Juniper Hill (The Edens #2)(78)

Before I could hear my father’s response, Knox ripped the phone from my hand. “Talk. Now.”

A tear sped down my cheek as I stared up at Knox. His jaw ticked and his nostrils flared at whatever my father said. Then he dropped the phone from his ear and ended the call.

“What?”

“He refused to pay. Told her to fuck off. Hasn’t heard from her since.”

“Oh, God.” A hand flew to my mouth to hold in a sob.

How could I have been so foolish? In the past weeks, I’d let myself have hope. I’d let myself be blind. My father had never intended to help me. Not once.

I was about to crash to the sidewalk when a strong arm banded around my back, holding me up. “He called her bluff.

And she called his.”

“Does he have a name?” Winn asked.

Knox shook his head. “No. He didn’t get one.”

“This is my fault,” I whispered. “I should have dealt with it myself.”

“No. This isn’t on you.” Knox took my face in his hands, his thumbs wiping furiously to dry the tears. “We made this decision together.”

“It was the wrong decision.”

The anguish on his face only made my tears fall faster. “I know.”

“What do we do? Where is he?”

“We’ll find him.” Knox pulled me to his chest, holding tight as he spoke to Winn. “What do we do?”

“I know you don’t want to hear this, but I need you both to wait.”

I growled into Knox’s chest, the terror morphing to frustration and despair. “I can’t sit in that car and do nothing. I can’t watch mothers walk into the center and pick up their children. I can’t.”

“Walk to town if you want,” Winn said. “But we’ve got a lot of people looking for Jill. I’ll check in with the team and be back with an update shortly.”

“Then let’s go.” He let me go and grabbed my hand, pulling me down the sidewalk as we set off toward Main.

My legs were stiff and wobbly over the first two blocks, but then they began to warm and my strides lengthened. We walked in silence but the dull scream in my head grew louder with each step.

If my father had no idea who the woman was who’d tried to blackmail him, there was one person who would.

I stopped so abruptly that my hand slipped from Knox’s firm grasp.

“What’s wrong?”

“We have to know who this woman was. Even if it’s not her, we have to know.” The time for burying my head in the sand was over. I’d made the mistake thinking that in Montana I was unreachable. Maybe this had nothing to do with the blackmail but I wasn’t going to take that chance.

“You’re going to call Oliver,” Knox guessed.

I nodded and dug out my phone, finding the number I’d hidden under a fake name.

“Yes,” he answered, his voice as cold as the winter air.

“Who knows about us?”

“No one.”

“Someone,” I corrected. “Because someone is trying to blackmail my family for money to keep my son’s paternity a secret. Who?”

“Shit,” he hissed.

“Who is it, Oliver?”

“I don’t know.”

My fury spiked. “Don’t you dare lie to me. This involves my son. I promised you I’d be quiet, I walked away, but you will tell me. Or my next phone call will be to your wife.”

“Do that and I will take your child.”

“You will never touch my son. I will use every dollar of my millions to ruin your life.” Whatever it took to keep Drake safe. If that meant doing my father’s bidding, so be it. “Who?”

The other end of the line went silent. So quiet I wasn’t sure if he was still there. But then he breathed and I knew he’d chosen self-preservation over his secrets. “No one knew about us.”

“Then why did the FBI stop by my house before I left the city? Someone has to know, Oliver. Who?”

There was a rustling noise in the background, then the closing of a door. “When did the FBI approach you? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We weren’t exactly on speaking terms. And I told them nothing.”

“What, exactly, did the FBI agent say?” There was an edge to his voice. Fear. Good. I was fucking terrified. He could be scared too.

“Nothing. The agent asked if I knew you. I told her I didn’t.” A half-truth. By that point, Oliver had been dead to me. “I didn’t realize you were being investigated.”

“I’m not.”

Liar. “If the FBI knows, then someone else does.”

“Maybe a friend of yours. Someone who’d know you had money and thought they could con you out of some.”

“No. I told you before I left, I didn’t tell anyone we were together.” Because he’d asked me not to. And I was a goddamn idiot.

“It certainly wasn’t me,” he said.

My free hand balled into a fist. “Other than your wife, who would care that I had your child?”

“It is not my wife.”

“Then who? Please?” I hated begging this man, but for Drake, I’d drop to my knees if that meant getting him home safe.