Page 84 of Mile High Baby

My father pulled out his phone.

"What are you doing?”

"I'm calling that motherfucker and telling him to come over here so I can kick his ass."

I rose from the couch and went over to him, putting my hand over the phone. "To what end, Dad? It doesn't change anything. Just let it go. We both just need to let him go." My heart squeezed in pain, which was weird considering how betrayed I felt. How could I have fallen for a man like that? And now I was having his child.

I could see in my father’s eyes that he couldn't let it go. He had to do something. "I'm calling his boss. Surely, there are rules about not sleeping with your client."

Since that was better than inviting a lethal man into our house to try and beat him up, I acquiesced.

As he made his phone call, I drank my glass of water and continued to try and wrap my brain around the man I thought I knew and who he really was.

A few moments later, Knightly entered carrying flutes and a bottle of champagne. "I thought we might celebrate the return of Miss Banion." Knightly read the room immediately, and his brows furrowed. "What's wrong?" He scanned the room as if he was looking for something. "Did Mr. Sterling deliver bad news?"

Both my father and I jerked our attention to him.

"What? What do you mean?" my father asked.

Knightly shifted uncomfortably. "I let Mr. Sterling in a little bit ago. Told him you were in your office and I went to get champagne. Did I do something wrong?"

I smiled reassuringly at Knightly. "No, you didn't." But if Alex was here, why didn’t he visit with us? Was he still here? Was he planning on carrying out Pitney's plan?

Fear nearly choked me. "I think we should call the police.”

"I can ask one of the Saint Security men to come in." Knightly’s expression was still baffled.

"Yeah, but can we trust them?” my father asked.

"What did Alex's boss say?"

"Only that he’d look into it. I'm not sure he took it very seriously."

I wondered if Saint Security operated like the police, who had a reputation of protecting their own. If Alex had been playing both sides, he’d have been putting his own men in danger from Pitney. Would they protect him knowing that?

“Ask one of them to come search the house."

My father stared at me. "How do we know that they're not working with him? He has been in charge of this whole operation."

"I suppose it's possible, but if you think about it, it’s not very likely. Saint Security has the best reputation in the world. What are the odds that he could get all the people on his team to be party to George Pitney?"

"We can't underestimate the influence of Pitney."

"Maybe not. But I would imagine that they will feel betrayed, just like we do, when they learn what he did. But to be safe, let's not tip our hand. We’ll just say we heard something in the house and ask him to search."

My father thought about it for a moment and nodded. Okay, we'll start with that." He turned his attention to Knightly. "Can you ask one of them to come in?"

Knightly nodded but still appeared perplexed as he left to call in a Saint Security guard from outside.

A few moments later, a man we knew as Jacobs entered my father's office. "I understand you think there's a problem?"

"We were hoping that you might search the house. We thought we heard something funny and wanted you to check it out,” my father explained.

Jacobs nodded affably. "Sure thing. You didn't have Alex search when he was here earlier?"

My father and I glanced at each other and then back at Jacobs.

"You saw him here?" I asked.