Sam had never really considered his mother a keeper of secrets, but she was certainly racking them up.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about this latest one. Without doubt, she had every right to make a decision to keep a child or give him away. And Sam could wholeheartedly comprehend the difficulty with being a young, financially strapped single parent of two newborns. He knew his mother hadn’t had much of a familial support group—Sam’s grandparents had pretty much carved Karina out of their lives when she’d come home pregnant her senior year of high school. She’d told Sam that they couldn’t have the “devil’s mistress” living under their roof and kicked her out.
Sam knew very little about George and Sally Reed. Only that they’d never changed their minds about having contact with their daughter. Or him. Perhaps that life lesson was why he’d never sought out the identity of his father. The guy had blown town. Didn’t want to have anything to do with Sam or Karina. In Sam’s opinion that meant they shouldn’t want to have anything to do with him. If being part of a family wasn’t what Wyatt Hill wanted, then it was best not to have the man pretending otherwise.
But Sam had already reconciled that situation in his head. What troubled him now was that he had a brother. Yet as he spared a glance at Michael, sitting in one of the single seats facing the sofa in the back of the plane where Sam and Scarlet were settled, Sam knew that Dylan might be his blood relative, but he wasn’t a true brother. The asshole had gone after Scarlet because she’d confronted Wyatt in prison.
Scarlet had broken it all down for Sam and Michael during the flight. She’d ID’d herself to Wyatt and had told him she was an insurance fraud investigator. All Wyatt had to do after he walked out on her visit was place a call to Dylan to look her up, track her down, and run her off the road.
Again, it wasn’t the how? that chipped away at Sam. It was the why?
What were those two up to … and was his mother involved? Had she been in contact with Wyatt over the years? Dylan, too? Did she know that Wyatt would likely have an electronic Rolodex filled with the names of shady characters who would lend her money for her gambling debt? Is that how she’d found someone to bankroll her addiction?
Tension seized Sam. His shoulders were squared, every muscle pulled taut.
But it wasn’t just the speculation over what his father and brother might be up to that had Sam disconcerted. It was that Scarlet was involved.
He covered her hands with one of his as they lay in her lap and told her, “I’m the one who has to apologize now.”
“No,” she quickly said. “Not at all.”
“Scarlet, what happened to you is—”
“Not your fault by any stretch of the imagination.” She glanced at Michael. “Yours, either.” Returning her attention to Sam, she said, “No one invited me into this investigation. I willingly—and enthusiastically—took on the assignment. Therefore, I have to accept the potential hazards inherent to it. I don’t carry a weapon and practice Krav Maga for nothing. This actually can be a very dangerous business. That’s a reality I’m fully aware of and assent to. I’m responsible for my own actions, Sam. I chose to travel this path.”
Sam scowled, his frustration burning brighter because he couldn’t pace or otherwise work off some of his angst.
Michael said, “She does make a good point. I’m not saying I fully agree with it—I get where you’re coming from, Sam, why you’re so upset.”
“You’re upset, too,” Sam contended, wanting Michael to stop feeling as though he had to be the levelheaded voice of reason when it was so obvious that he was as tormented by what had happened to Scarlet—by how much worse that car accident could have been—as Sam. “You don’t have to play it cool with me. Or with her.”
Michael reached for his drink and sipped.
Scarlet said, “Let’s not stay mired in my accident. We need to move forward in order to figure out what the hell is really going on.”
Sam draped his arm around her and coaxed her closer so that she snuggled against him and put her head on his shoulder. “You should rest.”
“Not a bad idea,” she agreed. “My doctor said I could fly this soon after the concussion, but that it’d be best if I tried to sleep the whole way. And I am exhausted.” Her eyelids dipped.
Sam’s gaze flitted to Michael. They stared at each other a few moments, no more words necessary. They were both pissed about Scarlet’s rollover. Upset because she was injured and it had all started with missing artwork at their family’s estate.
Naturally, Sam was doubly disturbed, since it was his father and brother who’d done the most damage. And Sam was also deeply concerned about how his mother fit into all of this.
It was a grueling position for Sam to be in. His feelings for Scarlet had intensified from the first time they’d made love. When he’d been on the other end of the call as her vehicle had flipped, he’d realized that he was intricately entwined with this woman, feared for her life, would have been wrecked all over again if anything more serious had happened to her. And at the hands of his family?
His gut coiled. What a fucking disaster this was. All of his internal strife and his inability to do anything about it at the moment made the flight seem like an insanely long one, despite the fact that he derived a bit of comfort from Scarlet’s soft, steady breathing as she slept.
Sam’s restlessness increased during the helicopter ride to the estate. As did his tension. He was getting sucker punched around every corner and wondered what else was in store for him.
At the mansion, the trio found Karina in one of the living rooms. Hearing them approach, she glanced up from a magazine she was perusing and gasped.
“Miss Drake,” she said as she set aside the magazine and got to her feet. “Dear Lord, what happened to you?”
Sam bit back a growl, the constant reminder of Scarlet’s rollover eating away at his soul like a vicious piranha. She had a bandage on her forehead, a bruise on one cheek, and a long angry-red slash across her neck and collarbone from the seat belt digging into her skin when she’d been suspended in air. And she was deathly white, even though she’d obviously tried to add color to her face with makeup.
Basically, she was a fucking mess that made him want to strangle someone.
Michael spoke in a tight voice. “Hit-and-run. She could have been killed.”
“I’ll be fine,” Scarlet interjected, her tone steady and professional. “But we have more questions for you, Karina.”
