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Alina eventually leaves the group she’s been talking to and starts toward us. Duncan notices her at almost the same time I do, and his hand closes around mine before she reaches us. By the time she stops in front of us, she’s wearing the same pleasant smile she’s had on her face all evening.
“Duncan. I was beginning to wonder if you planned to avoid me all night.”
“I’ve been speaking with the other guests.”
Her smile stays in place as her attention shifts to me. “Nash. I heard you were coming tonight. I have to admit, I was a little surprised.”
I meet her gaze. “Why?”
She takes her time looking me over before answering. “This is a long way from delivering lunches at Murphy Enterprises.”
She says it casually enough for anyone listening to mistake it for conversation, but there’s nothing casual about the way she watches Duncan while she says it.
Duncan’s fingers tighten around mine, but Alina isn’t interested in my answer. She wants his reaction, which gives me even more reason not to give her one of my own.
“It is,” I say, and leave it there.
She waits a few seconds before turning back to Duncan. “You’ve had an interesting few weeks. I was sorry to hear about the allegations.”
Duncan’s expression doesn’t change. “They were false.”
“I heard they were dismissed.” Her gaze flicks toward me. “Still, accusations like that can be difficult for the people closest to you. There’s always that little question of whether you really know someone as well as you think you do.”
Oh, she can go fuck herself.
I feel Duncan’s attention shift to me, but I don’t give Alina what she came over here looking for. Instead, I lace my fingers more firmly through his and look straight at her. “Not when you trust the person you’re with.”
She walked over, and her smile slips. She recovers almost immediately, but I catch it. Her gaze drops to our joined hands before she looks back at Duncan, tells us to enjoy the evening, and walks away.
Duncan watches her until she disappears into the crowd, his hand still wrapped around mine and his jaw tight enough for the muscle to move beneath his skin.
“She wanted to see what you would do when she brought up the allegations,” I say. “She already knew I came with you. She could see that from across the room.”
Duncan’s attention stays on the direction Alina disappeared. “She wanted to see how we behave together.”
That makes more sense the longer I think about it. She didn’t bring up the accusations because she gives a shit about what happened to Duncan. She wanted to see if I doubted him, if he became defensive or if she could put even the smallest crack between us. Getting close enough to talk to us gave her the chance to watch every reaction instead of guessing from across the ballroom.
Dinner is announced before we can discuss it any further, and the crowd begins moving toward the tables. Duncan and I are seated with Kieran and Alessia and two couples whose names I’ve already forgotten. Declan and Xavier are at the next table with Conor and Jaxon, close enough that I can see all four of them without having to turn around.
Alina is seated across the ballroom. I keep expecting to catch her looking at Duncan after the conversation we just had, but during the first course, I notice her watching Declan and Xavier instead. A few minutes later, her attention shifts to Conor and Jaxon. When Kieran gets up to speak to someone at another table, her eyes follow him across the room before moving back to Alessia.
Once I notice it, I start paying closer attention. She isn’t watching Duncan and me nearly as much as I thought she was. Her attention keeps moving through his family, lingering on each of them before moving to someone else.
I slide my hand onto Duncan’s thigh beneath the table and wait until he turns toward me. “Don’t look at her yet. She isn’t only watching us.”
His leg tightens beneath my palm. “Who else?”
“Your family. I caught her watching Declan and Xavier, then Conor and Jaxon. She followed Kieran when he left the table, and as soon as he was gone, she started watching Alessia.”
Duncan doesn’t immediately turn to look. He continues talking with the couple across from us, giving it another minute before casually letting his attention move through the ballroom. By the time his gaze passes Alina’s table, she’s turned toward the woman beside her and looks like any other guest having dinner.
My phone vibrates in my pocket a few minutes later. I leave it there until I can check it without making it obvious, then glance down at the message from Zee. By the time I reach the end, I go back to the beginning and read the whole fucking thing again before turning my phone so Duncan can see it.
Now that Zee has Adrian’s full name, he went back through everything I copied from Alina’s hotel room. Searches and saved information that didn’t mean much when we first saw them suddenly had context. Alina and Adrian weren’t only researching Duncan and me. They had information on Declan and Xavier, including Xavier’s work history. They searched Conor and Jaxon, Ronan and Colton, Kieran and Alessia. Even Finn and Liam.
Duncan reads the message in silence, his eyes moving over the screen while his hand closes over mine beneath the table. A few minutes ago, I thought I was noticing Alina watching his family because I’d started paying closer attention to her. Now I understand why.
Until now, everything pointed back to Duncan and me. He ended his arrangement with Alina after I came into his life, and even after we learned about Adrian, we kept looking at what the two of them might do to one of us. None of that explains why they needed Xavier’s work history or information on Colton, Jaxon, and the rest of Duncan’s family.
