“Yeah, well. I lived it.” Thinking about what happened with Victor had been enough to turn my stomach. If I'd had anything left in it, I might've thrown up again. “I lived it. It almost destroyed my family. If you think I would do something like that…”
She'd nodded and rose from her chair, heading toward the door. Halfway there, she'd paused and looked back. “If it helps? Personally, I don’t think you would. But personally can’t come into play here. It’s about the job and what can be proved.”
We'd stared at each other for a moment and then she'd nodded, turned around and left.
Things hadn't gotten any better from there. Like right now. It was Thursday morning and I was back at the Lang house, trying to find out what was going on. No one had told me anything.
I hovered outside the office, hardly daring to breathe. I had my eyes closed, and I kept having to unclench my hands from the fists I’d unconsciously knotted them into.
I wanted to barge inside and demand to know what was going on.
Not that it would do much good. Mr. Lang wasn’t talking to me. He hadn't since he'd screamed at me two days ago.
So I was reduced to this. Sneaking outside the door to Mr. Lang's office. Just beyond the door, I could hear people talking.
“…sorry. There was just no reason to hold him.” It was one of the FBI agents. I couldn’t remember the name.
“What do you mean you had no reason to hold him?” Ash snapped. His voice I knew. Even if I wished I didn't.
“Holding him any longer than we did would have been a violation of Mr. Stevens’ rights. There is simply no indication he’s involved. His alibi is ironclad and—”
“I don’t want to hear about anybody’s rights when my sister is still missing!” Ash shouted.
My heart ached for him and I couldn't quite hate myself for it. No matter how I felt about him right now, his sister was missing.
“What about her rights?”
“We're looking, Mr. Lang.” That firm no, nonsense voice…I recognized that one. Marcum. “But your sister’s boyfriend had an alibi, and there’s no sign he’s involved in this.”
“What do you expect him to do? Hang a sign in his window? Kidnapped woman – ask me for details?”
I closed my eyes at the angry desperation in his voice even as I eased away from the door. If I kept standing here, I’d get noticed by one of the household staff. They wouldn't yell at me, but it'd be awkward.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Lang. We’ve been monitoring his calls, his whereabouts, everything. He’s not involved…oh, hello.”
Marcum had opened the door. With her was a tall man, his blond hair already thinning. Marcum didn’t look surprised. The guy looked a bit thrown to see me there, but he covered quickly. The two lawyers busied themselves with lawyerly things while the thickly muscled man at Ash’s shoulder just stared at me. He was a member of Ash’s security detail. He'd stared at me quite a bit since I was hired.
Mr. Lang did a lot of ignoring – at least when it came to me lately.
Fine. Let him.
I looked at Special Agent Marcum. “I guess there hasn’t been any news.”
She didn’t respond, but her expression said it all.
Mr. Lang finally spoke to me. “Miss Gallagher, if you don't have anything specific to do, you can go.”
“I don’t work for you.” I narrowed my eyes at him.
He flicked a look at me. “No. You work for Isadora. Since she’s not…available, why'd you come in this morning?”
The disparaging tone got to me, and he gave me one of those looks, like I wasn't even worth his time. I had another sudden flash of memory – him burying himself inside that woman. My stomach twisted and I resorted to anger. He wasn’t the only one who could be an ass. He was about the meet the bitch queen. Yeah, Isadora was his sister, but I was worried about her too, and he had no reason to be acting this way.
Stepping past the agents into the office, I stopped a few feet away from the desk and folded my arms over my chest.
“I don’t recall inviting you to participate in this conversation,” he snapped at me.
“Screw you.” I didn't even glance at the lawyers, agents or the security guy looming in the background. This was between me and the ass. “You want to tell why you’ve got some bug up your ass about me, Mr. Lang?”
“I don’t have a bug up my ass as you so elegantly put it.” His jaw went tight and his eyes burned hot. “But as you are aware, my sister has gone missing. After you botched the call, the kidnapper hasn’t–”
He said something else.
I knew he did.
But after those words “you botched the call” my head sort of exploded.
Or maybe I did.
Jerking back, my spine ramrod straight, I glared at him.
“Did you just say I botched the call?” I demanded, pointing a finger at him. “I screamed my lungs out for you, asshole. But you were too busy fucking some woman’s brains out to be bothered.”
There was a faint snap.
From the corner of my eye, I saw one of the lawyers – a portly, middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair – had a pencil. Or pencils, rather. He’d snapped the one he was holding in two and didn’t even seem to notice.
The other one was staring stonily ahead as if he’d gone mute, blind and deaf.
Actually, save for my ragged breathing, there wasn’t a sound in the room.
Ash rose from his desk, harsh flags of color riding high on his cheeks. But he wasn’t blushing. He was furious.
Good.
Curling my lip at him, I said, “I was basically screaming for you, but that wasn't the screaming you were listening to, was it? I was practically running down the hall while trying to listen and remember everything that man was saying. He wasn’t going to wait for you to get your dick out of her ass, much less walk to the phone.”
The others in the room were trying so hard not to look at us, abruptly, I started to laugh at the sheer stupidity of it.
Spinning away, I tried to get myself under control. There was nothing humorous about this. Nothing. It was all just crazy…and sad. Scary. Once I had that final, bitter laugh out, I looked over at him one last time. “I was walking by the phone when it rang. I saw her number and started to call for you. It’s not my fault that you were too busy to pay attention.”
His eyes had turned to shards of ice, but I met them dead on and gave him a derisive sneer before I turned away.
“It's curious…” Ash’s voice was even colder than his stare had been and I wouldn’t have thought that was possible. But even more cutting than his tone, his gaze? The words. “You came in when you clearly weren't needed.”
Or wanted. The words hung there, unsaid, but heard all the same.
“And then the one fucking phone call that’s received? Who's here to answer it, at the exact right time? You. One might call it a coincidence.”
I turned and stared at him. A different kind of quiet covered the room.
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” he said softly.
The implication almost sent me staggering. But one lesson I’d learned early on. Never let them know they hurt you. I’d cry, later. Much later.
“Ash?” I gave him my most brazen smile. “Fuck you.”
***
Victor looked decidedly aggravated as we sat down at the pub, finding a table in the far back, away from the noise, away from the band, away from the front door…and the cops.