Jana met us with wide eyes upon our return. “Is everything okay?”

If only there was a simple answer to that question. Instead, I deferred. “Did anything happen while we were away?”

“No, mostly quiet.”

“Please hold all calls—all,” I emphasized, knowing there was one man who could be persistent.

“Ms. Hawkins?” Patrick asked as I headed toward my office.

I turned his way. “Winnie and I need to continue our conversation from the hotel room. We were on a time limit.”

Though disagreement rippled off of Patrick in waves and I knew he wanted an answer to the question he’d texted me, he didn’t return my statement with a rebuttal but simply a nod.

Once Winnie and I were inside my private office with the door shut, I gestured toward the table—the one still cluttered with sketches for Mrs. McFadden. “I don’t have anything stronger, not here. Would you like a cup of coffee or water?” I asked.

Shaking her head, she sat. “I am sorry.”

After silencing my phone, putting it into my purse, and securing it in the drawer of my desk, I made my way to the bookcase where the coffee decanter was located. Pouring myself a cup of the hours-old yet still-warm java, I added cream and stirred. Watching the swirls, I collected my thoughts. After a deep sigh, I went on, “You do keep saying that you’re sorry. Do you have anything in the safe within your hotel room?”

Her blue eyes looked up. “What?”

“You obviously can’t stay in that hotel room another night. I’d bet it’s bugged.”

“Kenni, who are you? What the hell is happening? The person I know—knew—wouldn’t even think that way. What Agent Hunter said about Mr. Sparrow being dangerous, he convinced me that it was true. He made me believe I was helping you by getting you in touch with the FBI, like you were being forced to do something...unwillingly.”

Taking a deep breath, I carried my coffee to the table and sat. “Sterling is in real estate.”

“You have mentioned that many times. It seems that maybe there’s a middle ground between the monster Agent Hunter described and this man who swept you off your feet. Or maybe it’s hard for you to see with all the dollar signs swirling around.”

Dollar signs?

I looked up. “Explain.”

“You said you’re living with him.”

I nodded.

“You have your own personal bodyguard. You’re wearing expensive clothes. I can assume the trip to Canada was his idea. And you look...” She waved her hands my direction. “...I don’t know—different. You’ve always been the most confident one of us, the one willing to take chances. Now it’s as if you seem...regal.” She shook her head again. “I don’t mean like you think you’re better but that you actually are. There’s an air. It’s not...damn, I’m not saying this right.”

“Of us,” I said.

“What?”

“You said of us—I was the confident one of us.”

“Yes.”

“I suppose if I’m being honest,” I said, “I feel betrayed and disappointed. Why would you choose to discuss Sinful Threads and me with someone else, not Louisa but a stranger? If there is an us, shouldn’t we first bring our concerns to one another?”

Winnie leaned back. “As you know, Louisa is busy with both work and preparations for the baby. And the concerns about you weren’t only mine; we’d all shared our unease. Louisa and I talked about your odd change in behavior. You went days with hardly a text or email.

“He, Agent Hunter, isn’t a stranger, not now. He came to me in Boulder. At first, he wasn’t upfront with me about who he was, saying he was an insurance adjuster and asking questions about your apartment.”

Oh my God. The blond insurance adjuster the lady from my apartment spoke about.

“Go on,” I said. “You happened to start talking about my behavior to an insurance adjuster?”

“He brought you and your apartment up, and then he asked me out, Kenni. I hadn’t been on a date in...” She sighed. “...not a date with someone I thought was attractive. I’ve got a thing for nerds—he was a numbers guy. And bonus, if they’re handsome...” Winnie leaned forward with her hands on the table. “Wesley was all those things and easy to talk to. I agreed to drinks. We started talking. Now I feel like a total idiot. He didn’t ask me out because of me but because of you.”

Wesley.

“When did he come clean about who he was?”

“On our second date.”

I closed my eyes and inhaled.

“By then,” she said, “I’d talked about my job at Sinful Threads. I’d even talked about how we were expanding our offices to Chicago and that you’d offered me the ability to commute. I was very excited. I talk when I’m excited.” She looked at my cup. “Do you mind if I get coffee?”

As I shook my head, she stood and continued talking. “He told me that he liked me, and that was why he came clean. He said he couldn’t lie to me anymore, even if it was for his job.”

“Did you give him specifics about me or Sinful Threads?”

“No, I promise. At least I don’t think so. He knew. Once he told me who he was—what he was—he told me about the inventory numbers in Chicago not meshing. Everything he said was something we’d all discussed. He mentioned that you’d been seen publicly with Sterling Sparrow and he feared that somehow Sparrow would influence you to allow him to use Sinful Threads for a front.”

She sat back down with her cup of coffee. “I only knew about the real estate. I’d never heard of anything else about him. Are those other things true?” she asked.

My palm slapped the tabletop. “Is it true that I’d allow anyone to do anything to hurt or jeopardize Sinful Threads? Is that what you’re asking me?”

Winnie’s expression fell, curiosity morphing into sadness. “I hadn’t thought of it like that.” She looked up from her coffee with more tears in her eyes. “I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt Sinful Threads. It’s just that there seemed to be circumstantial evidence that backed up everything he said.”

