“Um...”Stein glanced at Logan.“Just helping out.”
Fraser nodded.“I see.”
Logan clamped him on the shoulder.“Glad to see you, Fraser.I’ve been expecting a wedding.”
“From Creed and Imani?Not yet?—”
“From you and Pippa.”
Fraser smiled.Then he held up his left hand—a ring.“A too-short getaway to Monaco.”
And Steinbeck didn’t even know the guy, but he couldn’t help the slightest twinge of envy.
“Congratulations.”Logan shook his hand.“How long is Imani in America?”
“She’s attending the youth events of the General Assembly and speaking at a women’s leadership summit, along with Britta White.”
“The president’s daughter?”
“Yes.She’s pretty excited.And then she and Creed are taking a few days in Minnesota, at my parents’ winery.”
Muffled conversation came through the earwig.Logan was asking Fraser about his family?—
Then, “I thought that was you.”
A male voice, and Stein jerked.Glanced at Logan.Not even a flicker on his face as he listened to Fraser.
“Phoenix, are you okay?”Pippa’s voice.
“Yes, I’ll be right behind you.”Phoenix.
No, no, she wouldn’t.He’d been down this road.Stein kept his gaze on Logan, who was nodding.Logan gestured with his head.Go.
Yep.Stein turned, pushed through the crowd.Congress members, world leaders, diplomats, delegates, and security—he didn’t care as he bumped past them, still listening.
The jazz behind their conversation had muted, so maybe she was out in the corridor.Oh, Phoenix, don’t leave?—
“It won’t work, Tomas.Whatever you’re?—”
Stein banged against a table, righted it before all the china toppled off—wrong move, because she grunted.
Then, “Stop?—”
Steinbeck took off in a half run, reached the back of the room.No bathrooms.
An exit sign lit up, and next to it, the restroom sign.
He pushed through the doors into the enclosed lobby.
Women emerged from the ladies’ room, and he stood there, debating.
More grunting, and now what sounded distinctly like wind.“Tomas, I promise you, this will go badly for you!”
Yes, yes, it will.Stein turned—the doors led outside onto a flat surface—thefarm.The ecological project, a full rooftop vegetable garden, bathed only by the lights of the city.
He scanned the darkness.
Nothing.
