Page 154 of Protecting You
As long as Peri was rescued, that was all that mattered.
Everyone seemed to wait for her to react, so she said, “Any chance it was you guys who stole my equipment?”
The agent/bartender paused for a long moment, then nodded.
“I assume you haven’t gotten into it yet.”
His lips quirked in an almost-smile. “We’ve had a team working on it for days.”
“Security is sort of my thing. I’ll write down the passwords, but what you really need is a thumb drive.” She pulled the tiny thing out of the lavender purse Brooklynn had loaned her and held it out. “Next time, just ask.”
The man pocketed it.
Dad focused on Mom and Alyssa’s sisters. “Can you wait in the library? I don’t want anyone leaving here. The club is safe right now, but out there…?” His gaze flicked to the glass doors, the police cars lined along the drive. “I know it’s inconvenient, but please, just stay here where it’s safe.”
“We will, of course.” Mom kissed his cheek, then spoke to Callan. “I am so, so sorry. We tried to protect her but…”
“It wasn’t your fault.” He glared at Dad but didn’t say what he was thinking.
Mom squeezed Alyssa’s hand. Alyssa saw no judgment, no anger, just love and concern.
Her mother, who’d witnessed an ambush, who’d probably seen a man shot, was worried about Alyssa. She turned to her other daughters. “Come on, girls.”
Mom and Alyssa’s sisters walked out.
“You too.” Grant turned to his wife. “Just in case.”
“Are you worried about their safety,” Summer asked, “or mine?”
“Can it be both?”
She smirked, then squeezed his hand and followed Mom.
“You, too, sweetheart.” Dad spoke to Alyssa.
“Sure. Okay.” Not a chance, but Alyssa saw no point in arguing. The country club was crawling with police, one of whom was standing guard at the massive front doors.
She made to follow her mom and sisters but waited around a corner until Callan, Grant, and Dad had taken Robert the other direction.
Then she returned to the foyer and asked one of the police officers to accompany her to the Mustang, just in case Robert wasn’t the only person at the club on Ghazi’s payroll.
She grabbed her bag and then went to the locker room to change back into her jeans, T-shirt, and cardigan, then spent a few minutes dealing with the package Grant had given her earlier, thankful she’d thought to pilfer a needle and thread from Callan’s mother’s sewing room. She was no seamstress, but she could make this work.
A few minutes with a knife she’d pocketed during lunch and her shoe-polish-black tennis shoes, and she was ready.
She desperately wanted to find out what was going on with Callan and Dad. Instead, she carried the dress, purse, and shoes she’d borrowed from her sister, along with her bag and Callan’s—with a second thumb drive in his jeans pocket—to the library.
She needed to face the music.
The members who’d been at the club that day had all been dealt with and sent home, so Alyssa’s family were the only people there, seated on sofas and in wingback chairs.
They’d been talking, but when the door opened, they silenced and turned her way.
Mom stood. “Any news?”
Shaking her head, Alyssa dropped the bags inside the door, approaching her mother. Her sweet, kind, generous mother. “I’m sorry I lied to you.” She scanned her sisters, eyes filling with tears for the first time since they’d gotten that terrible call. “I didn’t want to do it. We hoped… It’s such a long story, but I would never have…”
“Precious daughter.” Mom crossed the room and pulled her close.
