“The children were so sweet! Despite starving most every day of their lives, they were so full of adventure and wonder, it was just absolutely amazing!”

I nodded, pretending to be in awe of her every word when, in reality, I was exhausted from a long night of drinking more than I intended. But she was fresh, beautiful in the morning light. Her long, dark hair was brushed behind an ear, her blue eyes full of innocence as she watched me sip at my cup of coffee. She was dressed in a long skirt and conservative blouse, buttoned all the way up to her neck, leaving me to wonder what would happen if I reached over and just popped one or two open. I’d done that once to a particularly stuffy girl who was in my class in high school. You’d think I’d raped her right there in front of the entire senior class, the way she’d reacted.

“Is your father happy to have you home?”

“Oh, yes! He’s under so much stress with this audit that’s going on, but…” Her smile slipped slightly. “I keep telling him everything’s going to be okay. I think he’s beginning to believe me.”

“That’s good.”

Although nothing is going to be okay for Truesdale. Too bad.

“How’s your family? I heard they left town.”

I lowered my head slightly, thinking of the call I’d gotten from Quaid. “They’re surviving the best they can.”

“Must be hard, making the adjustment to living in a new city.”

“How’s your mother?”

Neri’s smile completely disappeared. “That woman is so neurotic! She’s obsessing over every little thing I say and do. We were texting yesterday, and she kept trying to look over my shoulder to see who I was talking to! And I went out with some friends from high school last night, and she insisted they come to the house and pick me up like I’m still sixteen! She’s driving me crazy, and it’s only been a day.”

“Must be tough.”

“It is. Can’t do anything, it seems like.”

I wanted to be sympathetic, but I would have loved to have my mother all up in my business right about now. Talking to Neri only reminded me of what it was like in high school, worrying about things that no longer seemed to matter. But I supposed she was a product of her conservative upbringing.

“Someone last night said that you work for a security firm now.”

“I do. In fact…”

Jane was walking toward us, a stern twist to her homely face. I watched, glancing through the wide windows of the café toward the hotel and the windows that looked right down into this room.

“Ms. Gray wanted to double check, make sure you knew we want to head to the bank in twenty minutes.”

I lowered my head in acknowledgement. “Tell Ms. Gray I’m well aware of the time.”

“She likes to be punctual.”

“She’s a little anal.”

Jane cracked a smile. “Do you want me to tell her that?”

“You tell her whatever you want to tell her, Jane.” I turned back to Neri. “I’m sorry to cut this short, but duty calls.”

“Of course.”

Neri stood as I did, allowing me to draw her close with a hand on her elbow. I kissed her cheek, letting my lips linger for a brief moment.

“I’ll text you. Maybe we can find time together tomorrow.”

“I’d like that,” she said, a slight blush touching her cheeks as she looked up at me. “Really.”

“So would I.”

I kissed her cheek again, squeezed her elbow, and slipped away. I could feel her watching me as I left the café with Jane.

“You know she likes you.”

“Neri?”

“No. Malaika.”

I snorted softly. “That woman doesn’t like anyone. She just tolerates us all.”

“She likes you enough to be watching through the hall windows while you sipped coffee with that girl.”

I glanced up at the hotel, but didn’t see anything obvious. “Is that right?”

“How do you think I knew where you were?”

Jane winked at me before picking up her pace and disappearing into the hotel lobby. I went to retrieve the car, pulling to the curb just as the first of the executives appeared at the front doors. As before, Malaika was the last one out.

“Ms. Gray.”

“Mr. Forrester.”

She didn’t look at me, didn’t bother to say anything else. If the woman liked me, she had a hell of a way of showing it.

 

 

I spent most of the day leaning against a wall, texting back and forth with Neri. The bank was secure, and it seemed the biggest danger these executives faced was a paper cut from all the files and ledgers they were weeding through. They broke for lunch, but they had it delivered, so I was not needed. The only thing that broke the monotony of the day was the occasional perimeter walk I performed to make sure nothing had changed from my last walk around the building.

