Page 91 of The Silent Hour

"You don't have to knock, bella."

"You deserve privacy sometimes."

He grinned, setting the Colt down to hold out his arm. I crossed the room, and he pulled me between his knees rather than onto his lap, his hands settling around my hips. I eyed the large envelope lying on his desk.

"What’s that?" I asked.

His expression changed. "We got a tip to head out to a closed off construction site a little out the city, and a key that opens something."

I frowned. That didn't inspire confidence. “Where is the tip from? Are you sure it’s legit?”

His thumb moved absently against me. "The information came from Santiago Ruiz—junior."

"Saint?"

Ethan nodded. "He sent someone to the firm himself."

This was apparently significant judging by his expression, but something about that sounded off to me. Saint tended to be pretty hands-on for anything involving his father’s case. A fact I was doubly aware of because Ethan was not his biggest fan. Now he was sending errand boys?

“Are you sure this tip came from Saint? Have you spoken to him or his father about where it came from?”

"Who would be foolish enough to walk into my law firm and use his name freely? Doesn't matter who delivered it, bella. If Saint wants to hand me a loaded weapon on his father's behalf, I'm not going to argue with the gift."

"Uh, I still think you need to confirm he’s the one telling you to follow this tip."

He chuckled, the sound low and arrogant, tipping his chin up with a familiar edge of defiance. "I don't need anyone's permission to follow anything. Least of all from a man who spends half his time pretending he doesn't watch you at every society function."

My brow arched. "Is that jealousy I hear?"

"What you hear," he replied, tightening his grip on my hips, "is me reminding you that I don't take marching orders from the Ruize’s—junior or otherwise. Saint dropped a lead in my lap. I'm going to follow it because I should, not because he told me to. We’ve already checked it out and it is a legit site."

I wasn’t going to waste my breath telling him he’d just missed my entire point. "Are you going alone?"

The arrogance in his smile softened by a fraction. "No. Eric and Knox are already briefed. We leave tomorrow evening, as per the lead, so we will be home late."

I studied the envelope again, and this time reached for it. Inside was a key with no markings and looked old enough to belong to something my grandmother would've used. Bless her. More intriguing was the notecard with the name of what I assumed was the construction site, sets of numbers, and a time in EST written next to them.

"Coordinates," I confirmed, tapping the card. "These are GPS numbers."

Ethan's thumb stilled against my hip. “I forget sometimes.”

I glanced at him. “Forget what?”

“How fucking quick you can figure things out.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Was it a compliment? “Right. Well, did anything else happen today? How was court?”

For a long moment, he didn't respond, his gaze fixed somewhere past my shoulder—the way it did when words were lining up behind his teeth, waiting to be released in the order he'd rehearsed.

"There is something else," he said finally.

The timbre of his voice shifted, and I knew before he said another word. My chest tightened, a familiar cold curl settled beneath my ribs.

"Lila crossed paths with me today."

I stayed perfectly still, the fleece of my robe suddenly too warm against my skin. "At the courthouse?"

He nodded, his jaw working. "She apologized. Said she knows I'm happily married. Offered to sign anything, enter a probationary period—whatever it took to keep her job."