so pithy but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t need to be patronized about dangerous situations. She’d been in far more than him.
He blinked, seemingly not liking her answer either. ‘Why does it have to be you, taking this on?’
‘Because I’m the one who’s been asked. Whoever put that book in my basket targeted me.’ She leaned forward, dropping her voice. ‘Sam, they need my help.’
‘Really? Or do you just always have to be on a crusade?’
She sat back again. There was venom in the words; she wasn’t forgiven. She stared back at him levelly, feeling the walls rise higher still between them again.
He looked away, frustrated by her, resentful he was here, his elbows on the arms of the chairs, his fingers loosely interlinked.
Lee’s gaze fell to an ink stain on his right-hand fingers, a pressure mark against the skin, and she realized this wasn’t his problem. He hadn’t asked for any of this. He was just a random guy she’d unwisely drawn into the loop of her chaotic existence. One who’d got away.
She tried softening her approach, knowing she just had to get what she needed from him and set him loose. He didn’t deserve the drama that came with getting involved with her. ‘Look, I appreciate this all sounds mad and I probably am mad for following up on it. But I’m not asking for you to get involved any further than making a call for me. Just ask your marketing people if they can find out where exactly that book was first dropped – before it was put in my basket – and I’ll do the rest myself. I promise you’ll never hear from me again.’
His eyes whipped up to hers and he said nothing for several moments. ‘How will that help, finding out where it was left?’
‘Well, follow the chain of events – the books your marketing people sent out would have come direct from the printers, yes? They’d have been sealed, bound and boxed. I think we can safely assume it’s unlikely anyone at the printers or your publishers wrote that message – it wasn’t some generalized call to arms or a political statement. It’s a cry for help, and because it was put in my bike basket, with my gallery flyer inside, it’s reasonable to assume that the person who put it there is known to me. That means there has to be a stage missing between the book leaving your marketing team’s possession and it ending up in my bike basket. There’s got to be a third party who found the book, wrote in it and left it for me to find. If you can help me discover where it was left, I’ll continue from there and I won’t bother you again, I promise. No more favours.’
No more favours. She’d invited him into her life for a favour; now she was releasing him with another.
He stared at her and she wished his gaze was less unsettling. ‘And what if no one in marketing knows? What if they were scattered around at whim?’
She sighed. ‘Then I’ll be all out of ideas,’ she shrugged. ‘There won’t be anything further I can do. That’ll be it. They’ll have to reach out to me again, in a more direct way.’
He stared straight back at her and she felt the silver thread tighten and vibrate again, as it did every time their eyes locked. Even when they were arguing. Even when they were hating each other. She remembered how it had felt to stand in his shadow, knowing she was about to kiss him. If he’d just not been so . . . chivalrous, she’d be over it by now. Over him. He’d have been another ship in the night and they’d be sailing to opposite continents.
He sighed, looking over at her son. ‘Jasper, do you always do what your mama tells you?’
Jasper broke off from his colouring in. ‘Yes,’ he said, so solemnly Lee almost choked on her coffee.
Sam laughed, sunlight breaking out from behind the clouds in his eyes. ‘Hmm. I’m beginning to think most people do.’
A ripple of hope kicked through her. ‘So then, you’ll do it?’
‘I’ll call on Monday and do what I can,’ he sighed. ‘But I can’t make any promises.’
‘That’s fine,’ she said earnestly. ‘One call is absolutely all I’m asking for.’
‘Yes,’ he said with an inscrutable look. ‘I know it is.’
Chapter Thirteen
‘Higher, I can’t reach,’ Jasper said, straining towards the branch.
‘Oof, that’s easy for you to say,’ she scoffed, trying