Page 91 of A Very Un-Shakespeare Romance
Asked and answered, Lily thought.
“You’re unbelievable!” Robbie spat.
“Look, I can take it as long as she doesn’t embarrass me. The Kellys don’t care whether we’re a happily married couple. All they care about is the money. Frankly, so do I. Dammit, it’s not right that I’ve been hiding out in Maryland on a shoestring budget while she’s down here living it up in some fancy beach house with a McLaren in the driveaway. That car and everything else is mine. I did all the work.”
Ah, criminals have it so hard.Lily wondered how Robbie was keeping a lid on his temper. She cut him a surreptitious glance. He was pacing, his tennis shoes digging grooves in the sand.
Scotty held out his hand, entreating. “Robbie, you’ve got to talk to her. Convince her.”
A giant scoff sounded. “You do know I’m a sworn officer of the law, right? You’re insane.”
“No! Listen. You don’t want Tara or the girls to end up dead or drowned in the Mystic. The only way that doesn’t happen is if you stay quiet about this. Besides, the Kellys have people in your department. You can’t win this one. And you’re in serious hot water, being away and unavailable when there’s an arson case involving your first cousin. Everyone knows you’re a family first kind of guy. People are starting to suspect you already.”
Lily nearly smiled. They’d laid some breadcrumbs there too, hoping Robbie’s whereabouts would become the talk of the department. Interesting that Scotty was so wired in, being he was on the run and all.
“Dammit!” Robbie snarled, pacing hard as he kicked up sand. “I am not agreeing to anything.”
“Fine! We’ll talk it out. Lay it down from all the angles. With Tara.”
Lily pretended to chew her nails as she bent over and picked up a piece of red sea glass. Scotty’s pulse was pounding in his neck, and Lily imagined he reeked of flop sweat.
“Tara will have some ideas,” he continued in a rush. “Once she gets over wanting to kill me.”
“Good luck with that,” Robbie bit out. “If I do this, and I’m not saying I will, I need to know who can fix things for me at the department. Because I’m not letting this bullshit hurt my career. I’ve worked too hard.”
Way to sell it, Robbie.She fought a smile from her covert perch.
Scotty patted Robbie on the back, keeping a safe distance between them. “That’s good thinking. They’ll understand that when I introduce you. You’re only looking the other way because it’s family. Tara and the girls. You don’t want their mom or dad to end up in prison or dead. Think of how devastated Reagan and Cassidy would be.”
“If you don’t shut your mouth, I’m going to do it for you. You don’t deserve those kids.”
“Okay, okay!” He held up his hands. “But we’d better figure out our plan, because if I can find you, so can the Kellys.”
“What do you mean?” Robbie’s incredulity was perfectly pitched. “Howdidyou find me? Did you talk to Tara’s nail client who loves it here?”
“You don’t know?” Scotty started guffawing and slapping his knee. “Tara’s been posting videos and photos on social media for the past couple days about her new car and side piece to make me jealous.”
“Dammit!” He gave an impressive curse. “I told her not to do that.”
God, he really had a talent for undercover. She was proud of the way he was playing this.
“You know Tara. Too independent for her own good. She doesn’t listen, but I knew she’d find a way to tell me where she was hiding after she realized she couldn’t lay low forever. When I saw the first post, I was with Janice in Maryland at a casino my buddy told me was hot for action. I asked the table if they knew where it was and three people said the Outer Banks. It was only six hours away. Lots of people from there come down this way for vacation.”
“Shit!” Robbie cursed again. “It was that easy? Jesus, we need to get to a hotel so we can talk. It’s not safe here. Come on. I’ll take you back to the house, but if you so much as look at Tara wrong, I’ll kill you myself. Also, you aren’t talking to the girls.”
Gosh, her knight in shining armor did love to lay down the law.
“Fine! But they’re going to hear my voice and know it’s me. I’m still their father.”
“They’ll get over it,” Robbie answered harshly. “Like Tara is. Let’s go. Hey, Summer! I need to cut our run short, okay?”
She turned at his raised voice, a bright Summer Sunshine smile on her face, grateful her girl-next-door look didn’t seem to have made Scotty suspicious. She didn’t scream Fed. “Sure thing, Robbie. Catch you later.”
She watched the two men walk back to the rental house and started to make a beeline for the street that ran all the way to the house. She could signal to the agents across the street and have them converge on the house with her so they could arrest Scotty. She couldn’t be sure whether Sheila and Tyler were still out getting the pizza, but Lily didn’t want Scotty to be alone with Robbie. He’d wonder who was watching the girls and where Tim and Billie had gone. He’d start to get suspicious. That was when things turned dangerous.
As she started running, she took one more look to check their progress back to the house. They had a ways to go, seeing as she and Robbie had run all the way out to the curve in the beach. How long would it take them to walk back? Ten minutes? She glanced at the house to calculate the distance and stopped short when she saw the boat from earlier pulled up in the shallows close to their rental house.
Her gaze scanned the deck. The hotshot speed racer wasn’t at the bow.
