Chapter Twenty-Eight
LILY
“Did you tap the side of that measuring cup?” Knox asked.
Oops. I'd leveled it off with a knife, but I forgot the tap. Obediently, I struck the side of the knife against the measuring cup and watched as the flour fell into the air pockets, leaving me less than the half-cup I needed.
Eventually, I was going to get this right. I scooped flour from the bag again, tapped a few times and then leveled it off. Knox leaned into me, aware of Adam and Charlie's watchful eyes, and settled for dropping a kiss on the top of my head.
“Good job.”
I checked the recipe on Knox's phone. One cup of sugar. One cup of sugar? Twice as much sugar as flour? I was working on another one of Annabelle's recipes. If these brownies were as good as the chocolate chip cookies, I wasn't going to question her, but that's a lot of sugar.
Adam giggled quietly. I looked over to catch him shoving a handful of chocolate chips in his mouth, joined by Charlie, who had a smear of melted chocolate on her bottom lip.
“Hey, I need those for the brownies.”
“Here.” Charlie topped off the measuring cup with chips and handed it to me, keeping the open bag for her and Adam. I dumped the chips into a bowl set over a pot of simmering water. From the other room, we heard Lucas swearing to himself. Adam giggled again.
Charlie rolled her eyes to the ceiling before looking at me in apology. “Sorry, he's not used to little ears.”
“It's okay,” I said. “Adam knows better than to repeat words he's not allowed to say, right?”
“Right,” Adam agreed, the word garbled through a mouthful of chocolate chips.
I kept my eyes on the melting chocolate as I beat eggs together with sugar and vanilla, the recipe taking all my concentration.
I knew Knox would make sure I didn't screw up, but I wanted to do this right.
So far, my only mistake had been forgetting to tap the side of the measuring cup with the flour. Otherwise, I'd learned my lesson.
Measure carefully and follow the directions.
Lucas appeared, filling the doorway of the kitchen. His size was startling, even more so given that he moved in complete silence. A man that big should lumber like an elephant. Instead, he was a ghost.
Charlie poured him a cup of coffee, sliding it into his hand while tucking herself into his side. He sipped gratefully.
“How good was your husband with computers?” Lucas asked me.
I turned from the stove. “He was okay, but he wasn't a hacker or programmer or anything.”
“You sure?”
I looked at Adam, who appeared completely disinterested in any talk of his father. I couldn't tell if he truly didn't care or was pretending not to care in the hopes that we'd say something interesting in front of him. I wasn't sure it mattered.
I wouldn't talk badly about Trey in front of Adam, but the fact was Trey had left us in trouble. Things were complicated enough without me bending over backwards to try to pretend he'd been father of the year. Adam was five. He wasn't stupid.
“Honestly? I'm realizing there's a lot I don't know.
I guess it's possible he was a secret hacker, but as far as I could tell, he was good enough to handle online banking, to use a spreadsheet and a word processor, but I never saw him do anything more advanced than that.
He couldn't get the TV remote to work half the time.”
Lucas nodded and sipped his coffee in contemplation. Finally, he said, “Davis had access to tech he got from Tsepov.”
I had no clue what he was talking about, but Knox said, “Yeah. I remember. You think he fixed up Trey's laptop?”
“Somebody did. I doubt it was Trey Spencer.”
“Can you get in?”
“I will. I'm almost there. Where's Griffen?”
“Searching the house,” Knox answered with a quick glance at Adam.
Lucas followed his eyes to my son, looked at me and nodded. He gave Charlie a squeeze. “Thanks for the coffee, Princess.” Then he was gone as silently as he'd come in.
“He'll get it,” Charlie said with all the confidence in the world. “No one can keep Lucas out if he wants to get in.”
“That's true,” Knox agreed. “Once we get things wrapped up with Tsepov, I want to find out who he has working for him. If his hacker is good enough to slow Lucas down, I want to know who it is.”
I tuned out Knox and Charlie's conversation, checking the recipe again before taking the now-melted chocolate off the simmering water to cool.
I didn't want it hot enough to cook the eggs when I dumped it into my mixing bowl.
In another bowl I sifted together the dry ingredients except for the sugar, sneaking a square of caramel for myself.
