DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(145)

“What did you say to that?”

“Nothing. I thought that was something you should probably respond to.”

“Go put the computer away,” I said, setting the glass of juice in front of her. “I’ll call him and deal with that.”

She closed the lid on the computer and stood, kissing my cheek before heading off through my house. I watched her go, thinking how good she looked here. Natural. Like she belonged in this place, walking these hallways.

I left my phone upstairs, so I grabbed the landline and dialed Jacob. He answered almost on the first ring.

“How’d you know?”

“Her car was parked out in front of the restaurant.”

I hadn’t thought about that. Obviously she’d have to have gotten there somehow.

“She was intoxicated, Jacob. I couldn’t take her to the table like that. Karl would have blown a gasket.”

“Why was she there?”

“I don’t know.”

“How did she know we were there?”

And that was another question I didn’t know the answer to. I felt like a CD with a scratch, a broken record repeating itself over and over again.

“I don’t know.”

Jacob was quiet for a minute. “Well, next time, tell me the truth. Don’t have your girlfriend text me and lie to me.”

“What’d you tell Mom and Karl?”

“What Adrienne said. That you weren’t feeling well and wanted to go home. But I think they kind of assumed it was more about you and Adrienne wanting some privacy.”

“That’s not completely untrue.”

“Yeah, well, I’m headed your way in an hour or so, so you might want to get it out of your system before then. Or move it upstairs.”

“Yes, Daddy, sir.”

Jacob just groaned and hung up on me.

Adrienne came back into the room and curled up on the stool again. She had this way of sitting that reminded me of a cat making itself comfortable in a sunbeam. She tucked her legs under her and stretched her back, then rested her arms across her knees as gracefully as a ballet dancer doing a pirouette. It was fascinating to watch.

“Everything okay?”

I nodded, returning to the refrigerator to get some food. Some fresh strawberries and a tub of yogurt.

“My sister got kicked out of school.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Yeah?”

“Turns out that was why we were all called down to the beach house for the weekend. My mom told me while you were getting dressed last night.”

“What are they going to do?”

“My mom suggested we give her a secretarial job.”

“Now probably wouldn’t be a good time.”

I grabbed a couple of bowls and carried everything over to the breakfast bar. “This will be resolved in a couple of days, right?”

“Hopefully. But someone’s making threats against you. Do you really want to bring your eighteen-year-old sister into that atmosphere?”

“Not really.” I handed her a bowl of yogurt. “But what do I do? Mom thinks she needs to understand the consequences of not getting an education.”

“Make her get a job at a fast food restaurant. A couple of weeks of asking, ‘Do you want fries with that?’ will probably teach her that faster than working under her two adoring brothers.”

I laughed, the image that idea produced almost too much.

“I should call my mom and suggest that. She might actually go for it.”

Adrienne smiled, clearly enjoying the image, too. And then her phone rang. She said maybe two words, and then she jumped off the stool.

“I have to go.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“We might have a lead.” She turned on the stairs and looked down at me. “Stay here. Don’t go anywhere.”

“Adrienne…”

“Trust me.”

She came back down a few minutes later, dressed in a pair of black slacks and a white blouse, and kissed me softly.

“I’ll be back.”

And she was gone, just like that.





Chapter 14


Adrienne

My dad was waiting for me at the gate, his old Mustang idling roughly.

“It’s a gated community,” he said, gesturing at the guard who was eyeballing us from his little gatehouse.

“I’m aware of that.”

“Why did you spend the night?”

“Because you should know as well as I do that these gated communities are not as secure as they might appear.”

“Yeah, but it’s unlikely someone would make a move at him in his own home.”

“Just like it’s unlikely they might do it at his office, but you told me to stick by him until we figured out what’s going on, remember? Just doing what you told me.”

He glanced at me, that look on his face that said he suspected I wasn’t being completely honest with him. But he didn’t say anything else.

“What’s going on?” I asked as he eased the car onto the interstate, moving around a couple of slower cars as he headed toward the office.

“Robert thinks he might have figured out where the emails are coming from.”

“Yeah? I took a look at Jacob’s computer, but I couldn’t find any evidence that he’d sent the emails, or that anyone had hacked into the computer to send the emails.”