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“Took him to the lake,” Tristan replied without missing a beat.
My eyebrows shot up. “You dumped him in the lake?”
He shot me a glance, his blue eyes unreadable as he shrugged. “He needed a bath.”
As much as I wanted to laugh at his nonchalant humor, my mind was too filled with worry. “Tristan, you know we can’t keep doing this,” I said quietly, my voice echoing in the vast room around us.
“Then they can’t keep breaking into our house,” he said.
I supposed he had a point there. “Did you... have any trouble?” I asked, hesitating on the details I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“No,” he replied, his tone even. “It went smoothly.”
“Good,” I responded, more out of relief than anything else. “And the rest of the team?”
“They are on high alert,” he reassured me. “We’ve beefed up security around the entire property.”
I nodded, unable to fully suppress the shudder that ran through me at the thought of the danger so close to our doorstep. I could only pray it would be enough.
“Okay,” he said, kissing my forehead. “You look into those records. Let me know if you need anything. I’m going to go meet up with some people who might have leads about last night. I’m a phone call away, okay?”
I nodded, knowing he had to leave but wishing more than anything that he could stay. I watched him walk away, the tenseness in his shoulders revealing the weight of the world he was carrying. “Be careful,” I called after him, my voice catching slightly.
He glanced back at me, a mischievous glint flashing in those gorgeous blue eyes. “Always am, love,” he replied before disappearing out the front door.
Once he was gone, I exhaled a heavy sigh that I hadn’t realized I was holding. My gaze drifted around the house - our house - and all its emptiness seemed to close in on me. I suddenly felt quite alone.
Pushing away the feeling of trepidation, I booted up my laptop and started poring over the financial records Tristan had mentioned. Hours passed as I sifted through data, my mind whirring with numbers and dates. Who was it? Carmen? Or someone else? Each possibility twisted my stomach into knots, and I forced myself to focus, knowing that somewhere in these endless numbers lay the answer.
Time passed by, and I had no answers except the certainty that someone was, in fact, embezzling from my father.
And that I absolutely needed to tell him.
I just hadn’t managed to bring myself to do that yet.
As if Carmen could sense I was thinking about her, my phone lit up with her face on it. “Carmen,” I murmured, answering the call. Her voice came through the line, crystal clear and as cutting as ever.
“Ade,” she greeted, her tone neutral. “How’s the new crib?”
I paused for a moment, considering her words. “It’s fine,” I responded, deciding to keep my concerns to myself. “What do you want, Carmen?”
“Brunch,” she said. “If Tristan isn’t keeping you under lock and key.”
“He isn’t keeping me under lock and key,” I said. “I’m here of my own volition.”
“Why?”
“Because he has a huge dick and he fucks like a fright train,” I replied quickly. “Why do you think?”
“Testy.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
She chuckled at that, a low, throaty sound that had me rolling my eyes in exasperation. “Of course you do, Ade,” she quipped back. “It was a joke. Don’t tell me living with Callahan has sucked the sense of humor out of you.”
Ignoring the jab, I sighed heavily into the line. “What day?”
“Tomorrow,” she replied promptly. “La Rêve, 11:00 am.”
