Page 113 of Possession

“And there’s no security built into them? I find that hard to believe.”

“I can’t tell you how many times I brought one of them home to work on files. The network isn’t really in Phil’s purview. She’s the schmoozer, and I was the one who kept all the behind-the-scenes mechanics working.”

My fault.

Oh, God.

My butt lowered to cover my feet. “I should have seen it.”

He cupped my face, bringing me back up onto my knees. “No.”

I curled my fingers around his wrist. I wanted to believe him, but my head had been firmly in the sand on too many different issues.

“You would have seen pieces sold, but did you really have anything to do with the accounting?”

“No. In fact, she made sure to have a separate person who took care of the books.”

“You couldn’t have known. That’s why she and Annabelle got away with this for as long as they did.”

I leaned into his hand. “Why would my grandmother have been in on this? That’s what I don’t understand. They barely tolerated each other.”

“Annabelle had a flair for the dramatic. Don’t you think this kind of thing would have been perfect for her? At least in the beginning. A way to be involved in all the gossip. To stay relevant and vital, which she desperately needed to be.”

There had to be more to it, and I didn’t doubt he was still sugarcoating. That was just Blake’s way of protecting me, and much as I railed against it, I knew deep down he cared.

Perhaps I mattered to him just as much as he mattered to me.

My eyes misted. “You knew her pretty well.”

He leaned in and kissed me softly. “I did. Enough to know how she could have gotten trapped in something like this.”

“Because she didn’t think it through,” I said sadly.

“The danger would have been addictive. Add in the fact that she knew my father and it makes me think he might have had something to do with it. He was a charming man. Just connected enough to be thrilling.”

Blake did know Annabelle too well. “It’s still wrong.”

“And why I’ve been killing myself to figure out the how and who. Something had to have happened to make your grandmother compile all this detailed information. A reason why she would have been so afraid for your life.”

A flash of my grandmother’s body sprawled across the carpet made my eyes burn again. He let me go and stood to flip the bedclothes back. I crossed my arms over my middle at the loss of his warmth.

“And now we have a way inside.”

I rolled back on my side and slid under the covers, suddenly cold. “We’ll need to talk to Jack tomorrow.”

Blake’s jaw flexed as he slid in beside me. “We both have to be up in a few hours.” He reached for the lamp, throwing the room into shadow.

“What is it about you and Jack lately?”

“It’s late, Grace.”

“Then hurry up and tell me why you get so spastic when I bring up Jack.”

“I do not getspastic.”

It was dark so he couldn’t see me roll my eyes. Seriously, rolling them hard. As if I couldn’t see what was going on between them more than half the time. “He’s my friend too, you know.”

“I’m well aware.”

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