Say It Again (First Wives, #5)(64)

AJ watched her from across the room, lifted a palm to the air, and questioned her with a silent lift of his eyebrows.

She pulled several sheets from the paper towels by the sink and proceeded to dunk them in the water and wipe off the countertop. She moved a wooden block filled with knives, cleaned up under them, shifted to the basket of pens, set it close to the edge of the sink, and dusted under it. “How about an outside storage? I bet there would be box tape—” Sasha moved quickly and the basket of pens, the one that held an audio bug, was dumped into the sink. “Oops.”

AJ walked up behind her, looked in the sink while turning off the water. “We don’t have to do this. It can wait.”

Sasha removed the pens that were not bugged and took her time with the one in question.

“No, we should pack up a few things and take them with us.” She picked up the pen, removed the cap, and knocked out the tiny microphone.

AJ stared into the sink, his lips pressed together.

Sasha turned into his arms, told him about the camera with a soft whisper in his ear. “Wash this down the sink, I’m going to check out the rest of the place.”

He kissed the side of her neck and she left the kitchen in search of the bathroom. After searching the bedroom, small office space Amelia had made out of a nook, and the bathroom, Sasha determined the only device left was the camera that they couldn’t disassemble without it being obvious that they had found it.

Not that it mattered, they couldn’t linger.

“Honey?” Sasha called AJ from the bedroom.

He walked in with a box.

She closed the door behind him. “What the hell?” AJ asked, tension filling his shoulders.

“We have no way of knowing if the camera is still in use. Or who was watching. Pack up her computer, grab her files and photographs. I’ll forward the calls from her phone to Neil, find out who is policing them.”

“You can do that?”

She patted his chest. “Are you taking notes?”

“Wouldn’t the police have found the camera and bugs?”

“The murder didn’t happen here. Looks like they went through the place, but it’s not completely trashed. And there is no way of knowing if these things were here when the cops came through.”

He offered a slight grin. “I don’t like this.”

“Me either. We need to get out of here.”

They doubled their efforts, filled three boxes, and then she pretended to start sneezing and they backed out of the house.





Chapter Twenty-Three



“This is not on me.” Linette stared across her desk at Geoff. “You’re the one who decided to make a media circus out of Claire and Sasha’s departure.”

“One more day was all I needed,” he growled.

Linette played innocent. “For what? Sasha declined. Like the students before, she has the right to say no.”

“Don’t play coy with me, Linette. Claire and Sasha were mine. You know it, I know it. I want the girl back.”

By girl, she knew he meant Claire. “You might have thought of that before calling a press conference. With Sasha, Claire won’t need the life you offer.”

He held her gaze. “You sound pleased with that.”

Linette kept her emotions in check. “Recruitment is down and demand is high . . . isn’t that right?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You need us, Geoff. Blowing up the credibility of this school with false accusations against its students and alumni will only backfire on us all. An investigation will open up questions neither one of us wants to answer. I suggest you leave this one alone.”

“Letting them walk is not an option.”

“Going after Sasha is operational suicide.”

“We’ll see about that.” Geoff turned on his heel and left.

Once her hands stopped shaking, Linette donned her robe and left her office. She crossed the campus and made her way to the lower classrooms.

Brigitte worked alongside her students without noticing her for several minutes. Once their eyes met, Linette nodded toward her office.

“Pohl just left. He’s going after her,” Linette told her when they were alone.

“Sasha . . .”

“Just like I said he would.” Sasha showing up when she did had not been part of Linette’s strategy, but she couldn’t be happier for it.

Brigitte smiled. “Time to activate our contingency plan.”

“I’m calling an emergency board meeting for a couple of days from now. By then we’ll have the cleaners in and everything scrubbed.”

“He isn’t going to take it well.”

“Pohl has ruled this school far too long,” Linette told her. “We play into the fear of exposure and the board will fold.”

“And Sasha?” Brigitte asked.

“You said it yourself, she’s the best this school has ever produced. Pohl making her a target will only encourage her to expose him herself. We won’t have to do anything.”

“If only we could warn her.”

“I already sent word.”

“How?” Brigitte asked.

Linette smiled. “I can’t tell you all my secrets.”