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Which made what they’d done a few hours ago—the feelings she had let herself feel for a man who wasn’t going to be around beyond possibly as early as tonight—another mistake to add to the growing list.
It was a hard lesson but one that apparently she had to keep learning. But for now, she was going to push that to the back of her mind. They had just fourteen hours left to locate her daughter. No more pity party.
“You’re awake,” Travis said when she walked in.
She’d known that Allie and Claire would be sitting at the table along with Travis. But she hadn’t expected to see Meems and hadn’t expected to see her and Travis bent over a laptop together, their shoulders touching. Jealousy reared up to bite her in the butt.
“I am. Did you at least save me some coffee?” She sounded like a bitch and didn’t care. It was her freaking house.
“I’ll make a pot,” Meems said and came to her feet, stretching her arms up, exposing a ripped six-pack. Lord. If that was what her abs looked like, Meredith could only imagine what she looked like everywhere else. She really had to increase her own weight-lifting regimen.
“That’s okay, I can manage.” Meredith opened the canister of coffee beans and measured them out. She took the opportunity with her back to the room to get a hold of her emotions.
She had yet to make eye contact with Travis.
“I heard about what happened to you two last night, Mer,” Allie said, coming to join her, raising her voice to be heard above the grinding beans. “That was really brave of you guys. I just wish you’d had better luck. Claire and I came over to see if we could offer a hand in some way. We’re looking over topographical maps right now and comparing them to a list of Utah properties that are owned by the same company that owns the club and warehouse. Meems put it together.”
They’d all been busy. While she was upstairs dreaming.
She flipped the coffee to brew and turned, slowly, to find Travis watching her. His face so stoic, his jaw set in a hard line. Unreadable. Hard to believe he was the same man who had called her witty, strong, and beautiful.
“We’ve got some leads then,” she commented.
He nodded. “So far Claire and Allie have found three prospects. Meems is trying to hack into a couple different area satellites that might give us a good aerial view of the properties.”
His tone was informative, professional, and completely appropriate. For a robot.
Not what she was hoping for from the man who had made her scream his name more than once just hours before. Who’d shown with every touch that he was a man of some expertise but also was incredibly intuitive to her every need and desire.
So why couldn’t he see that she needed something…more? She looked away, growing angrier, but at herself. She was an idiot. Her stomach gurgled, and she realized she needed something to eat. From the fridge, she grabbed a string cheese and a plum that she took to the table.
So preoccupied with who Travis was and wasn’t paying attention to, Meredith realized that she had been under some scrutiny herself when she sat down and met Claire’s gaze. She looked like she’d been watching her for a while, her pencil spinning back and forth between her fingertips.
“It’s nice that you have such a big house, Meredith,” she finally said. “Saved my brother from having to find a hotel room.”
Good God. What did the woman know?
It wasn’t like she and Travis were wearing signs that said, “Just did it,” but she was almost certain that Claire was on to them.
“Just three rooms, including Darcy’s and mine.” But the size of Meredith’s house wasn’t really what the woman had been commenting on. It was that her brother was staying under the same roof as Meredith. “So where’s Rick this morning?” she asked, deciding it was time to put someone else in the hot seat.
Claire shared a look with Allie before she answered. “He was called out of town yesterday, just after you and Travis left. He’ll be back by tonight.”
The gala. Something she, as chairwoman, was supposed to be heading, yet she hadn’t even remembered to check with any of the other committee members to see how it was going.
“Allie? I can’t believe I’ve been so derelict in my duties. Is everything going okay?”
“Please. Don’t worry about it. Sam and the rest of the committee have it all under control. Everyone caught your bit on Annabeth’s show and knows you have bigger things to tend to.”
> Travis suddenly came to his feet, a small eleven-inch laptop in his hands. “I’ve got a signal.”
She looked over in confusion. “For what?”
“Lance. I found his cell phone in Matt’s list of numbers and triangulated the coordinates. I think I’ve got him.”
“Got him? What are you planning on doing? Shouldn’t you give this info to the police?” This was Claire.
“Eventually. But right now Lance is our best bet on figuring out where this auction is later tonight, and I have interrogation…techniques that are probably more effective than anything the police might have.”
