from the police,” Melissa said.
Alex watched Hawk as she spoke. “I can’t control who the authorities talk to. And you and I haven’t exactly been on good terms.”
“I wouldn’t—”
“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think you would either. I mean, what could you possibly gain from hurting me?” Alex asked.
Melissa jumped at Alex’s words. “Nothing. But the papers are saying awful, hateful things about me.”
Hawk scribbled on a piece of paper and slid it across the desk.
Olive branch .
“Maybe if we met in public. Lunch or coffee, and the press saw us getting along, those awful things would go away.”
Melissa was quiet. “You’d, ah ... you would do that?”
Alex released an exasperated sigh. “You’re on the board, Melissa. We both have something to lose if the market value of Stone Enterprises goes down because of what the press is spitting out.”
“Why do I feel like there is a catch?” Melissa asked.
“Because you’re smart,” Alex said.
Hawk grinned ear to ear.
“If we find out you are my stalker, I will deliver you to jail in your own car.”
There was a pause.
“When can we meet?”
Alex fist-bumped Hawk.
She set up a meeting for later that day.
As expected, the press parked themselves on the street, with cameras focused on them.
Melissa, wearing a skintight dress, took a seat opposite Alex and pasted on a fake smile. Her designer bag was tossed on the chair beside her, a Ralph Lauren stiletto tapped against the air after she crossed her legs and sat back.
“We need to be seen, not heard,” Alex told her. “And the press has lip readers. Although we both know they will make up what they want to.”
Melissa cheated her chair so that her back was to the window.
Alex approved with a nod.
“So, what should we talk about?” Melissa asked.
“As it turns out, there are a couple of things. And before you get defensive or think I’m trying to set you up, you need to know I don’t care .”
Melissa hesitated. “You don’t care about what?”
Alex lowered her voice. “We know about the safe in Italy.”
Melissa blinked ... twice. She sat up taller. “What safe?”
Instead of clarifying, Alex repeated herself. “We don’t care. We don’t care about what was in the safe. We don’t care about the watches.”
“I have no idea—”
Alex lifted her fingertips from the table. “If I were you, I’d say the same thing. Don’t say anything for a minute and hear me out. Chase and I ... we didn’t expect anything when Dad died. How could we? Dad didn’t care about us.”
Melissa stayed silent, a practiced smile on her lips.
“The only thing Dad cared about was money. Can we both agree on that?”
Melissa’s nod was minuscule.
But it was the affirmative Alex needed.
“And Stone Enterprises was his way to get that money. He would protect it at all cost. Not you, me ... Chase. And certainly not Max. Agreed?”
Another nod.
Alex leaned forward. “It wasn’t so much as what was taken from that safe, but what was left in it. And why there was a need for that safe in the first place.”
There was just enough confusion on Melissa’s face to suggest she didn’t know what Alex was talking about.
“I don’t know anything about a safe.”
“Fine. For argument’s sake, let’s pretend that you didn’t. Who did? Who else knew about that safe ... and the other ones?”
Melissa’s chin went up.
Her expression unchanged.
“Right now, the authorities are digging through every possible motive and person who could gain anything by hurting ... or killing me. We haven’t directed them to the safe because we think they will focus on you and miss the real stalker.”
“Why would they focus on me?” Melissa asked.
“You thought the Italy house was a gift to you, right?”
“That’s what your father said.”
“And you spent a lot of time there? And you went there after Dad’s death.”
“I was told I could retrieve my personal belongings.” Melissa uncrossed her legs and sat forward.
Alex smiled at Melissa’s confession of being at the house.
“Which means the police will accuse you of taking what was in the safe. Unless there was someone else that knew it was there.” Alex folded her hands in front of her and waited.
Silence stretched for what felt like an eternity.
Melissa glanced over her shoulder and smiled at the flashing lights of the photographers from the sidewalk.
“Paul spent time there,” Melissa admitted after she turned back to face Alex.
“Yarros?” Alex wasn’t expecting his name.
A small nod.
“Can you say he positively knew about the safe?”
Melissa didn’t answer.
“If he was asked, would he say you told him about it, or he told you?” Alex shook her head when Melissa didn’t answer. “Never mind. Don’t answer that.”
A picture started to come to life in Alex’s head. Maybe Melissa didn’t know about the safe until Paul told her. He suggests she takes what’s in it to give to him for his shares. Now Yarros has Melissa in his fist. Since she committed a felony, stealing that large of a sum.
“Do you think Paul knew about what else was in that safe?”
“What else was in this supposed safe?” Melissa asked.
Alex had to hand it to Melissa. She wasn’t saying anything self-incriminating.
“Something you wouldn’t want anything to do with, Melissa.
Dad was doing something he shouldn’t have been.
That’s how the contents of the safe got in there in the first place.
And whatever that was, it looks like someone wants to hurt me for it.
” Alex reached across the table, placed a hand on Melissa’s arm.
“If Paul asked you to do what I think he did, for the purpose of selling you his shares, I wouldn’t put it past him to use that as blackmail in the future.
I honestly think you’re being used as a pawn here.
But what the person holding the chess pieces isn’t anticipating is that we have no intention of pinning any blame on you. ”
Melissa narrowed her brow. Her smile all but a memory. “Why?”
Alex noticed Hawk move from where he stood by the door. His gaze had never left their table.
“Money means nothing if I’m dead.”
Melissa pulled in a sharp breath.
Alex reached into her purse and removed a bulky envelope.
“What is this?”
Alex thought about how it would look from the paparazzi’s view.
She opened the envelope and pulled out two car keys. “The Aston should have been yours. Dad was a dick to take it away.”
Melissa’s hand shook as she reached for the keys.
“The pink slip is signed. Bill of sale is one dollar,” Alex said.
“I, ah . . .”
“I know. We don’t know how else to show you that we truly don’t care about what was taken.
If we can’t narrow any leads down, we’re going to have to tell the investigators about the safe, what was in it.
And we think that’s going to put a lot of things in jeopardy.
If there is any question of foul play that is linked to the company, none of us will have anything.
” Alex sat back as a thought flashed in her head.
Except Paul. He sold his shares to Melissa and isn’t invested anymore.
For a woman who had always had some smart retort to anything Alex had ever said, Melissa was eerily quiet.
Alex smiled at Hawk.
“The car is parked in front of the office.”
Alex reached for her purse and scooted her chair back.
“Are you expecting a thank you for what was mine to start with?” The words were harsh, but Melissa’s delivery held humor.
“It wouldn’t suck,” Alex replied.
There was no thank you .
Alex laughed and stood. “You know where I am if something comes to mind that you think I should know.”
Melissa stared at the car keys.
Alex placed a hand on Melissa’s shoulder. “It still makes me want to hurl when I picture you sleeping with my dad.”
Melissa coughed on a laugh, and Alex walked out the door.