Retribution (Secrets & Lies #3)(49)
“Oh no,” I reply, panic starting to take hold. She's right, I'd thought about it myself when we first got here. But, is it so famous that it's traceable? In my excitement, I'd forgotten. “Is it close?”
“In North Carolina, but about ninety miles away. 'Lissa, how long have the pictures been up?”
I shake my head. “I sent them to Robert on Monday night, maybe since Tuesday or yesterday at most?”
Andrea grabs Katrina's computer and dials the number for MCS. We're both sweating, but Andrea seems calmer than I feel at the moment, and Robert picks up quickly. “MCS Galleries, this is Robert, how may we help you?”
“Robert, it's Andrea,” Andrea says immediately. “I was just talking with Melissa, she says she sent you some pictures of pendants, is that correct?”
“Yes Miss Andrea,” Robert says, using Andrea's first name since we've never given him her last name. “Beautiful pieces. Why?”
“I need you to take them down from the website if they're up. It's very important.”
Robert gets stuffy, and I can somewhat understand. Carson's fiancée or not, Andrea has no business authority at MCS. “Miss Andrea, I understand, but I would need instructions from...”
“Do it, Robert,” I interrupt him. “Please. It's very important. Also, how long have they been on the website?”
“I've only had them up a few hours, Miss Sands,” Robert says, his tone immediately going respectful again. “There was a problem with the coding.”
“Get them off. If you have to, crash the website,” I tell him, trying to keep my voice under control. “Get them down as soon as I hang up.”
I hear Robert walking, and a door open as he moves, and then the sound of him sitting down. “Just a minute, I can do that myself... okay, it's down. It'll take me a little time to get the webmaster to remove the pictures, but right now MCS.com is offline.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe we got lucky. “Thank you, Robert. I apologize for the inconvenience, but thank you.”
“It's okay, Miss Sands. I'm sure you have a good reason.”
We finish the call, and even Andrea's fingers are trembling when she hangs up the call. “I... I'm sorry Andrea. I'd forgotten, I was so excited about the pieces. I screwed up, I'm so sorry...”
Andrea takes my hand and gives me a hug, shushing me. “You made an honest mistake. It's a pretty stone, and who'd think granite could be that famous? It was only up a few hours, and who knows if Isis or Peter's people even saw it. Even if they did, the odds of them tracing a rock are pretty remote. Come on, we'll tell the others, but what's done is done. We did our best to fix it, and besides, what does it change? Isis was looking for us before, she's looking for us now, she'll be looking for us tomorrow. Let's enjoy the rest of the evening.”
Chapter Twenty
Nathan
“So the website is down?” I ask as we enjoy dinner, setting my fork aside. We're eating light, and to be honest I feel nervous thinking about Isis tracing the pegmatite to our location. But I'm not mad with Melissa, how could I be? She was only being herself, and I love her for who she is.
Being with her, there's no pressure, just intimacy and feeling. There's no pressure to be more than I want to be. Despite my past, and the things I did with Isis, she makes me feel redeemed. Like I deserve at least some happiness.
Aisha was the first woman to make me feel that way. But then came Isis, and everything was turned on its head; everything was corrupted for so long I thought it was never going to be good again. By the time I was done with her, I was so f*cked up mentally that working for Peter DeLaCoeur actually seemed normal.
I thought the rest of my life would be that way, until Melissa. That first kiss and I was lost, even if I tried to deny it. That first time I touched her, and felt her body pressed against mine and the desire, it was magic once again. And every since that first night we slept together, I knew. I knew I had a second chance.
“Yeah, Robert took the site down and I confirmed it right afterward,” Andrea says. “Nathan, I'm sorry I didn't think of mentioning it to 'Lissa earlier. I mean, I read that newspaper story like, two days after she cracked that chunk off the corner of the big block in the chapel. I should have mentioned it before.”
“No, you didn't do anything wrong. You either, 'Lissa. I looked at those photos myself, there’s no way I would have thought about what you mentioned. It's six pieces of rock. I spent a few months here after the first incident with Peter, and I still never thought of it. So there's no blame to go around on this one. We’ll just deal with it as best we can.”
“Speaking of which, tomorrow I have my prenatal appointment,” Andrea says, smiling gratefully. “Who all is coming down mountain?”
“I thought Katrina, BA and I would just hang out up here,” Jackson says, finishing off his salad., “You know, just a little family time. I love you guys, but we spent fourteen months with limited contact with anyone. It'll be nice to chill with just the three of us and air out my head for a while.”
Chapter Twenty-One