and three would be like.
Chapter 19
Aaron
Emmanuel came on a Sunday morning. Billy had been spending so much time at Malfleur—including most nights—that it was unusual for him not to be around. But Sunday mornings he spent at home with his mother. So I was alone and catching up on my investments in the library when I heard the sound of a smooth car engine outside.
I was not in the mood for company. I needed to spend some time on my work. But it had been weeks since I’d heard from Emmanuel. He’d been busy running Montgomery Enterprises and was traveling frequently to the Middle East to finalize a huge deal he’d been working on for years. I’d offered to help out at the company, but he insisted that things were great and that my recovery—and my lying low—was more important for now. I was suddenly anxious to speak with him about my progress.
Jack followed me as I went to down the hall to the front door and opened it. I leaned in the doorway and smiled at him, my heart light. Emmanuel didn’t smile back as he came up the steps with his briefcase. He was dressed in a suit and tie.
“Good morning. It’s Sunday. Don’t you ever dress down?” I teased.
“Aaron,” he said in greeting. “I’m afraid this isn’t a social call.”
I blinked. “Oh. Does something need my signature?”
He gave a single tight shake of his head. “Can we go inside, please?”
Feeling a little unsure, and with a trickle of alarm, I led the way to the library. Was this something a legal issue? Something about my accident? But there was no use anticipating trouble. He’d tell me soon enough.
As he put his briefcase on my desk, I asked, “Would you like some coffee? Water?”
“No thank you. Please sit down, Aaron.”
I sat behind the desk, rolling my chair back a little, wanting some space between us.
Emmanuel sat there for a moment, head bowed, hands folded in front of him as if he were in prayer. I waited. If my father had taught me one thing it was to never let them see you sweat.
“I have some bad news to discuss with you,” he finally said.
“Oh?”
He looked up. “It’s about Billy Martin.”
“What about Billy?” I asked, my voice cold.
Emmanuel’s gaze was steely. “He’s trouble. Serious trouble. He’s out to make money off you, Seb. Sell your story to the highest bidder.”
“That’s patently absurd.”
Emmanuel scratched his forehead with his thumbnail and sighed. “I knew you wouldn’t want to believe me. I know you’ve been sleeping with him. And—”
“How do you know that? Have you been spying on me?”
Emmanuel’s gaze hardened. “I was concerned about him from the start, so I had the security cameras reactivated. And yes, that made it abundantly clear how much time Billy is spending here. Nights included.”
“You had no right to record me without my permission!”
He held up his hands and spoke calmly. “I didn’t record you, Seb. I only had the camera at the gate turned on, so we could monitor who was outside. If the paparazzi showed up, news cameras, or just some reporter sniffing around, I wanted to know as soon as possible, so I could deal with it.”
My anger cooled. That was reasonable. Even a good idea. Emmanuel always thought of everything.
“Well then, you’ve surely noticed there haven’t been any reporters. Billy hasn’t talked to anyone.”
“Not yet.”
He put his briefcase on the desk and opened it.
I was certain he was wrong, that whatever his concerns were about Billy, they were based on paranoia and not reality. Maybe he thought Billy was just some inconsequential hookup that I could easily live without. He was about to find out that wasn’t the case.
He passed me a sheet of paper.
“And this is . . . ?”
“A record of his search engine history. You’ll notice that he first began to Google Sebastian Montgomery in early June. Were you aware he knew your true name then?”
I stared at the page. It listed what looked like all the things Billy had searched for in the past six months or so. At a glance, I knew it was real. The search terms were quintessentially Billy. Lugosi Devil Bat and bike centuries new york and vet schools northeast and best vet schools close to new york. Lots of searches about plants and a few on bipolar disorder.
And, highlighted in yellow, there were searches about me, about my family, about my accident.
He’d known. Nearly from the start.
My chest tightened, and I felt