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“No. Someone overheard your exchange in the bookshop.”
I slap my forehead. “Your grandfather’s detectives! They must’ve followed us into the shop. Did you know they were there?”
“They’d stayed outside,” he says. “Their brief is to report any indiscretion to Grandpa. You and I went into Smith & Son together. They had no reason to follow us in there.”
“Then who was it?”
“If you recall, I’d asked Angie to keep an eye on you. Diligent as she is, she took a cab and followed us to Smith & Son, where she kept her distance until I stepped out to call Theo. At that point, she snuck behind the magazine rack and listened.”
“And what a powerful pair of ears she has!”
“By then the shop had grown a lot quieter,” he says. “It was almost closing time.”
“Is she eavesdropping behind the door now?”
“She went down to her apartment.”
I sneer. “But not before she shared her juicy scoop with you.”
He glares at me. “Unbelievable! You’re acting like you’ve been wronged. She gave you a chance before reporting—”
“Ratting.”
He ignores my correction. “You had all evening to come clean.”
“You were on the phone nonstop.”
“You didn’t say a word, not even a hint, that you had such a crucial piece of information.” His lip curls. “Conflicting loyalties much? Unwillingness to recognize you’ve been wrong? Your dream of redemption crumbling before your eyes?”
“All of it,” I say.
He looks thrown by my honesty.
I rise to my feet and stare him in the eye. “If you and Angie had just waited! I was going to tell you tonight.”
“It’s a little too easy to claim that now!” His sexy mouth thins. “And, yesterday, you kept from me you’d found the Paco the Duke and Joseph Wick.”
“It was a mistake.”
“If Grandpa’s detectives hadn’t been trailing you and witnessed that scooter running you down, Grandpa wouldn’t have called me. Were you even going to share your breakthrough with me if he hadn’t?” he asks.
“I realize it looks like I was trying to hide it, but I wasn’t. I was going to tell you about Joseph last night, regardless of your grandfather’s call.”
“How do I know it’s true?”
I spread my hands in a helpless gesture. “You’ll have to take my word for it.”
“What is it worth, Camille?” A bitter smile plays across his face. “Is anybody’s word worth anything at all?”
“I’m not anybody,” I mutter.
“Don’t I know that!”
The intensity in his tone jolts me.
“Against my better judgment,” he says, “I trusted you. I thought we were a team.”
“We were! I mean, we are.”