But, again, watching Malaika strut her stuff around Truesdale’s office, putting him in his place, was entertaining. I could see the tension in his shoulders, the unhappiness on his face. He knew what was coming. And, if the looks he shot me from time to time meant anything, he knew I was the cause of it.

Good.

“Hey, Michelle,” I said to one of the pretty secretaries looking totally bored at her desk near Truesdale’s office, “can I ask you a question?”

She looked up, a small smile becoming something much bigger as she recognized me. Michelle had had a crush on me in high school. She would have done anything I asked back then. I wondered if that was still true now.

“What’s going on, Quentin?”

“You work for Truesdale, right?”

She made a face, gesturing with her thumb over her shoulder. “I did. But with this audit, they won’t let me touch anything.”

I waved that off. “When a bid on a property the bank owns comes in, what’s the process? How does it come in? How is it handled?”

She shrugged. “Sometimes a customer will come into the bank and meet with Truesdale one on one. But usually the bid will come in through a real estate agent via the phone or an email.”

“And then?”

“Truesdale will have someone validate it by going over the paperwork. And then the bid is forwarded to the corporate office in Albuquerque.”

“Has a cash bid for a property ever been refused?”

“Sure. If the customer making the bid doesn’t have proof of the cash or isn’t qualified to buy the property for some reason.”

I nodded, wondering what, exactly, would disqualify a cash buyer.

“Were you here yesterday when the cash bid came in on the Q Ball?”

Her expression darkened as she glanced over her shoulder at the glass windows of Truesdale’s office. I followed her gaze, catching Malaika watching us. She looked away the second our eyes met.

“That went straight to that woman. I didn’t see it.”

“Do you know who made it?”

“No. But…” She leaned forward over her desk just a bit, enough to draw me in closer. “Right before they started talking about it, one of the pastors from the church came in to speak to Truesdale. I think it might be someone related to the church.”

The Guardians. My mother was convinced the Guardians had wanted the property and had put pressure on Truesdale to foreclose. If that was true, could it be possible that the rumors of a more powerful boss running things from a distance were also true? That something bigger was coming?

But why would they want my family ranch?

I touched Michelle’s hand. “Thanks, sweetheart.”

“Anything for you, Quentin.”

I went back to my post against the wall, drawing out my cell phone again. Thanks to Crispin and Stone Security’s computer systems, I had access to databases I wouldn’t have if I were just a guy looking for information. There’d been a few glitches with the system last month, but Jack had brought in a tech from Memphis to fix things. I sent that guy a text, asking him to find out anything he could on the property and who might have made the bid.

If I could find out who made the bid, maybe I could find something on him that would disqualify him to buy the place. It might be a last-ditch sort of thing, but it was an option.

“Bring the car around. We’re going.”

I looked up. Jane, looking completely frazzled, was standing in front of me.

“What?”

“Malaika has decided to take things over to the hotel conference room. She thinks we would be more productive out from under the eyes of the bank employees.”

“Okay.”

“We’ll need help loading the paperwork into the SUV.”

“All right.”

The queen bee herself stayed in Truesdale’s office while we loaded the vehicle, the two male executives breaking a sweat as they lifted two or three of the dozen boxes going back to the hotel with us. It was quite a sight, watching these desk jockeys actually doing something physical.

“Long day?” I asked one as he leaned against the side of the SUV, struggling to catch his breath.

“She doesn’t usually make us go this deep. She must have a hard-on for this Truesdale fellow.”

“Yeah?”

The executive gestured toward the bank. “These things usually take two or three hours. We look at the open loans, the properties, maybe glance through a few closed files. And then we spend the rest of the time eating heavy meals on the bank, you know what I mean? But she’s making us do this one by the book.”

“Maybe she doesn’t like what she’s seeing.”

“We never like what we see. But that doesn’t require twelve-hour days to rectify.”

Malaika came out of the bank then, her hips swaying slightly under a deep green skirt. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I opened the door and watched them pile into the SUV, wondering what it was that Malaika was after. Had she really found something that worried her? Or was it something else?

She glanced at me as she climbed inside, dropping a wink as she did.

What was that about?