What Are You Afraid Of? (The Agency #2)(88)

Griff didn’t have any trouble believing that Lawrence Jacobs felt it necessary to spy on his employees. He wasn’t the sort of man who could earn loyalty. He would have to bully and threaten his staff to keep them in line.

But he wasn’t so willing to believe the shallow, self-centered Matthew would jump on a plane and travel across the country just because a private code had been punched into the security system.

They no doubt had guards at the warehouse who could investigate what had happened.

“And that made you travel all the way to California?” He shook his head. “Bullshit.”

Matthew’s gaze darted from side to side, as if hoping someone might magically appear to distract Griff. When it became obvious that there was no help on the way, he grimaced.

“In my inner pocket.”

Griff stared at him with blatant suspicion. “What?”

“Just reach beneath my jacket and pull out the paper.”

A trap? Hard to believe that he had anything in his jacket that could be a threat. After all, if he had a weapon he would want to keep it hidden.

Griff’s fingers continued to press into Matthew’s throat. “You even twitch and I’ll snap your neck,” he warned.

Matthew froze, a drop of sweat beading on his forehead and sliding down his nose.

“I’d heard that tech billionaires were psychos, but you really are nuts,” he muttered.

Griff ignored his babbling. He was far more concerned with patting down his visitor. Only when he was certain that Matthew wasn’t hiding a weapon did he slide his hand beneath the expensive jacket. His fingers easily located the folded piece of paper in the inner pocket. He pulled it out and held it in front of Matthew’s face.

“What is it?”

“It’s the reason I’m here,” Matthew said.

Griff made a sound of annoyance. Was the man deliberately trying to piss him off? A dangerous choice. Right now he wouldn’t hesitate to crush the man’s windpipe.

With one hand he awkwardly unfolded the paper. He could make out a fuzzy image that looked like it’d been taken by a cheap camera and then printed out in black-and-white. With a frown he tilted it toward the morning sunlight that poured through the open door. Finally he could make out what looked like a young man in . . . a lumberyard? There were stacks of wood in the background.

He looked closer and suddenly realized that he recognized the sharply carved profile of the man.

“Is that Ronnie Hyde?” he demanded in confusion. Why would Matthew have a picture of his housekeeper’s son in his pocket?

“Once the guard realized our code had been used, but none of us were in California, he pulled the footage from the surveillance camera and e-mailed this image to my father,” Matthew said. “We instantly recognized who was sneaking around our property.”

First Matthew was in California. And now there was seeming proof that Ronnie was here as well. So what did that mean? Were the two working together?

Ronnie, after all, had steered Carmen toward Indiana with his implication that her uncle had stolen her inheritance. He had to know she would return home to try to find evidence of the life insurance policy. It would have been a simple matter to follow them and wait for an opportunity to strike. Like when they were trying to cross an icy bridge.

He gave a shake of his head. Right now he didn’t care why Ronnie or Matthew might want to hurt Carmen. All that mattered was bringing her home safely.

“Where’s the warehouse located?” he demanded.

“Around forty miles north of here.”

Griff ’s breath caught in his throat. So close. Could that be where they’d taken Carmen? Or was this a trick to ensure he wasted his time trying to track her to the warehouse? Matthew might have been sent to distract him with false leads while they escaped from the area.

Then again, he couldn’t ignore a potential lead.

“Is there a reason for Ronnie to be in the warehouse?”

“Hell, no,” Matthew snapped.

“Then why give him the code?”

“I didn’t.”

Griff allowed the paper to drop to the floor, returning his full attention to Matthew.

“Your father or brother might have asked him to take care of something if he was in the area,” he pointed out.

Matthew gave a decisive shake of his head. “I talked with both of them. Not that it was really necessary.” The younger man’s face twisted into an expression of revulsion. “I can promise you that no one in the Jacobs family would trust Ronnie Hyde to pick up our trash, let alone give him security codes to our properties.”

Griff studied him. Either Matthew was the best actor he’d ever met, or he truly loathed Ronnie Hyde. Of course, that didn’t mean the two weren’t working together, he quickly reminded himself.

Greed often made strange bedfellows.

“You don’t like the housekeeper’s son?”

“No, I don’t,” Matthew agreed without hesitation. “And not because he’s the son of our former housekeeper. He was always a sneak and a liar who I caught spying on me whenever I visited my uncle Stuart’s house.” His lips curled into a sneer. “Honestly, he was a freak and I was glad his mother sent him away.”

Griff arched a brow. What would Matthew think if he knew that the housekeeper had sent away her son because she thought the Jacobs family was lacking in basic decency?