Chapter Eleven
KNOX
ABlack Rock police cruiser pulled into the driveway for the second time in a week. I knew better than anyone that Lily and Adam were fine since I'd been watching them play Chutes and Ladders over the surveillance cameras.
I tried to ignore my twinge of guilt at spying on Lily. I was doing my job. All of them. I wasn't just here to protect Lily and Adam, I was here to find out what Trey Spencer, and possibly Lily, had been up to with my father. To do that, I had to spy, twinges of guilt or not.
I was standing by the side of the driveway when Deputy Dave pulled to a stop and got out of the cruiser. He aimed a sneer my way that I'd bet intimidated the locals.
I crossed my arms over my chest and lifted my chin. “Can I help you?”
“No. I'm here to see Lily.”
I took a step closer. “She expecting you?”
“Look, guy, I don't know why you're still here, but I've known Lily for years. Her husband was my best friend. He'd expect me to be there for her, and that's what I'm doing. If you don't like it, you're welcome to get the hell out of town.”
“I'm not going anywhere until Lily asks me to,” I said.
Deputy Dave's chest puffed up like a rooster. “Then start packing. I'm going in to talk to her.”
I thought for a minute, weighing the inconvenience of having Deputy Dave on the scene with the benefit of more time to figure out what the hell he was up to.
I already knew he wanted to fuck Lily, but something about him felt off.
There was more to his hovering than a simple desire to nail his buddy's widow.
Decision made, I gave him my fakest friendly smile. “Great. I'll walk you in.”
“That's not necessary—”
I ignored the deputy and strode ahead of him to the front door, rapping twice before turning the handle and calling out, “Lily? The deputy is here.”
A pause, almost uncomfortably long. Deputy Dave shifted from one foot to the other, waiting for Lily to welcome him. There was a rustle of sound, and both Lily and Adam appeared.
Lily's face was arranged in a carefully friendly smile. Adam's expression wasn't friendly or careful.
He arranged himself beside me, crossing his arms over his chest, and glared at the deputy in irritation, muttering, “We were playing a game.”
I murmured, “Were you winning?”
Adam poked the side of my thigh with his little elbow. “I was kicking her butt.”
“Good job.” The pleasure that flashed across his small face stabbed straight through my chest. Fuck. I kinda got why Lily said she'd do anything for the kid.
I'd heard him bitching at her at bedtime and when he didn't like his dinner. I knew he wasn't perfect. Half the time he was a royal pain in the ass. From what I've seen of kids, that's pretty much how they all are. With Adam, so far, the good far outweighed the bad.
Fuck, that grin. I couldn't wait to see what he'd do when he won the game. If he won. Lily was no stranger to kid's games. She might have a comeback planned.
Lily was still giving Deputy Dave her careful, polite smile that was a facsimile of friendliness. He seemed to buy it. I didn't. Lily hadn't said anything negative about the Deputy, but in my gut, I knew she didn't like him.
“Is everything okay, Dave?”
“Oh yeah, everything's fine. I was over here checking in with the Millers. The dog got out again. Went after Mabel's chickens, scared a renter.”
Lily shook her head in resignation. “That dog. No matter what fence they get, he finds a way. He's sweet but full of trouble.”
“Don't I know it,” Dave agreed. “I thought I'd stop by, see if you're free for dinner.” Lily's eyes flashed to mine, alarm, guilt, and something else I couldn't read flickering through them before she recovered her fake smile.
“Oh, that's so nice of you. I, um, I would, but I have Adam and—”
Deputy Dave shot me a look. “Sinclair here can watch him for an hour or two, can't he?”
“Oh, well, no. Knox isn't a babysitter, Dave,” Lily said, confusion clouding her face.
We both stared at Deputy Dave as if he'd grown an extra head. Not that I would mind watching the kid, but as far as Dave knew I was here upgrading the specs on the security system. I was as good as a stranger.
Did he really think Lily was going to leave Adam with a man she barely knew? If he did, he didn't know Lily. I'd been here a few days, and I could've told him that wasn't going to happen.
Either Deputy Dave was an idiot—always a possibility—or he already knew Lily was going to turn him down. I was betting on the latter.
He proved me right when he let the silence stretch an uncomfortable length until Lily stepped in and said, “Would you like to stay for dinner tonight instead? I made meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I was going to put it on the table in a half an hour or so. Do you want to come in, have a beer and eat with us?”
A wide, almost smug smile spread across Deputy Dave's mouth. Yeah, he knew Lily wouldn't leave Adam. He was angling for the invite. Why? To make another run at getting into Lily's panties? Maybe.
Knowing it would drive him nuts, I said, “Meatloaf sounds great. I'll be over as soon as I wrap up my work.”
Deputy Dave's eyes narrowed on me. He turned to Lily and said, “He eats dinner with you?”
Lily gave him another strained look. “Of course,” she said. “Why wouldn't he?”
“I can think of a lot of reasons,” Dave grumbled under his breath. Turning to give me his back, he said to Lily, “I'll take you up on that beer if you're ready.”
“Sure.” She held out a hand for Adam, who hung back.
“I want to stay with Mr. Knox.”
I recognized that tone of voice. It was the same one he used when he didn’t like his oatmeal or the sneakers Lily had put out for him.
I couldn’t blame the kid. I’d rather hang with me than Deputy Dave, too. Considering I planned to spend the next fifteen minutes spying on Lily and the deputy, I couldn’t have Adam in the cottage. I reached down to squeeze his shoulder.
