mess, Caroline, you have to help me find him. If he calls you, find out where he is. You owe me.”
Caroline nodded, red-eyed and still weepy. “I’ll do everything I can, Brian. I’m so sorry.”
“Brian’s actually buying her act,” Alex said, sitting up and shaking his head in wonder.
As Brian left, Caroline shut down the waterworks instantly and reached beneath her covers to pull out a small object that Samantha recognized at once.
“She’s got Brian’s PDA.”
Alex was up out of his seat and pacing the floor. “What the hell? You can bet Presley Wells is behind this.”
But Samantha was thinking about what information Brian would have on his PDA—and what Alex had said about a last big score.
Presley showed up a little after eleven. It was all Alex could do not to storm down the hall and beat the hell out of him.
Instead, Samantha stayed between him and the door just in case and he watched the monitor with her, pretty sure he knew what would happen next.
He watched Presley go to Caroline, hold her, kiss her, brush her hair back from her face, and felt uncomfortable witnessing something so personal and intimate.
Alex could feel Samantha’s gaze on him. “Okay, maybe he loves her. Or maybe he’s an even better actor than my sister.”
He watched Presley Wells lean over Caroline as if to give her a kiss, his heart in his throat. If the man made any kind of move to hurt her—Presley pulled back.
Caroline was smiling up at her fiancé. It broke Alex’s heart to see the love in her eyes. As Presley started to leave, she pulled him back as if somehow she knew she might never see him again. Alex saw fear in her face as Presley left. Then tears.
“Son of a bitch. She knows he’s not coming back. I have to see her. Keep an eye on Presley but I think we both know where he’s headed.”
Caroline’s eyes widened with fear when she saw Alex step into her room. “What are you doing here?” she asked, hurriedly drying her tears.
“I know Presley was just here. I know you gave him Brian’s PDA. Caroline, why?”
“Alex, you don’t understand. It isn’t what you think.”
“I know we sometimes do things when we’re in love…”
She shook her head. “It isn’t like that. Presley found out that Brian has been skimming money out of my trust fund. He needs to get into the records to prove it.”
Alex shook his head sadly. “Caroline, don’t you realize what you’ve done? He is going to clean out every dime and take off.”
“You’re wrong, Alex. He’s trying to protect me, our family, our baby. He loves me. You’ll see tonight, after he finds the evidence, you’ll see that you’re wrong about him.”
Alex nodded, unable to argue anymore with his sister. She loved the man and was blind to what was happening. Later, Alex would come back because Caroline was going to need him. Arguing with her now wasn’t going to make that easier for her later.
“Everything is going to be all right,” he said.
“Presley knows what he’s doing.”
Alex didn’t doubt that for a moment.
“Don’t go after him,” Caroline cried. “You don’t realize how dangerous this is. Someone has been trying to hurt Presley.”
Alex stopped at the door. “Caroline, someone tried to kill me and Samantha in Tennessee.”
Shock registered on her face. “It wasn’t Presley.”
He gave her a sympathetic look. “I’ll be back.” Then he pushed out of the door, trying to ignore her cries for him to stop.
When Presley left he had Brian’s PDA and it didn’t take much to figure out where he was headed. To the Graham building headquarters and Brian’s personal offices. No doubt Caroline had given him the codes to get in.
Both guards were at their posts again. Alex promised himself he would fire them both as soon as he returned.
Samantha was waiting for him downstairs. “He took a cab. I have the number.”
Alex swore, finding it hard to believe that his sister would be taken in by this man. “Obviously, he’s coerced Caroline into helping him rip off the family. Even love can be a form of coercion,” he added, looking at Samantha.
“I like to believe love doesn’t make you do things you don’t want to do,” Samantha said.
He met her gaze, the depth of his feelings for her convincing him that a person in love did a lot of things he wouldn’t have conceived of just days before. He knew firsthand since the last person he wanted to be