Secret Weapon Spouse - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,63
behind him.
“Why would Presley hang around here, especially if I’m right and he’s hoodwinked my family, stolen their money and planning to take off?”
“Exactly,” Samantha said. “Maybe he did con your father and brother into investing with him. But he already has their money, right? What reason does he have to stick around but the fact that he loves your sister and can’t leave her now?”
“He wants something.”
“What?”
Alex shook his head. “Why sneak around the hospital at night? Why have Caroline and his office tell everyone he’s not even in the country? He isn’t done,” Alex said as the theory began to grow. “He’s waiting for something. Something he needs before he’s done. Maybe one more big score.”
“And how do you explain him coming to the hospital every night to be with Caroline?”
Alex looked up in surprise. “That’s it. He needs whatever it is from Caroline.” He glanced at his watch. “Presley comes by every night, right?”
She nodded.
“Then tonight we’ll be ready for him.” She started to object but he cut her off. “You have all those wonderful contacts. Can you get a video set up in my sister’s room? I’m sure we can get her out of the room long enough for your contacts to set up the equipment. Given what I have on that nurse I’m willing to bet she’ll help us.”
Samantha had the good sense not to argue. She got on her cell phone, turning away from him, as she made the arrangements. Clearly she thought the video would prove that Presley was just a man in love.
Alex was betting it was going to prove to be a lot more than that.
SAMANTHA GOT the technical team to come in and install the equipment while the nurse wheeled Caroline down the hall for what was supposed to be more X-rays.
Both Samantha and Alex stayed out of sight, wanting Caroline to believe they had left for the night. Samantha suspected that Caroline would call Presley when the coast was clear for him to return to the hospital.
She’d had the team set up a monitoring device so she and Alex would be able to not only see but hear everything that went on in Caroline’s room. All they had to do was wait in the empty hospital room down the hall.
Alex was sprawled in one of the chairs next to Samantha, both of them facing the screen. Nothing had happened since the nurse had returned Caroline to her room. Samantha was beginning to think that Caroline had warned Presley not to come tonight.
Then, just past nine, Caroline checked her watch and made a call.
“Brian, I need to see you,” she said, sounding more upset than she appeared on the video screen. “Yes now. It can’t wait. No, I can’t talk about it on the phone. I have to see you. It’s about Preston.” She listened for a moment, then hung up and checked her watch before lying back in the bed and closing her eyes.
“What the hell?” Alex said.
Samantha was just as surprised as Alex by the call to Brian. “The nurse told me that Brian upset Caroline on his recent visit and they had to ask him to leave.”
“Something’s up,” Alex said. “You saw the way she was acting.”
Samantha nodded and they waited. Not twenty minutes later, Brian slipped into Caroline’s room. Clearly, he had figured out a way to get past the nurse.
“So where is he?” Brian said without preamble once in Caroline’s room.
She shook her head, tears filling her eyes. “I don’t know. I just found out that he isn’t even Preston Wellington III. His name is Presley Wells.” She began to cry.
“I had no idea my sister was such a good actress,” Alex said under his breath.
Brian swore as he moved to the bed and tossed his sister the box of tissues. “I already knew that. I thought you had some new information. You got me over here for this?”
“You knew?” Caroline cried. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Brian shook his head, looking more than a little upset. “I need to find this fiancé of yours. Do you understand?”
Samantha figured Caroline understood perfectly.
“Could you just hold me for a minute?” Caroline asked, still crying.
Brian looked as though he’d rather leap out the window but he awkwardly leaned over and put his arms around her.
Caroline put her arms inside his coat and pulled him closer, drawing back a couple of times to blow her nose, until Brian seemed to have had enough.
“Look, you got the family into this