Just before my chocolate timer went off, Lucas let out a shout of triumph that echoed down the hall from Trey's office. I took that to mean he'd broken into the laptop. Charlie slipped out of the room and came back almost immediately with a wide grin on her face.
“He's in,” she confirmed. Now I just had to hope all that effort was worth something.
The buzzer went off and I mixed the chocolate with the eggs, then the wet ingredients with the dry, and poured the whole tempting mess into the pan I'd already buttered and floured.
I slid the pan into the oven and set the timer for half an hour. I still had to make the caramel sauce, but I wouldn't tackle that until the brownies came out of the oven. Adam lost interest in my cooking project as soon as I plucked the bag of chips from his hand and put them away.
“Can I go play Legos?”
He'd clung to my side more than usual over the last few days. While part of me knew how he felt, I nodded, relieved at the return to normalcy. “Go ahead. I'll call you when the brownies are done.”
“Don't forget,” Adam yelled as he raced down the hall and up the stairs to his room.
Griffen came in, shaking his head at the question on my face.
“I didn't find anything. There's a spot under the stairs where the paneling looks a little off.” Catching Knox's eyes, he said, “I'd check there, and take apart Trey's desk.
My guess is whatever he hid, it's in one of those two places. I looked everywhere else.”
“Lucas got into the laptop,” Knox said
“He find anything?”
“Don't know yet.”
Apparently not worried about interrupting Lucas, Griffen grabbed a cup of coffee and headed down the hall to the office. The rest of us followed. Lucas stared into the laptop screen, a smug smile on his face. “I found the books for the business. The real books.”
I noticed a thumb drive stuck in the side of the laptop.
“Anything else?” Knox asked, leaning over Lucas' shoulder to check out whatever was on the laptop screen.
“A file with a list of account numbers.”
“The account numbers we're looking for?”
“Too soon to tell,” Lucas said. “I can leave the laptop here, I don't need it anymore, but I'll bring everything back to Atlanta and let you know. I need to do a little more digging.”
My knees went a little wobbly at the idea that Lucas might have found what they were looking for. If they had the account numbers, Knox didn't need me anymore.
No. I wanted Knox to find the account numbers. I wanted his mom to be safe, his family to be safe.
If Tsepov had his money, he'd forget about me and Adam. I wanted Tsepov to go away, right? Of course, I did.
Then why did I feel so deflated at the knowledge that Lucas might have solved Knox's problem and not mine?
Griffen hadn't found Trey's hiding place. I still didn't have the adoption contract or Adam's birth certificate.
Griffen looked at his watch. “We need to head to the airport soon.”
They were leaving for Atlanta after lunch. Charlie had to meet her subs at their latest flip house first thing Monday morning, and there wasn't much more Lucas and Griffen could do up here.
I'd be sorry to see them go. Much less sorry to be alone with Knox, especially since I wasn't sure how much longer he'd be around.
A beep erupted from my phone and Knox's simultaneously. The driveway alert. Not quite an alarm, it let us know a car had turned off the main road and down the long, narrow driveway.
I wasn't surprised to see the Black Rock cruiser pull up in front of the house. Who else would be here but Dave? Knox's hand closed around my elbow when I moved to answer the door. “Let Lucas get it.”
I didn't have to ask why. Lucas grinned. “Why? Who's this?”
“The deputy I told you about.”
“Oh. Yeah, let me answer the door.”
I didn't laugh at the expression on Dave's face when Lucas opened the door, but I wanted to. His jaw dropped a fraction as his eyes scaled up, and up, to where Lucas' head brushed the doorframe.
Dave took an involuntary half-step back before he straightened his shoulders. “I'm Deputy Dave Morris of the Black Rock police. Who are you, and what are you doing in Lily Spencer's house?”
“Lucas Jackson with Sinclair Security. Is there something wrong, officer? Something I can help you with?”
“I, uh, I came by to take Lily to lunch.” Dave leaned around Lucas, eyes searching for me.
Lucas didn't move out of the doorway. “Lily has plans for lunch. I'll tell her you stopped by.”
“I'm not leaving until I see Lily,” Dave said mulishly.
