“You what?” Pam screeched.
“I have to go.” Torie realized she had just admitted to what Pam might consider the worst sin in the world.
“Oh, no. Uh uh. You opened this bloody can of worms, sister. You’re gonna pour ’em in a bowl and eat ’em with me.”
“Oh, that’s just gross.” Torie picked up her purse, and started for the door.
“Bite me,” Pam said, grabbing Torie’s arm and dragging her back to the sofa. “Spill.”
“Dev’s missing. I have to let Paul know, tell the cops.”
“Yeah, yeah. And I’m miserable because of the bastard. Whatever. We need to find him. Five minutes isn’t going to make a difference. What happened with Paul?”
Sorry she’d let it slip, Torie refused to sit. “Five minutes could matter, Pam. If someone were after him, like they’ve been after me, five minutes could matter a lot.”
Pam eyed her suspiciously, which was quite a sight given her reddened eyes, puffy lids, and swollen lips. Now that Torie was taking inventory, she could see that Pam also had a pretty serious case of beard-burn on her neck.
“Is that from Dev’s beard?”
Pam slapped a hand to her neck to cover the mark. Torie nearly laughed at the futile gesture.
“What?” Pam protested, the distraction working. “Where?”
“I guess it is. Do you have a rug burn on your ass to match it?”
“Hey,” Pam protested, shooting a guilty-looking glance at the colorful wool carpet. “That’s beside the point. We’re fighting here. You better sit down and tell me what the hell is going on. How did you sleep with Paul? When? I thought you hated Paul?”
“Cripes, I’ve never hated Paul. Why does everyone think that?” Probably because I’ve said it or shown it in a hundred ways. Torie answered the question in her own mind.
“Uh, duh.” Pam pantomimed slapping her forehead. “You asked your fiancé to ban him from the house. Hello? Pretty strong request for someone you’re just ambivalent about.” Pam said it, but somehow her mind must have been a step ahead of her mouth. “Hey, is he…Oh. My God. You never told me who got you home that night. It was Paul?”
“I’m not doing this now, Pammie. We have to find Dev.”
Her phone rang. She’d never been so happy to have it ring, never been so glad of a reprieve. “It’s him. It’s Paul.”
Pam frowned at her as she answered the phone.
“Torie, where are you? Marco said you took off like a bullet, then pulled into some house. Where are you?”
“With Pam. Dev’s missing.”
“Damn. How long? Since when? Like missing, missing, or he left, like he went home?”
Guys. “If he’d have left, I wouldn’t be worried, Paul,” she explained, only slightly sarcastically. “He got a call, acted really funny, and left.”
“Did he say he was coming back?”
Well, duh. Now Torie wanted to slap her own forehead. “Pam, did he say he was coming back?”
Pam shook her head, hanging on every word of Torie’s conversation. “No.”
“Well did he say he wasn’t coming back?” Paul continued to probe.
More Man Logic, Torie decided. As if Dev would say one way or the other. “No.”
“Christ on a crutch. Just what we need—one more weird thing about this whole deal. I’ll call Tibbet. Are you going to come back and pick me up, or should I get a cab?”
“I’ll pick you up, I do have your car, after all.”
“If you need more time, I can—”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll pick you up,” Torie insisted. It would get her away from Pam’s prying. She hadn’t meant to blurt out what she’d said about Paul. Hell, she hadn’t managed to think about it. About the ramifications. She surely didn’t want to discuss what had happened at college, nor what was going to happen next. Especially since she had no idea.
She didn’t need anymore insanity, past or present, to add to the mix.
“I have to go. The bodyguard called Paul. Besides, I’ve got Paul’s car. He’s going to report Dev missing. I have to call GoodMama,” she added, seeing the steel of determination in Pam’s eyes. Pam pursued girl chatter like a dog with a bone. The saving grace was GoodMama intimidated Pam, so she backed down. Of course, GoodMama intimidated everyone, including Torie. But it would be far worse to not tell her Dev might be in trouble.
Escaping Pam was easier than she’d hoped, given the fierce determination Pam had for getting Torie to deal with her past. Any sign that she’d moved toward that was a bonus for Pam. Dev must have some amazing hold on her to have her give up so easily on hearing all about Paul.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you said.” Pam’s parting shot made Torie wince. Damn. She wasn’t forgiven, or off the hook. “We’ll be talking.”
“I know. I gotta go.”
“Yeah. Call me if you hear anything.”
“The very minute.”
Torie hurried into the car, whipping out of the driveway with the same speed with which she’d pulled into it. Heaven only knew what was going on with Dev. He was an enigma. On one hand, his specialty was green construction, save-the-planet type stuff. On the other, he had been a bodyguard, and in his wilder days, a mercenary. At least that was her guess. He wouldn’t talk about it, and neither would anyone else in the family.
Her phone rang again. Paul.
“Hey, I’m on the way,” she told him. “Is everything okay there? What was the emergency?”
“Someone hacked into the company computers. We’ve lost a huge amount of data. We’re trying to reconstruct what happened. The partners are meeting about how to respond.”
“Aren’t you a partner now? Shouldn’t you be in the meeting?”
There was a moment of silence, then Paul laughed. “Yeah, I guess I should. I’m not used to that yet.”
“It happened quickly, I guess. And with me screwing up your life at the moment, I’m sure it’s hard to get excited about it.”
“You’re not screwing up my life, Torie.”
“I’m not sure about that. I seem to screw up everything I touch,” she murmured.
“No. Don’t take responsibility for something someone else is doing to you. You’re not to blame in this, Torie. Anymore than you were to blame in college.”
That very phrase had started their knock-down, drag-out fight at the end of their one tempestuous, hot, sexy, and disastrous college date.
“I don’t want to talk about that,” she interrupted. “It’s old news.”
“Maybe,” Paul said, but let it drop. “Anyway, what’s happening now is the work of someone who’s really crazy, Torie. Two people are dead, you could have been hurt or killed in the fire. It’s a miracle you weren’t.”
“I know.”
His voice dropped into a more intimate range. “I would never have recovered if anything happened to you.”
Stunned, Torie missed the turn that would take her to Paul’s office. “Uh…” She finally got a word out beyond her surprise. “Thank you.” Focusing on him, she realized that if she lost him, if something happened to him…
“Torie? Are you still there?”
“Yes, yes. Sorry, I missed my turn.” What could she say to that? How could she say she felt the same? Did she? What had she done?
“I know we shouldn’t get involved, you know that, right?” He didn’t sound like that made him happy.
“No, no, we shouldn’t.”
“You’re my client. I’m not supposed to—” Paul started.
“I’m in such trouble, and I don’t—” Torie spoke at the same time.
They both laughed. Paul cut off her line of thinking. “Trouble is what I’m good at, Torie. It’s my job. We’ll figure this out, get you back on track. I want to help.”
“My life just sucks.”
Paul laughed, but his voice had turned professional. “Yeah, it does. Oh, excuse me,” he spoke to someone in the office. “Okay. Torie? Seems like I am expected to be in that meeting. Just park in the slot, and come on up. Martha’s here, and she’ll get you situated. You can use my office for whatever you need.”