“Another time, bud, okay? It’s going to take all my attention to get this work done. I’ll get to it as fast as I can and meet you in the kitchen. Deal?”
Adam’s eyes narrowed on me in consideration. Just as Lily stepped forward to intercede, Adam lifted his chin at me, the gesture so adult it took me back for a moment. “K. Fifteen minutes.”
I nodded. Adam raced ahead of Lily and Dave, ignoring Lily’s call of, “Wash your hands and clean up the game.”
I watched them walk into the kitchen, not liking the way Dave crowded Lily or the tense set of her shoulders. I didn’t like the idea of leaving them alone.
I’d be watching over the cameras. If he did anything out of line, I could be there in no time.
Lily was safe and only a little uncomfortable. She could handle it. I knew all of that, and I still didn't want to leave her with him.
“Get your fucking head together,” I muttered to myself as I sat at my desk and pulled up the cameras in the kitchen. Lily was the client and she was safe. I was doing my job.
She was also a potential target. I had to do that job, too.
If I had any hope of untangling the mess my father and Trey Spencer had left behind, I had to find out what the hell was going on. I couldn't turn down the chance to eavesdrop on Lily and her dead husband's best friend. Especially when I was convinced that friend had an agenda all his own.
“Fucking better keep his hands to himself,” I mumbled as I zeroed in on the kitchen camera. If he put a single finger on her…
I shook my head. Focus. So what if he did? As long as he didn't hurt her, everything was fine. The thought of his skin touching hers made my stomach twist. I wasn't going to examine why.
I turned up the volume and waited. Lily bustled around the kitchen, pulling potatoes out of a steaming pot of water and putting them in a bowl to mash. The deputy helped himself to a beer from the fridge and leaned against the counter.
He didn't offer to help, and Lily didn't ask. They talked about town gossip, the increase in tourists for the season. I was starting to wonder if I'd been imagining things when the deputy said, “Why is Knox Sinclair still here, Lily? Shouldn't he be done with the alarm by now?”
Lily shrugged a shoulder. “He's working on a few things. He had to upgrade some wiring,” she improvised.
I knew the Deputy made her nervous, but she hadn't denied he was a friend of the family. Not enough of a friend that she told him the truth. She didn't mention the intruder, the new perimeter alarm, or any of the cameras I'd added on the outside of the house.
“I don't like him hanging around.”
“Why not?” Lily asked baldly, turning from the bowl of potatoes long enough to spear him with a look.
Deputy Dave shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “I don't trust him.”
Lily gave him a gentle smile and shook her head. “Trey must have trusted Sinclair Security. They did all the work on the house. He told me to call them if I ever needed anything. Are you saying Trey didn't know what he was doing?”
Dave cleared his throat and took a sip of his beer.
Nice job, Lily. Back him into a corner, so if he insults me, he's insulting his dead best friend.
Dave put the beer down. “I don't think you need him hanging around, that's all. Couldn't he stay in town?”
At this Lily laughed, and the sound was almost her normal, musical laugh. Almost. I wanted to hear that laugh again. The real thing. Maybe if I got rid of Deputy Dave, I would.
“Stay in town? In July? You know there's not a room to be had anywhere within a half-hour of the lake this time of year. And the cost? I don't know who would pay, him or me, but either way—” Lily shook her head again. “Why bother when the cottage is right there?”
“You shouldn't have a stranger staying this close.”
“Dave, he's a security expert who's working on the alarm. The security expert recommended by Trey. If I can't trust him, who can I trust?”
Dave let it drop, changing the subject to the arts fair coming up. He never asked about Adam. Bad move. I'd only known Lily a few days and I could have told him the way to that woman's heart was through her son.
Deputy Dave would've bought himself a lot of goodwill if he'd shown the slightest interest in Adam. He wasn't that smart.
I was almost ready to shut down the laptop and join them in the kitchen when Dave tossed his empty beer into the recycling bin and excused himself.
I followed him on the cameras as he walked down the hall, expecting him to stop at the powder room. He did and came out a few minutes later drying his hands on the sides of his pants, but instead of turning and heading back to the kitchen, he ducked into Trey's office.
Now things were getting interesting. What the hell did the deputy want in Trey's office? Did he know something Lily and I didn't? He answered that quickly enough when he opened and shut the desk drawers, randomly and carelessly.
Whatever he was looking for, he didn't know where to start. But, like Lily, he was definitely looking for something.
I sat back in my chair and watched the deputy's sloppy search move to the closet. He ignored the files in favor of the woven baskets. He and Lily weren't searching for the same thing. Unless he'd already been through the files.
The gears in my mind spun. Andrei Tsepov had threatened our mother, saying our father took something that was his, and he would hurt her if he didn't get it back.
Andrei was the nephew of the former head of the Tsepov crime family. We'd dealt with his uncle more than a few times before my brother's wife shot him to save Axel. The younger Tsepov had inherited his uncle's position, and he was significantly less intelligent.
Case in point, he threatened to hurt our mother if we didn't give him back what our father stole, but he never bothered to tell us exactly what that was.
Andrei Tsepov was looking for something he claimed my father took.
My father had been working with Trey Spencer.
Both Lily and Trey's best friend were also looking for something.
Wouldn't it be interesting if that something was the same something?
It couldn't be that easy. Not that there was anything easy about this, considering I had no idea what Lily and Dave were looking for.
I tucked that thought away for later, watching as Dave finished his fruitless search, attempted to straighten the blotter and pens on the desk—doing a crap job—and strode out of the office.
I'd left them alone for almost twenty minutes. Time to horn in on dinner and see what else I could learn.