Page 68

“What happens now?” Piper asked as they all pushed away from the table and headed for the exit.

“I talk to Finn,” Sam replied. “I tell him everything I know and hope that he reopens the case. I don’t think this was a robbery gone wrong. I’ve got a PI working on finding out more about the shell corporations, but until then, I have my suspicions.”

“Leigh might have been on to something there,” Zack observed.

“And it might have gotten her killed,” Sam said. “She deserves to rest in peace.”

Of course, no one was going to argue his point.

He and Frankie headed out into the cold, having parked near one another behind the building. They rounded the corner as he palmed his car keys, anxious to get out of the chilly wind. The temperature had dropped several degrees now that the sun was down.

“I do have another question. What are you going to do about her?” Frankie asked, wrapping a red scarf around her neck.

“Her?”

“Alli. Your assistant. What are you going to do about her?”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. She’s a solid employee.”

Frankie sighed and gave the top of his head the lightest of slaps.

“Keep your head in the game, brother. I’m talking about the expression you get on your face when you talk about her. How you two look at one another. How you absolutely, positively didn’t need to take her to Boston with you, but you did anyway. You might be fooling the rest of our family, but you cannot fool me. I’m your twin, and I know you better than you know yourself. You like her. A whole lot.”

What could he say? Frankie was right. She did know him well.

“She’s…special.”

It sounded so weak. He was only beginning to understand the strength of his feelings for Alli, but he knew that he needed her in his life.

“Then you better figure it out quick, because it’s icky to date your assistant. That’s something Dad would do, and you’re a hell of a lot better than that.”

Being compared to Joel Winslow was not a happy moment for Sam.

“I will figure it out,” he promised. “Now get into your car before you freeze to death out here.”

Frankie gave him that warning look that he knew too well, but she didn’t reply. Waving as she drove away, she left him alone and cold in the parking lot.

With a problem. Alli.

He needed to solve it sooner rather than later, because losing her was simply not an option.

Chapter

Twenty

“You have a busy day of meetings,” Alli said, handing Sam his coffee. She looked gorgeous as usual, but then nothing compared to how she looked all mussed and tangled in the hotel sheets. “I see you have one scheduled with Henry.”

“Again,” Sam groused. “He hasn’t shown up for the last three. He somehow constantly has an emergency of some sort.”

If Henry thought he was fooling anyone, he was delusional. Did he actually think that Sam was simply going to give up and go away?

“How does he get away with that?” Alli asked. “I mean…you’re the CEO. Does he think he can keep ghosting you forever?”

“I’m guessing that’s the plan,” Sam drawled, taking a sip of his first coffee of the day. Alli had offered to grab them the good stuff from the corner coffee shop instead of the mediocre crap in the break room. “He thinks he can get away with it because he always has. He was Dad’s yes-man, and as long as he agreed with everything Joel Winslow said, Henry could pretty much do whatever the hell he wanted.”

“Your father isn’t in charge anymore.”

Thank heavens for that.