Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Sterling leaned forward and dug her hand in her back pocket. She pulled out Callum Leary’s card and slapped it on Griffen’s desk. “The bad news is that he showed up right after we found the second clue at the park in Willow Springs.”
Griffen’s eyes turned dark with a mix of shock and anger. He stabbed at his phone screen, and as whoever was on the other end picked up, he let out a terse, “My office.” Stabbing at the screen again to hang up, he put the phone down. “When exactly did you see Callum Leary?” he asked, his voice dangerously calm.
Sterling’s eyes flicked to me and back to Griffen. “Yesterday, late morning. And then…” Another glance at me and back to Griffen. “And then, um…again this morning. But we didn’t talk. We just drove by.”
“And she waved,” I added, still irritated by her easy rapport with Callum Leary.
Sterling turned her head and scowled at me. “I didn’t wave. I gave a thumbs-up,” she retorted.
“Same difference,” I said, and her eyes rolled to the ceiling.
“Why did you give Callum Leary a thumbs-up?” Griffen asked in that same deadly soft tone.
I wasn’t afraid of Griffen Sawyer. Not exactly. But I knew enough of his background to know he could probably tear me into pieces without breaking much of a sweat. I was in shape, active, and athletic, but I had not been trained to kill with my bare hands. I knew my limits.
The door opened, and Hawk Bristol strode in, a broad figure with a glare that made me want to keep my mouth shut and follow orders. If I had any illusions about Griffen, I had none about Hawk. Hawk had been decent when I’d helped him board up the windows the day Quinn’s guide shop had been trashed. But I knew where his loyalties lay, and they would never be with me. That was fine, especially considering it was Sterling he was here to protect.
In greeting, Griffen said to Hawk, “Callum Leary knows Sterling solved the first two clues. He approached them in a park in Willow Springs yesterday, and Sterling waved at him this morning.”
“I didn’t wave. I gave a thumbs-up,” Sterling repeated.
Hawk’s gaze bored a hole in Sterling’s forehead. She seemed oblivious. “Where were you this morning?” he demanded. “And how did Callum Leary find you?”
Sterling turned to me. “What was the name of the town?” she asked.
I told Hawk and added, “When I stopped for gas, I found a tracker on the car. We left it there. I thought it was smarter to let them see us go exactly where they were expecting us to go.”
Hawk crossed his arms over his chest and gave me a slow nod. “Then we can leave it there, and they’ll think you’re staying put since that’s exactly what you’re going to do.”
Sterling glanced at me, then back to Hawk, and finally to her brother. “No way,” she said.
“The Learys almost killed Tenn,” Griffen reminded her. “They were very clear about their intention to hurt Scarlett and Thatcher.”
“I know,” Sterling said, “But—”
“You think you do,” Griffen said, glancing at Hawk and back to his youngest sister. “You think you know, but you don’t. You don’t know, and I pray that you never do.”
Sterling’s teeth sank into her lower lip, and she looked away.
At that moment, it was crystal clear—the two men in the room with us had lived a very different kind of life than the one Sterling or I had lived. My life hadn’t always been easy. It definitely hadn’t always been happy. But these two men had lived in a world outside the one I knew, a world I suspected the Learys would recognize.
“Sterling,” I said, “maybe now…”
She clutched her purse, which I knew held the mint tin. I hadn’t taken it back. I should have. It was no less valuable than the first index card, the one I’d kept from her, saying I didn’t trust her.
I could have argued that I let her keep the mint tin because the code inside was supposedly so much harder to break than those we’d seen so far. But that wasn’t it. I just hadn’t wanted to take it from her.
Something in my gut said that while money was a factor in Sterling’s dedication to solving my father’s clues, it wasn’t everything. I felt the same way. The money would be nice, but there was so much more. Being near Sterling again, for one thing. And I was getting pieces of my father back, pieces of my childhood I’d lost.
Watching her since we’d started this, I thought that with every clue she solved, Sterling was discovering depths she didn’t know she had. I wasn’t going to be the one to hold her back.
“We’re not giving up,” I said.
“If it’s about money—” Griffen said.