What Are You Afraid Of? (The Agency #2)(89)

Probably he wouldn’t care. Griff had a suspicion that Lawrence and his sons didn’t put a high value on ethics.

“A freak?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Matthew grimaced. “He was watching. Always watching. From the bushes or the attic windows. I even caught him taking pictures of my uncle when he thought no one was looking. It was weird. If it wasn’t for his stepfather’s loyalty to the Jacobs family, he wouldn’t be allowed on our estate.”

Griff ’s jaw clenched. Had the creep been spying on Carmen as well? That would explain his obsession with her now.

Of course, Matthew could be lying.

Right now Griff had no intention of jumping to conclusions. He’d spent the last few days chasing after shadows. Carmen couldn’t afford for him to make a mistake now.

“Then how did he get the code?” he asked.

“I told you. He’s a sneak,” Matthew said, his gaze darting toward the paper that had fallen to the floor. “And he has access to our estate. He could have searched my father’s office and run across it.”

Griff studied the man’s flushed face. It would be easy to dismiss the idea that Ronnie could have known he would need the codes to the warehouse. That would mean he’d peered into the future and known that Carmen was going to be traveling to California to stay at Griff ’s house, so she would be conveniently located for him to kidnap.

Then again, whoever had been sending Carmen the strange clues had deliberately been leading her from one location to another. First to Kansas City and then to Baltimore. And finally they’d left the postcard luring her to California.

So it was possible that he’d been prepared for her arrival long before Griff had entered the picture. And that her presence in his house had merely made it easier for the bastard to find her.

Frustrated fury bubbled through him, his need to be out searching for Carmen an overwhelming compulsion.

“You haven’t explained why you traveled all the way to California,” he snapped. “You could have called the cops.”

His eyes darted to the side. Matthew either didn’t want to answer Griff ’s question, or he was about to lie.

“That was my first thought,” he finally said.

“But?” Griff prompted.

The younger man tugged on Griff ’s wrist, as if Griff might have forgotten he still had his fingers wrapped around the man’s throat. Griff didn’t budge.

Matthew muttered a curse, accepting he wasn’t going anywhere until he’d answered Griff ’s questions.

“I saw you Christmas morning,” he abruptly said.

Griff waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, Griff made a sound of impatience. The clock was ticking. Tick. Tock. And with every passing second, Carmen could be slipping further away.

He refused to believe that anything might have already happened to her. His world would shatter.

That simple.

“And?” he growled.

Matthew flinched, easily sensing that Griff was reaching the end of his limited patience.

“And I was in the foyer when you pulled up to the house Christmas morning,” he hastily continued. “I was about to open the door when I watched Ronnie lure you away. After that you took off like we had the plague.”

Griff narrowed his gaze. If Matthew had watched them drive away, he might have been the one to follow them to the hotel and then onto Carmen’s farm.

“Ronnie wasn’t the only one who likes to watch,” he murmured.

Matthew’s lips twisted. “Touché,” he murmured. “But I wasn’t standing there so I could spy on you. My father was nagging because I’d had a couple of drinks before lunch and I was going to step outside to get away from him. It was the only way to enjoy my brandy in peace.”

Griff wasn’t impressed. “What happened next?”

“After you left I went out to ask Ronnie what he’d said to you,” he said. “I knew it had to be something bad about our family or you wouldn’t have left without at least stopping at the house and making a polite excuse to miss lunch.”

“What did he tell you?”

“He said he’d settled one score. Then he laughed and walked away.” Matthew’s jaw tightened and he lowered his gaze. Griff once again suspected that he was trying to hide something. “I didn’t know what he meant, but when I saw that he was sneaking around our warehouse, I wondered if he was going to try to settle another score. I wanted to catch him in the act so I could figure out what he was planning.”

Griff studied Matthew’s lean face, before a portion of his suspicion abruptly eased. Finally. Something that made sense.

He wasn’t stupid enough to think that Matthew had rushed to California because Ronnie had used their private code. Why not just call the cops? But if Lawrence Jacobs had any nefarious secrets, he would be desperate to keep them hidden. Undocumented workers. Cooked books. Shortcuts around regulations. And if they feared Ronnie was out here to cause them trouble, they would do whatever necessary to stop him.

Especially if they suspected that Carmen was already snooping into the Jacobs family’s business.

“Okay,” he said, still far from convinced that Matthew was the harmless boob he pretended to be. “Then explain why you’re in my house.”

“Are you kidding?” Matthew scoffed. “I’m in here because you grabbed my throat like a madman and slammed me against the wall.”