“What about the names?”he asked, leaping into her way on route to the door.
“I’ll finish later, you’ve got enough to go on.”Now he was just being rude.“I’ll put a note under your door later.Are you going into work?”
“Planned to.I can wait.I’ll come upstairs—”
“No, you won’t,” she said, planting a hand on his chest when he tried to go around her.“Roxie won’t buy the walk story if we’re together.What kind of walk includes her ex-boyfriend?”
“She won’t be jealous.”
A tsk.“I don’t care about jealous.”It wouldn’t be nice to laugh in his face.If he thought anyone would ever put them together in an intimate way… Wasn’t his fault he’d never seen her and Breck in action.“I care about answering questions that might lead to what we’ve been doing here coming out.”
His twitch of a smile wasn’t appreciated.“No one will find out.”
“It’s not your life on the line here.”
“Your father doesn’t want you dead.If he thought you knew anything that could lead to—he’d have done it years ago.Don’t you think?”
She stepped closer, lowering her pitch and volume.“My life is nothing compared to those I care about.”Yeah, not so funny now.“And if you don’t take Gambatto capability seriously, you shouldn’t be doing this job.”
“He’s weak—”
“You think that matters?”Her laugh wasn’t one of amusement.“God, all this time and you’ve learned nothing.”
His brow hardened.“I’ve learned plenty.Most important of which is where the power lies.I could choose to live in fear, put the possibilities ahead of faith that we will come out on top.But I don’t.I don’t give him the power.He doesn’t have it unless you put it in his hands.”His scrutiny narrowed.“That’s what he wants, can’t you see that?Trust your own strength.Otherwise, he wins.”
And that sounded exactly like something Breck would say.It must be nice to have that kind of clarity.Every time, in the past, when she’d underestimated the patriarch, she’d lived to regret it.
Damnit, shouldn’t it be different by now?Why did she regress to an anxiety-ridden teenager every time she imagined facing off with her father?She was a confident, successful woman, her own strength grew every day.
Pop psychology would have to wait for another time.He’d distracted her long enough.
“Stay here,” was all she said and left, without him on her heels.
NINETEEN
IF PORTER WANTED to show up at Roxie’s on his own, so be it.They wouldn’t be showing up together.Confident, she had nothing to hide, entering Roxie’s apartment, she didn’t shrink.And sure enough, there were two women in the kitchen holding coffee cups.Roxie and the woman from yesterday.Rainie?
No big deal.“Morning,” she said.
Neither woman set any expectation on her.
“Morning,” Roxie replied.“You okay?”
“Yeah.”She scanned the room.“Tripp around?”
“Still in bed,” Roxie said.“We think.Who knows with him?He could be chasing tail in China by now.”
Porter had suggested Roxie may disappear into the night, but Roxie was right in her assertion too.Tripp could find a party anywhere, any city, any state, any country.And he got offers every minute.His life moved with the wind, he went wherever appealed most in any given moment.
Only one way to find out whether he was still in the building.Not that it was him she was really looking for.She left the women to head into the hallway and the bedroom designated Tripp’s.
Yep, there he was.Lying on his chest, face buried in the pillow, back bare with the sheet draped across his hips.The sexy, snuggly picture would tempt many women.
Women who weren’t her.
And he was just a distraction.Going for her real prize, she snagged the cellphone from its dock and sat on the bed, crossing her legs in front of her before dialing.Rearranging Tripp’s hair, she tucked one section under another.Wow, his eyelashes were ridiculously long.How come guys got perks like that?Because they didn’t slather them with cosmetics, that was why.
Come on.How long would she wait for the phone to stop ringing?