Lucas didn't move. I was a little curious to see how long the standoff could go on, but I didn't know if I'd be in Black Rock on my own after Knox eventually left. It wouldn't pay to make Dave angry.
I pulled free of Knox's hand and moved into the doorway, nudging Lucas to the side.
“Hey, Dave. You working on a Sunday?”
“I'm on call. Wanted to see if you could leave Adam with Sinclair and go to lunch with me.”
From behind me, I heard a choked laugh. Charlie. I wanted to laugh, too.
Why did Dave keep asking me out?
What was the point?
Knox claimed he was attracted to me, but I didn't see it. Unless he was trying to get me into bed, so he'd have better access to the house. Knox had said he was searching for something. Either way, it wasn't going to happen.
“Dave, I'm so sorry, but you can see I have company—”
“They work for you. They're not company.”
I closed my eyes in a long blink, hoping it hid my annoyance. “Dave, I'm sorry, but I'm not free for lunch, and I told you, Knox isn't here to babysit.”
“What is he here for, exactly?” Dave challenged. “This is Black Rock. We don't have any crime. A couple of teenagers messing around isn't anything to worry about, Lily.”
He stepped closer, lowering his voice as if he could keep his words confidential. Ridiculous, considering that Lucas stood right next to me, Knox, Griffen, and Charlie only a few steps away.
Dave could whisper and they'd still hear every word.
“I'm just worried they're taking advantage of you. Convincing you you need protection and running up their bill. You're fine. You don't need them.”
Lucas put his arm around me in a show of friendly affection. Dave's eyes narrowed. He started to speak. Lucas got there first.
“Didn't Lily tell you? Sinclair isn't billing her. She's not a client. Trey was tight with the old man. His sons consider Lily's security a family issue, so you don't need to worry about us soaking her for equipment and monitoring she doesn't need. We're here to look out for her. Got it?”
Dave's shocked eyes turned to me. “Lily? Is that true?”
I didn't know what to say. It was the first I'd heard of it.
Lucas stepped back and Knox took his place, sliding his arm around my waist and pulling me into his side.
I tried not to think about how well I fit there as he said in a low voice, his eyes on mine, “I told you you weren't just a client, Lily.”
He'd said that, but I hadn't believed it. I wasn't sure I did even now, but I didn't mind them using that story to get Dave off my back.
Temporarily out of protests—and reasons to hang around—Dave stepped back off the porch, his eyes hard on Knox's arm around me.
“Okay, Lily. You know you can always call if you need something.”
“I know. Thanks, Dave.”
He threw up a hand in a halfhearted salute before getting into his car, gravel spitting out from beneath his wheels as he executed a jerky three-point-turn and shot down the driveway.
My eyes on the dust clouds he left behind, I couldn't stop my laugh when Charlie said, “What's up with the deputy? Was that weird, or is it just me?”
“No, Princess, that was weird. What is up with the deputy?”
Slowly, I said, “He was best friends with Trey. He feels an obligation to look after Adam and me since Trey died.”
Knox choked back a laugh. “Deputy Dave has his eye on Lily. And, when he invited himself over for dinner, I caught him on camera searching Trey's office.”
Griffen and Lucas' attention sharpened. Griffen asked, “You think he was working with Trey?”
“It's a possibility. If he wasn't, he wants something he thinks is in this house.”
The timer for the brownies went off. I ducked out from under Knox's arm and went to pull them from the oven. The others followed me into the kitchen as I set the brownie pan out to cool and started working on the caramel sauce.
From behind me, I heard Griffen say to Knox, “Tsepov may not be in custody for long, you know that, right?”
Knox grunted in response. I'd take that as a yes. I hadn't really thought about it, but someone like Andrei Tsepov probably had good lawyers and plenty of money for bail.
Griffen continued, “If he gets out, I think the three of you need to come home. It's not safe for Lily and Adam to be on their own.”
“We'll see,” was all Knox would say. I understood Griffen's logic, but I didn't like the idea of leaving Black Rock.
If I had Adam's birth certificate and the adoption contract—legal proof I was his mother—I'd be out of here like a shot.
Without that, I wasn't going anywhere.