Page 46 of Taming His Honeydoll
Henry’s mouth dropped again. “You’re married?” He asked in disbelief.
“No.”
They both chorused at the same time and Henry looked from one to the other. Then the light bulb went on and he grinned. “I’m so happy for you, darling girl. You finally took my advice and looked up Levi’s father.”
“No, I didn’t,” Emma retorted. “He found me.”
“Let’s move this inside where it’s warmer. Emma is shivering,” Sawyer growled tersely, shooting Henry a cutting glance. At least the man didn’t appear to know what was going on any more than the rest of them.
The fact that Henry already had a life partner on the side brought some questions to mind. Like had they ever slept together? Some men could go both ways. But whatever his proclivity, he was insanely jealous of the man that had spent years with his girl and helped her through the birth of his son.
Once inside, Henry was introduced to Rachel and spent a few minutes reuniting with his stepson. Rachel agreed to keep Levi entertained making peanut butter cookies while the rest of them sorted things out in the den. He’d bring her up to speed later. Grudgingly he realized how much Levi did care for Henry, which also made him jealous.
Ensconced in Sawyer’s den with some bracing brandy, Nat started asking questions. Henry pretty much repeated the same story. His determination to stay away from his parents once and for all seemed genuine. He was fed up with their games and refused to let them take up any more space in his life and push him around by the purse strings when he didn’t dance to their tune.
He was also fed up with hiding who he was and intended to take care of himself, make his life with Everett, and probably never set foot on English soil again unless it was required of him. How long that would last, Nat had no idea, but he kind of liked the English dude. But something seemed off, he just couldn’t put his finger right on it.
“Henry, when is Everett going to be back?” Emma asked.
“I don’t know, Emma,” Henry replied with a worried frown. “He’s always out of phone reach while away so I hadn’t tried to call him. But when I saw the house burned down, I did try to call him with my new phone, but it just went directly to voice mail. So, I sent him a text that I wouldn’t be staying at the house and to call this number when he arrived and I’d let him know what was going on. He doesn’t like to be disturbed when he’s on his business trips. Says it interrupts his meeting mojo and he needs to stay focused. He’s always been that way.”
“What’s Everett’s last name?” Nat asked.
“It’s Cooper. Why?”
Nat shrugged. “No particular reason, just wondering.” He sent April a text asking her to do a deep dive on Everett Cooper. Then his phone rang. He looked at the name of the caller. “It’s the police department in Bevier,” he told the others as he punched the answer button.
“Heya, bud, what’s up?”
Nat listened for a few minutes and then hung up with a frown. “I’m sorry, Emma, but fire isn’t going to be investigated as arson. Which means they won’t take fingerprints in the house or look into it any further. When they didn’t find accelerants, there wasn’t anything else to go on.”
“That’s just great,” Emma retorted.
He glanced over at Henry. “It also means my friend in London can’t interview your mother as a suspect, which was what I was hoping to do. If for no other reason than to make sure she knows we’re on to her and will be watching her closely.”
“Well, that’s just bloody awful,” Henry swore softly, looking at Emma. “I’m sorry, love. It sounds like it’s going to take a fortune to rebuild. I know the old bat will pocket the insurance money and probably sell the house for peanuts. We’ll be out a house and never see a penny of anything.”
“Well, it’s not quite that bad, Henry,” Emma replied, her eyes gleaming. “Apparently, she lied to you about owning the insurance policy. You said your dad took out the policy, right? He made the mistake of putting it in our names. I’m sure she’s figured that out by now and is probably having a major row about it with your father.”
Henry clapped his hands on his knees and chortled. “By Jove, what a lark! And a stroke of good fortune for us after all. How did you find out?”
“That’s the weird thing. Someone claiming to be you called them the day of the fire and left a disconnected number for a call back. When the insurance agent called it to schedule a walk-through and couldn’t get through, he called me instead.” He said he didn’t have your personal number for some reason.”
“That is odd,” Henry remarked with a frown. “Dear old Dad has no memory for phone numbers. If it’s not in his phone on speed dial, then he won’t know it. Although, that would be about the time I got my new phone. Remember I dropped my old phone in a glass of champagne on our wedding day? Perhaps he didn’t have it pegged in when he took out the insurance policy.” He grinned wickedly. “Even better they are now stuck with the house because of the codicil and won’t get a penny.”
“So, you didn’t call the insurance company?” Nat asked.
Henry looked surprised. “Me? No. Why would I call them? Mum told me it was in their name, so I wouldn’t have considered doing that anyway.”
Jealousy churned through Sawyer’s gut at the easy camaraderie between Emma and Henry, although he could plainly see that there wasn’t a nuance or overtone of sexuality at all to their conversation. “So, what’s our next move,” he asked Nat.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Nat replied, “I’ve sent a text to Denver to check Emma’s car for a bug. “It’s too soon for them to have found your place without some help. No one but Emma knew you were Levi’s father, so that means they wouldn’t have a way to track her here unless they followed us. Since we didn’t spot anyone following after the incident on the freeway, that means they have to have planted the bug in the Impala before we ever left Bevier.”
“Everything went sideways after I left the house Friday morning,” Emma replied slowly. “I was only gone about twenty minutes before I got to the real estate office. I went straight to Levi’s babysitter and dropped him off, then straight to the real estate office and that’s when the bank manager first called me.”
“What time was that exactly?” Nat asked. “Do you remember?”
She nodded. “Yes, it was almost 10:30 am.”
