to believe me, but Brooke, I want you to know, everything I said to you about us was true. I asked you out because you’re beautiful, and I wanted to kiss you because I wanted to kiss you. Because you captivated me, not because I was trying to trick information out of you.”
On the mea culpa scale, that scored a solid five, but it still certainly wasn’t enough. “I don’t believe you, and anyway, even if I did, you had to know that ultimately this situation was going to bite me in the ass. Eventually you were going to have to admit that the book stuff was a bucketful of shit, and the job stuff was all fake. There’s just no way around the fact that you’ve been lying to me.”
“I had to lie. I was undercover, but it wasn’t personal, Brooke. It’s just the job.”
Just the job? Not personal? “It feels pretty damn personal to me, Leo! And what was all that crap about going on a job interview?”
He sighed once more and gestured again to the chair. “Will you sit back down? Please?”
I did. Not because he’d asked me to but because my whole body was trembling as if the house was suddenly floating on water. Maybe the island was sinking. It sure as hell felt like it was.
Leo sat heavily on the couch. “I didn’t have an interview. I went to Florida to follow up on a couple of leads. That private investigator you talked to in the post office, by the way? Dmitri is right. It’s Mick O’Malley. Gina’s been following him for several weeks. He’s back in Michigan again now, but he can’t stay up north for very long at any given time because he has to check in with his parole officer in Orlando. In fact, he’s actually violating parole by leaving Florida, but we’re not reporting him because we need him.”
“How resourceful of you. So I guess the law is only the law when it’s convenient to you?” Nice zinger, Brooke. Heartbreak made me sassy.
He appeared chagrined by my comment. Good. I needed him to feel half as shitty as I did right now.
“We’re keeping a very close eye on him, and as soon as we’ve gotten what we need, he’ll be arrested again. Mick doesn’t have the best luck, or judgment, and he’ll be going back to jail very soon. The real question is . . . what are we going to do?”
He gazed at me expectantly, and I’m sure my gaze back said go fuck yourself, I don’t care what you do. At least I hoped that’s what he picked up from it because that was certainly what I was going for.
“I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
He paused and leaned forward. “Brooke, Gina wasn’t wrong when she said we can’t have you going to Dmitri, but if he’s willing to turn over the jewels, like you said, this could all be over very quickly. I’m not interested in sending him to jail. Shit, I don’t even care if you never tell your father about this. I’m not the police. I’m a private contractor. I just want to collect what’s left of the Wellington family property and close this case.”
Close this case. I guess that would be good, to have this over and done with. But what then? Then Leo would go back to wherever he came from? Was he really from Chicago? Did it matter? No, because regardless, he’d be gone from Trillium Bay, and that would be that. No more dinners or drinks or decadence between the sheets. Chop, chop. Wrap it up.
Gina came back inside just as I was saying, “I won’t tell him.”
She chuckled, but there was little humor in the sound. “Not good enough, babe. You’re going to have to come with us,” she said.
“Come with you?”
“Yes, to Dmitri’s place. Right now.”
She was so rude and bossy. “I can’t right now. I have lunch plans.”
She pressed her lips together, looking at me as if I’d just said the stupidest thing ever. “Super sorry that you’re going to miss out on green tea lattes and quinoa salad with your BFFs, sweetheart, but we either have to take you with us, or we have to lock you up in a closet until this is over with.”
I’m pretty mild mannered, and thanks to thirteen years as a teacher I can take a lot of sass, but I’d officially reached my limit. This bitch was going down.