Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
SUMMER
My overnight bag sat on the back seat of the car, stuffed with everything I thought I might need for a few days away. Since I had no clue what we were doing, I might have overpacked. I like to be prepared.
Beside my bag was another, holding a brand-new laptop and phone. Cooper had handed them to me before we'd left the Sinclair offices, saying, "It's our fault you need these. No one should have breached Rycroft. If you don't like them, let Evers know and we'll upgrade."
I'd checked on the drive back to Rycroft. The phone was the newest model and the laptop was a serious improvement on the one that had been stolen the night before.
"Evers, this is too much," I'd protested.
"Don't argue. Cooper was right. It was our fault your things were taken. Replacing them is the least we can do."
"Would you do this for another client?"
A quick, hot glance. "You're not a client, Summer. You're mine. Don't argue."
I was his.
I decided not to argue.
I have no idea what Evers said to Cynthia, but she waved us off, standing at the open front door, her arm looped through Griffen’s, smiling widely.
A few days before, she'd flipped out at the idea of Evers leaving long enough to take me to the stationery shop.
Today, she was perfectly fine with both of us abandoning her.
"What did you say to her?"
"I told her you had a personal problem and we had to sort it out."
I gave him the side eye. There was no way it had been that simple. "What did you have to promise her? You're not sleeping with her. I hope she knows that."
Evers laughed, taking his eyes from the road just long enough to catch my gaze. "You know I'm not sleeping with her."
"I know, but what did you promise her? I know you had to promise something."
"A huge discount," Evers admitted.
"How huge?" I asked, suspiciously. Cynthia liked her luxury, but she was sharp about money.
"Let's just say we’ll be taking a loss on the job. And I might have thrown Griffen in her path."
"Newsflash, she already noticed Griffen." Cynthia had an eye for attractive men, and she’d have to be blind to miss Griffen. I was crazy for Evers, and I could still appreciate Griffen’s roguish grin and distinctive green eyes. Not to mention his body… Not that I’d looked. Much.
"She's not going to do anything about it, you know,” Evers said. “Cynthia, I mean, and Griffen."
"No, she won't," I agreed. "She likes to flirt, but I don't think she's been with anyone since Clint. I think she would have slept with you. I think having a history made her feel more comfortable."
“Wasn't going to happen," Evers said flatly.
He shot another glance in my direction. He was worried I didn’t believe him. I reached out and slid my hand to his thigh, squeezing lightly.
"I know that, Evers."
"As long as we have that straight."
He rested his hand on top of mine, keeping it in place on his leg. I drew circles, figure eights, and little hearts with my fingertip, my knuckles brushing his cock through the fabric of his pants.
"Are you going to tease me the whole drive?"
"Maybe. Do you want me to stop?"
"Fuck, no." He took his eyes off the road and turned his heavy-lidded gaze to me. "I wish all of this wasn't going on," he said. "I wish I could take you somewhere, just the two of us, and forget about the rest of it.”
"Later," I promised. "When this is over we’ll take a vacation."
"Absolutely." He glanced down at my feet, encased in pink, scrappy wedge sandals. "How's your ankle? Should you be wearing those shoes? I don't want you to trip and make it worse."
I rotated my ankle in a slow circle. It was a little sore, and when I pointed my toe I felt a twinge, but otherwise, it was fine. "It's good. I swear. I felt awful last night, but I think I was more scared than anything."
"You have a bruise on your shoulder," he said, reaching out to run a finger lightly down my shoulder blade.
"It's not that bad."
"It shouldn't have happened. You should have been safe in the house."
I knew where he was going with this. "It wasn't your fault, Evers."
"Of course, it's my fault."
"You can't control everything. I'm fine. Let it go."
The growl in the back of his throat told me that he wasn't going to let it go, but he'd drop the subject. Taking my hand, he watched the road ahead and we let silence fill the SUV.
His thumb rubbed the back of my hand absently, sweetly. This was one of the things I'd always loved about being with Evers. We could talk all night if we wanted to, but the quiet was just as good.
I loved being with him. He filled the space around me with warmth and comfort. With a simmering hint of lust. Sitting beside Evers, I could relax and just be. Daydream about the night to come, anchored by the touch of his hand on mine.
I watched the green hills roll by and finally asked the question that had been bugging me since the meeting at Sinclair Security.
"Why couldn't Griffen make this trip? And don't tell me it's because I'm not safe at the house.
The only way that guy got in was because of the party.
I know you've got Rycroft Castle on lockdown.
You'd never leave Cynthia unprotected, so I don't buy this bullshit about moving targets. What’s the real reason? "
Evers sighed. "I'll tell you, but don't bring it up with Griffen. None of us talk about it."
Now I was intrigued. I liked Griffen. He'd saved Emma after Axel had landed her in an ugly situation, and I'd forever be grateful to him for that. Even if he hadn't saved my best friend’s life, he was a good guy.
Cooper and Evers had shut down any mention of Griffen making this trip to North Carolina. There was a story there.
"I swear," I promised. "I can keep my mouth shut, but now I'm curious."
"Okay. He told us some of this, some we dug up ourselves. Griffen is from a town outside of Asheville. Sawyers Bend."
"Sawyers Bend as in Griffen Sawyer?" I asked.
"Exactly. Griffen is the oldest of seven. Or maybe it's eight."
I winced. Eight kids? "His poor Mom," I murmured.
