"More or less," he said. "Do you mind staying a couple more minutes? I have some questions."
"No," she said. "I think we're done here." She inclined her head toward Emil's house. "Everything's safe, right? Who set off the alarm?"
He nodded. "Yes. Emil's assistant, Ed Chester, came to get something from the house and tripped the alarm."
Tension in his face told her there was probably more to it than that, but he wasn't offering any more explanation.
"Could we talk a few more minutes?" he asked. He reached the top of the stairs and stepped toward the door.
"No, we're done. I was about to leave before you ran out, anyway."
"OK." He stepped to the side, giving her a wide berth. "I'll pick you up at seven in the morning and take you to the airport, and I promise to—"
"No, I'm not going home. Not without Cassidy. But I’ll—I’ll hire you."
"What?"
"The private security company you work for—give me their contact information. I understand that you weren’t hired to find Cassidy. But I can hire you or someone else from . . .” She forgot the name of his employer. Hoping he'd offer the name again, she waited in the near silence—ignoring Nutmeg's disgruntled whimpering at their delayed exit.
But he just stood there. All broad-shouldered and stoic. And completely unreadable. He stared at her for five long seconds before he said a word.
“You're right. Cassidy needs to be a priority."
His agreement surprised her.
He leaned against the doorframe. "You can hold off on hiring WhiteRock for now, though. It’s possible—if Emil took the jewels—that your cousin and the jewels are both on that yacht, so we may find everything we’re looking for all at once.”
“But if you find the jewels and not Cassidy, or if you become convinced Emil’s innocent, you’ll leave. You’ll stop looking. Right? What if she’s not on the yacht?”
Nutmeg huffed and flopped himself onto the landing, their conversation clearly exhausting him.
“Okay. Give me forty-eight hours," Nash said. "If, after forty-eight hours, we think this is two separate cases, or if we need more manpower, I’ll get you in contact with WhiteRock. Just be patient till then. And, like I said, we’re arranging a flight for you for first thing in the morning. I’ll keep in contact with you after you leave. We’ll let you know if we find Cassidy.”
Hot anger swirled in her belly. He wasn't listening. “No. You can’t make me leave. You have no authority to do that. I can stay here as long as I want. You’re a private security firm, right?”
“WhiteRock is. They’ve contracted out with me for this.”
“OK, whatever. You work for a private company?”
“Yes.”
“So you’re not the FBI. You’re not the police. We’re not even in the US." Her volume climbed, but she didn't care. "You have no authority over me. I came here to find my cousin. I’m going to find her with or without you.”
His jaw twitched.
She expected her words to irritate him. She expected him to yell back.
He inhaled a slow breath through his nose. And an unexpected amount of compassion flooded his gaze. “Look, Lena, I'm trying to help you. I’ve sugarcoated this because I don’t want to scare you. The truth is, we've looked into Emil's past and his associates. He's more dangerous than you think. My theory is that he did steal the jewels, and he's planning on selling them to a different dangerous individual."
The tension in his face told her he was still holding back—still glossing over Emil's evil past for her benefit. Fear for Cassidy turned her mouth dry. “OK, well, all the more reason Cassidy shouldn’t be involvedin this. She shouldn’t have come out here. She shouldn’t be here. And I need to get her home.”
"Agreed. But your safety is just as important. Please fly home tomorrow. I'll contact you when—"
A sincerity echoed in his words that she couldn't ignore. It took the bite out of her tone, but it didn't change her mind. "No," she said. Softer this time. "I'm staying. I don't want to argue. You don't understand. Ihaveto get to Cassidy. This is something Ihaveto do. Ican'tgo home without her."
The emotion in her voice seemed to pain him. He shoved a hand through his dark hair and rubbed the back of his head. "OK, stay here at the house tomorrow, keep playing your dog-sitting part, hang out with Nutmeg. But don't do anything else—like peeking in windows. Don't go snooping around. Don't call attention to yourself. Let me use my resources and see if I can locate Cassidy. If—and I'm not saying I can do this tomorrow or even the next day—but if I find Cassidy and arrange for you to talk to her, will you go ahead and leave the island?"
"You mean whether or not she agrees to leave?"
