Page 85 of The Wicked

“I have…” The lump in my throat was almost too big to swallow, and it was fear. Fear that I’d fucked up. Fear for the woman I loved. Fear that I was about to tear two families apart. “I have a theory.”

“Let’s hear it,” Luca said, arms folded.

The lawyer was still standing to the side, drinking in the conversation. I didn’t want him to hear this part.

“Burford, please leave us.”

“But your father said—”

“I don’t care what my father said. This is my business, not his.”

“He won’t be happy.”

“I’ve spent my whole damn life trying to make my father happy. Just leave me alone. Go and give Angela a Xanax or something.”

He closed the door harder than usual on his way out, and it bounced back on its hinges and hit the wall. I was absolutely certain that Burford was dialling my father already. Let him. The old man would have to accept that not every decision was his to make.

Colt perched on the edge of the desk, and Luca leaned against the wall by the window, arms folded.

“So, what’s your theory?” Luca asked.

“I met Saralisa at an ill-fated birthday celebration at the Peninsula just under two months ago.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“There was a slight hiccup with timings, and she ended up fleeing the hotel shortly before midnight. Later, I found out that she’d bumped into a man on the terrace and he triggered a wave of bad memories.”

“She told you about that?”

“She told me a lot of things. We might have only known each other for a short time, but that time has been…intense.”

“We followed up on the guy, but it was a dead end.”

“I…”Breathe, you coward.“I also followed up on him.”

Curiosity gleamed in Luca’s eyes. “Did you get any farther than Delaware?”

“I didn’t need to go via Delaware.” I paused. Forced myself to inhale. “I recognised him. I was right behind her at the hotel, and when she told me the story, I realised I knew who she was talking about.”

“So instead of telling her that, you what? Went rogue?”

“I have an investigator on retainer, and I asked him to make some discreet enquiries. Understand this: if I’d thought for a moment that Seth was the man who ran Saralisa’s parents off the road, I’d have taken a different approach.”

“Seth? His name is Seth?”

“He oversees security for a friend of my father’s. They weren’t at the Peninsula following Saralisa as she feared; they were there to pick up Graham’s daughter from the party. That’s another reason I thought the story sounded farfetched. I just wanted to get enough evidence to prove to Saralisa that Seth wasn’t the man she thought he was, so she could relax and stop looking over her shoulder.”

“But now you think he might be involved?”

“I think it’s a possibility that can’t be discounted.”

“What changed your mind?”

“I only told one person in Roseburg that we were sleeping in the pool house, and that was my brother.” The conversation had been so monumentally stupid. I’d introduced Saralisa to the family formally as Saralisa Baldwin-Forlani, and Trey had put two and two together—a miracle because he’d cheated in every high school math exam—and realised she was one oftheBaldwins. After dinner, he’d begun ribbing me for hanging out with Kayleigh and Lillian, who were far beneath us in whatever social pecking order my brother and his cronies used, and I’d snapped back that we never saw the twins because Saralisa lived in the pool house. He’d made a comment about slumming it, I’d threatened to break his teeth, and we’d been ready to wrestle on the floor when Marlie defused the situation by asking for ice cream. “Trey just confirmed that he mentioned that fact to his girlfriend, who happens to be Graham’s daughter.”

Plus there was a reasonable chance that Dad had mentioned his son’s new girlfriend to his old buddy. I’d never brought a partner to a family dinner before. It had been a memorable event.

Luca let out a long breath. “That’s thin.”

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