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“Shit,” Lori mumbled and edged over to a large window on Peter Anton’s other side. Sure the view was a blank, black square of night, but the people behind her couldn’t know that. Lori stared into the darkness and sipped her water, eardrums vibrating as she strained to pick up anything.
A long moment passed of nothing but the hum of dozens of people speaking. A woman laughed as if she’d had way too much to drink. Then, finally, she heard Peter Anton again. “We’ve already discussed this. He’s not going to be a problem.”
Quinn?Were they still talking about Quinn? And why would he be involved in anythingsecretthat might be aproblem?Surely this had nothing to do with her land. That would be too much of a coincidence. Or no coincidence at all…
The other man spoke. “I don’t like so damn many people knowing about this.”
“You’re the one who can’t stop talking about it,” Anton growled.
Their voices lowered. Lori strained to hear.
“What are you doing?”
Lori jumped at the voice coming from just over her shoulder. Water dribbled down her fingers as she spun to find Quinn’s assistant frowning in concern.
“Hi, Jane!” she squeaked.
“Hi. Is everything okay?”
“Oh, yeah! Great. Super.”
“Why are you staring at a blacked-out window?”
“I…Oh.” She squinted, noticing for the first time that not even one distant light was visible in the darkness. “Is it blacked out? I thought there was just no moon tonight.”
Jane’s eyebrows lowered. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
She pushed her mortification aside. “Yeah, of course. Just lost in thought.”
“Did you argue with Mr. Jennings? Please don’t take it personally if it seems like he’s ignoring you. I saw him talking with Edward Rubian and—”
“No, no. Quinn’s fine. It’s just the party. Small talk is stressful for me.” As she got over the shock of being caught spying, it occurred to Lori that Jane might hold some secrets herself. And Lori was clearly a failure at this spying thing. It was probably a good idea to just try gossip. “So, what’s Quinn’s relationship with Anton/Bliss?”
“His relationship? He’s one of their favorite architects. I’m sure they’d love to have him in-house, but he’s not interested.”
“Is he working on something for them right now?”
“Of course. He usually is.”
She could hear caution creeping into Jane’s voice, but Lori took a deep breath and asked one more question. “Does it have anything to do with Tumble Creek?”
Jane frowned. “Tumble Creek? Why would you think that?”
“Oh, I thought I heard…rumors.”
“About Tumble Creek? I haven’t heard a thing, unless…Wait. Highway nineteen runs through there, right?”
“That’s the pass.”
“Hmm. I could swear I heard someone referring to highway nineteen recently.”
The tiny bit of anticipation that had tightened her shoulders faded to nothing. “Quinn’s house is off nineteen. That’s probably what you’re remembering.”
“Maybe. Yes, I suppose that must be it.” But she frowned down at the floor.
The awkward moment drew out for too long, so Lori lurched into a new topic. “Anyway, how did you come to work for Quinn?”
Jane glanced up as if she’d been lost in thought, but then shook her head and seemed to let go of her worry. “I worked in the office where he apprenticed after his degree. Mr. McInnis was so impressed with Quinn he asked him to stay on after his apprenticeship. He’d never done that before. Two years later McInnis retired and encouraged Quinn to open his own practice. He urged me to go with Quinn. I did.”
