What Are You Afraid Of? (The Agency #2)(46)

“Running a trace on your uncle’s finances.”

“Why?”

“I think he’s hiding something,” Griff said. “And I want to know what it is.”

“Even if he is, that has nothing to do with the pictures I received.”

Griff typed in the names of the cousins. “Don’t be so sure,” he warned.

Carmen made a sound of impatience. “You met him. Do you really think he’s a serial killer?”

Griff straightened from the computer and turned to face his companion.

She was staring at him with blatant frustration. Which was better than the bruised expression he’d seen earlier, but still not what he wanted to see.

Months ago he’d encountered a pretty woman with a glorious smile standing on the beach. She’d been confident, flirtatious, and captivating. Granted, she’d been trying to trick him into an interview, but he wanted that woman back.

“I think he’s a clever businessman who has the morals of a shark,” he said, reaching out to unbutton her coat.

She allowed him to gently tug off the outer garment, but she was clearly distracted by his claim.

“That still doesn’t make him a murderer,” she said.

He tossed her coat on the nearby sofa, his gaze never leaving her upturned face.

“We still don’t know that there’ve been any murders,” he said, prepared for her protest. Reaching out, he touched a finger to her parted lips before she could blast him with her outrage. “Please, Carmen, hear me out.”

Her face flushed, but with an effort she gave a small nod. “Fine.”

He took a step closer, his fingers brushing through her curls, which had been tangled by the winter breeze.

“What if your uncle decided that he didn’t want to share his inheritance with his niece?”

His question caught her off guard. “What inheritance?”

His lips twisted. For all of Carmen’s acute intelligence and undoubted success, she could be remarkably na?ve. No wonder her family had been so eager to take advantage of her.

The knowledge stirred his deepest protective instincts. Something that should probably worry him.

“The business. The estate. Probably stocks and bonds,” he told her. “It could be in the millions.”

Her eyes widened. “If I had a million-dollar inheritance, I would know about it.”

He brushed a curl behind her ear before allowing his fingers to trace the delicate line of her jaw.

“How?” he asked. “Your grandparents cut off all contact with the Jacobses. It would be simple for Lawrence to take control of your share.”

“But wouldn’t there be lawyers involved?”

That had been Griff ’s first thought as well. If there was as much money involved as he suspected, there was no way there weren’t a clutch of lawyers eager to become Carmen’s advocate. It would mean a fat payroll for them. Then he remembered that she would have been a minor at the time.

“Not if your uncle had been named as executor of your father’s will,” he said. “Lawrence would have had full rights to make decisions for you and your inheritance. And since your grandparents had forbidden any contact, it would have been difficult for anyone to warn you that you were being denied your share.”

“Okay.” She gave a grudging nod. “That seems reasonable, but I still don’t get the connection to those horrible pictures.”

He cupped her cheek in his palm, knowing his words were bound to hurt Carmen. It didn’t matter if she was close to her family or not; they were all she had left. Now he suspected they might be her worst enemies.

It was bound to cause even more damage to a woman who’d suffered more than her share of tragedy.

“For the past fourteen years you were either concentrating on your studies or consumed with your research on your book. You didn’t have the time for or interest in reconnecting with your family.”

“True.”

“There’s also the fact that you were relatively powerless,” he said.

She jerked, instantly offended. “Powerless?”

“Your grandparents were no doubt fine people, but they weren’t rich,” he said, his thumb tracing the full curve of her lower lip.

“No,” she agreed. “They lived a simple life.”

“Then they both were gone and you were a struggling journalist.”

“Okay.” She glared at him. “But that doesn’t make me powerless.”

He belatedly realized how important it was for Carmen to deny the idea she was helpless. He got it. Like him, she’d been incapable of saving her mother. And now she was at the mercy of some unknown lunatic.

She was clinging to her fierce need to be in control of her life.

“You’re right,” he murmured softly, his gaze sweeping over her face. “You, Carmen Jacobs, are a very dangerous woman.”

A tiny tremor shook her body as she easily heard the sincerity in his voice.

She was dangerous. He’d known that from the first day. And even after he’d discovered she was trying to use him, she’d lingered in his mind.

He told himself it was because he was furious that she’d played him for a fool, but he’d always known that was a lie.

She’d lingered because she was special.