“Are you...dating Agent Hunter?”

“No,” she answered too quickly. “I agreed to talk to you while I was here and feel out the situation. I didn’t want to believe what he was proposing was true. And then this morning I called him to let him know he was wrong, that whatever the FBI thought, they too were wrong. You weren’t doing anything against your will. You were...you are...in love with Sterling Sparrow.

“Wesley told me to meet him in my hotel room. When I got there, he was already in it.” She stood and spun. “That freaks me the hell out. He was in my locked room. I mean, who does that kind of thing?”

I could think of a list of candidates at this particular moment; however, I stayed silent, hedging on the idea that her question was rhetorical.

“Wesley said,” she went on, “that I needed to give him a chance to speak to you.”

“Now that you did all that, what do you really think? What do you, Winifred Douglas, believe?” I asked.

“I think I let you down, that you should tell Louisa, and I should be fired.”

I closed my eyes and inhaled before opening them again. “What do you think about what Agent Hunter told you?”

“I think he’s wrong. I don’t know about the numbers. We should have Jason look into that. You know, a fresh pair of eyes? If someone is using Sinful Threads for something illegal, we need to be open with the FBI. If it’s happening, my money is on Franco Francesca. If he is doing something, he should go down, not the company.” She shrugged. “Maybe wishful thinking. I don’t want to believe that it’s you or a man you care about.”

“I guarantee it isn’t me or Sterling. Think about it, Winnie, when Sterling can’t be with me, he has Patrick beside me twenty-four seven. He knows how much Sinful Threads means to me. The real estate deals Agent Hunter mentioned are accurate. Sinful Threads has received better-than-market deals. That’s not illegal. And there are no strings attached.”

“None?”

“Not regarding business.” My cheeks warmed as I pushed away the thoughts of strings or scarves and our four-poster bed. “I think I do need to tell Louisa but not until after Kennedy is born. She doesn’t need the stress. As for firing you...” I thought about talking to Sterling and Patrick and then remembered what I’d been saying: Sinful Threads was my company, mine and Louisa’s. “...I don’t want to do that. However, what I do need from you is a promise that you and Wesley Hunter are done.”

Winnie nodded.

“The other things you heard such as about my name...” I let the sentence go incomplete.

“I-I don’t have any idea what he was saying. I still don’t. He never mentioned any of that before.”

“If I asked you to forget about it for a while, could you?”

“Is it true? Are you three people?”

“No,” I said, unsure how to accurately explain without too much detail. “I’m one person who has had three identities, all by the age of sixteen. I never lied to you or Louisa. By the time I moved to Boulder and she and I met, I had become Kennedy Hawkins.” When Winnie didn’t answer, I said, “I was adopted as an infant. The only parents I remember weren’t Phillip and Debbie Hawkins. Those people never existed. When my adoptive mother sent me to Boulder, she told me to become Kennedy, for my safety.”

Winnie’s eyes were wide as saucers.

I shook my head. “For that reason, for your safety as well as mine, it’s better if we keep it at that. If my true adoptive parents are still alive, I don’t want to risk their safety. I recently had confirmation of my birth name. That’s part of the reason for Patrick. My birth father did something, and there could be people who want to do me harm.” Perhaps my own uncle. I couldn’t say that either. I took a sip of coffee. “Can you leave it at that and trust me that I’m not doing anything illegal?”

“Yes. If you can forgive me.”

“I can. I understand now that I should have shared more with you and Louisa earlier. I truly was too swept off my feet to even imagine how it looked from the outside. Now,” I said, “tell me how you feel Jana is doing.”

“Well. She’s a fast learner. I wanted to show her how to access inventory at all of our various locations and cross-reference that with pending and filled orders, and then how to keep that in line with production. With the new dresses, the production team is working overtime. Dresses take longer to create and produce than a scarf or bangle.”

I smiled, hearing Winnie discussing Sinful Threads, confirming that I was making the correct decision by keeping her as part of our team. “I want you to show Jana all of that today. I think you should go back to Boulder tomorrow. And tonight, Patrick or Jana will book you another room, probably in a different hotel. They can also have someone move your things and check you out of the Hilton.”

“But...I was going to be here until Friday, show Jana other things and look further into my friend.”

I shook my head. “My friend said if your friend wants to be off the radar, there’s not much that can be done. Besides, Louisa could go into labor at any moment. I know Cindy and Paul are at the office, but I’d feel better if you were there.”

“You don’t want me gone—completely—from Sinful Threads...after what I did?” Winnie asked.

“No, but I need to know you’re secure. As you said, Agent Hunter entered your room without your permission. He was there for God knows how long. It isn’t safe.”

Winnie nodded. “I do have things in the safe.”

“Give the combination to Patrick.”

Before she could respond, the door from the front office opened.

“Jana...” I began to say, turning, when the energy shifted, causing my heart to beat faster. Meeting my gaze was the dark stare of the man I decided I loved. His expression wasn’t one of adoration and was only momentarily directed at me. His granite features were fixed on Winnie.

How much did he know?

“This is...” I turned to Winnie as she paled before my eyes. “...Winifred Douglas.” I turned back to Sterling. “And this is Sterling Sparrow.”