"Griffen's mother only had two. His Dad went through wives like most men go through shoes.
From the little Griffen let slip and everything we dug up, his father is a real bastard.
Playing the kids against each other, writing them in and out of his will depending on who kissed his ass the best. A real piece of work.
Griffen's family owns half the town, not to mention real estate all over North Carolina.
A logging company. One of the last successful textile manufacturers and a thriving furniture and design company.
The father keeps all of it under his thumb. "
"If he's the heir to all of that, what's Griffen doing working for Sinclair Security?"
"We're not exactly sure," Evers said with a laugh. "He's a little older than me. We met in the Army. Rangers. The best I've been able to put together, he was living his life, doing the Sawyer thing, running the family businesses and dancing to his father's tune, and then he just walked away."
"What happened?"
"No clue. He left, and he's never been back.
From what we could find out, the father disinherited him completely, tossed him out and told him never to set foot in Sawyers Bend again.
I got the feeling Griffen rode out on a giant fuck you.
He doesn't go anywhere near Sawyers Bend or Western North Carolina.
Too close to home. We have an understanding.
Work that runs in that direction, we give to someone else.
He doesn't want to deal with his family.
I'm not going to be the one to make him. "
"I'm not sure you could make Griffen do anything," I said quietly. Griffen did easy-going charm as well as Evers, but I'd seen that flat, cold look in his eyes. Like Evers, there was a lot more to him than a handsome smile.
"He wasn't going to touch this one. Your dad's place isn't in Asheville. It's outside the city, not that far from Sawyers Bend. We tracked his credit card receipts—"
"How did you get his credit card receipts?" I asked. Wouldn't they need a court order? They weren't the police.
Evers didn't answer.
"You're not going to tell me?"
Evers cleared his throat. "It's not important how we got them.
Your dad deals mostly in cash, but when he runs short, he'll pull out the card.
There are a few places in Asheville we should check, charges show up often enough that we might be able to find somebody who's seen him.
He doesn't spend a lot of time in Sawyers Bend.
Too many tourists, not enough places to find trouble, but Griffen wouldn't have wanted to run the risk of dealing with a case at his family's back door. "
"Now I kinda want to see this town." I murmured.
"Maybe you will. We'll see how it goes."
It was after dinner time when we rolled into Asheville, the city busy with tourists eager to try one of the many craft breweries or unique restaurants.
We flashed through downtown on the expressway before driving through Beaucatcher Tunnel and ending up on a crowded street lined with chain restaurants and hotels. If not for the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains, we could have been anywhere in America.
Slowing, Evers pulled into a run-down little strip mall in between a big chain steakhouse and a hotel. The strip mall had a pawnshop, a video game store, a nail salon, and a bar creatively named The Bar. The windows were papered over from the inside, and the light above the door was broken.
Evers gave the place a long look. "Maybe we should get a hotel. You can stay in the room. I'll make some stops, see if I can find your dad. We'll go out to dinner first."
"No way in hell. You're not dumping me in some hotel. We're here to find my dad. One look at you and he'll take off running. If he sees me, there's a good chance he'll talk to us. If for nothing else, to try to score some cash."
Evers shook his head "For someone who was getting pretty big payments for his services, your dad seems like he was constantly broke."
My laugh was tired. "That's my dad. Put a dollar in his hand and it's gone a second later. If it hadn't been for my mom, I don't know that I would have had food on the table when I was growing up. He lost money just as easily as he made it."
I scanned Evers in his perfectly-tailored dark suit and crisp white shirt. He was bone meltingly hot, but exactly the kind of man my Dad would run from. Evers radiated command. Control. One look at him and my dad would be gone.
"He's not going to talk to you if he can help it. You'll need me to draw him out."
"All right, fine. You can come in this time."
"Works for me." I unsnapped my seatbelt and opened the door to Evers' SUV before he could change his mind.
I was still wearing my hot pink linen sheath dress with matching sandals and clutch, and a filmy, patterned scarf.
I had no idea what was behind those papered-over windows, but I was sure it was not the kind of place that called for hot pink sheath dresses and cute matching sandals.
Evers slid his arm around my waist and took the lead, guiding me across the small parking lot to the door. He shook his head as he pulled it open as if asking himself what the hell he was thinking.
The inside of the bar looked as if it had once been a fifties-style diner with naugahyde booths and a long counter. But where in the past there might have been a griddle and cooks working, now there was a bar, the shelves makeshift and rickety.
Conversation ground to a halt as the patrons caught sight of us. I'd been right. Hot pink sheath dresses with cute matching sandals were not the normal attire at The Bar. Neither was Evers' dark suit.
We stuck out like the proverbial thumb, and a flutter of nerves tickled my belly.
Most of the patrons were male and a little scary.
I hadn't had a lot of run-ins with bikers, but these guys were what I imagined bikers looked like.
Grizzled and unshaven, in worn leather jackets, with yellowed teeth and growly voices.
Not sexy growly like Evers' voice could be, but too many cigarettes and cheap alcohol growly. I almost regretted not letting Evers stash me in a hotel. Asheville was a tourist town and an upscale one at that. I'd never visited before, but I knew there were some seriously lush resorts here.
What was I doing in this sketchy, scary little bar when I could be getting a massage and room service?
Oh, yeah, looking for my father. This was exactly the kind of place Smokey Winters would hang out. Squaring my shoulders, I leaned into Evers and nudged him further inside.
We were here. We might as well get this over with.