Sam’s hand was at the small of Scarlet’s back and he felt her rigidity, sensed the undercurrent of irritation she clearly tried to contain.
“I’ve told you everything I could,” Sam’s mother insisted.
“Could?” Scarlet baited. “But not all that you know.”
“Mother,” Sam said, his own rage close to the boiling point. “We know about Wyatt Hill. We know about Dylan Reed. My twin brother is the one who caused Scarlet’s accident.”
“I—oh, my God. I—” Karina’s jaw slackened and her eyes widened. Her hand pressed to her chest, over her heart.
“Enough of the secrets,” Sam quietly demanded, doing his best not to lose it completely.
Scarlet said, “I went to see Wyatt in prison. A couple of nights later, I was hanging upside down in a ditch.”
Karina’s other hand covered her mouth. Tears sprang to her eyes.
Sam’s gut wrenched again, his chest pulling tight. He was already in an emotional hell because of Scarlet’s injuries. Now he was faced with the turmoil of his mother’s reaction to him finding out about his dad and brother—from someone other than her. And her apparent horror over the danger Scarlet had been in.
It took all the willpower Sam possessed to not press his mother, not rush her. Instead, he forced himself to let her process the implication of what Scarlet had said.
Michael was chomping at the bit as well, shifting from foot to foot and looking as though he was biting his tongue so he didn’t jump into the fray.
But they both knew this was Scarlet’s investigation. She was the one who needed to get to the bottom of this, and justifiably so. Sam didn’t want to say anything that would have his mother running off to her room, Mitcham intervening, or some other inciting incident leaving them all hanging. This had to be resolved.
Now.
“Honestly, Karina,” Scarlet said, her dropping the polite “Mrs. Vandenberg” label speaking volumes. “I need to know exactly what’s going on. What you’re involved in. What your connection is to Wyatt and Dylan, because they didn’t just come after me for popping into the prison unexpectedly. I specifically mentioned the art theft to Wyatt. And then this happened.” She swept a hand in the air, close to her neck and face. “That tells me loud and clear that I was getting much too close to a truth they wanted to keep covered up. And the only trigger was the reference to the missing collection. That means we’ve all come full circle.”
Sam’s heart constricted further as his mother’s eyes squeezed shut and tears leaked out of the sides.
“Jesus!” he hissed, unable to control himself a moment longer. “You know something, don’t you? You know what this is all about and—”
“And you didn’t put a stop to it when you had the chance,” Michael quietly blasted. “You could have told Scarlet everything the last time she was here and she wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”
Karina’s eyes flew open. “I never intended that!” Through her tears, she said, “I had no idea they’d harm her. I would never condone that.” Her gaze bored into Sam. “You have to believe me. I wouldn’t put anyone in danger, especially someone you care for!”
“Yet Scarlet is in danger!” he roared. “Why? Why did they go after her?”
“Sam.” It was a simple warning from Michael. If they amped up this confrontation, they might not get the answers they so desperately needed.
Scarlet was the one to proceed, a bit more calmly. Deceptively calm, because Sam detected the underlying steeliness to her tone.
She said, “I think I have it all pieced together. It was a scam from the beginning. Karina actually did know who Mitcham was when he came into her diner. Somehow, through whatever research or reconnaissance she did, she learned his wife was ill and in the hospital. Using Mitcham’s grief against him, she got close to him. At some point, it was ‘love’—for him, anyway. And then she found the perfect way to steal eighteen million dollars from him. For herself and for Wyatt and Dylan.”
“Scarlet!” Sam thundered. Not at her. But in general. Because goddamn it, her conjecture was precisely what he was suddenly thinking. Yet … It just couldn’t be. “There has to be another explanation.”
“It’s a fantastically plotted-out crime,” Scarlet continued, undeterred by Sam’s outburst. “More spectacular than anything I’ve ever dealt with before.” She pinned Sam’s mother with a hard look. “That was the plan all along, right? To collect the insurance money, have Wyatt launder it or otherwise disperse it into offshore accounts so that it wasn’t traceable if anyone started to dig too deep into the theft, even after the FBI closed the case?”
“And once the statute of limitations ran out…,” Michael added, “you all could take eighteen mil and disappear.” Michael swallowed hard. Started to circle the room looking as tormented as Sam felt, because Michael had just recently developed a soft spot for Karina. He’d doubted her integrity initially, had gradually warmed to her, but after she’d fessed up to the addictions and the difficulty in fitting in here he’d succumbed to guilt and empathy. And now he felt as though he’d been played the fool.
It was easy to jump to that conclusion. Sam experienced the same angst. Though it was magnified a thousand times over because this was his mother they were talking about. And because Sam still couldn’t fully accept that she’d planned this all along.
He stepped toward her, grabbed her by the shoulders, and stared into her eyes. “Is Scarlet right?” he demanded much more forcefully this time. “Was this all a scam?”
Her lids fluttered closed again. Her breathing turned choppy.
“Mother,” he urged. “Is this true?”
Her eyes snapped open. She glared at him. “No!” She shook loose of his hold on her and moved away. “Absolutely not. I love Mitcham.” She rushed over to Michael, clasped his forearms in her hands, and insisted in a breathless tone, “I love your father. Never, ever doubt that. I was deeply moved by his pain. I was drawn into something with him that I hadn’t imagined possible. Unconditional love, soul-deep love. We have that and I’m so, so blessed. Everything I told you last weekend about how we met and fell in love is the truth. I swear it.”
She released him and returned to where Scarlet and Sam stood. She laid a hand against Scarlet’s upper arm and said, “I am truly sorry you got caught in the middle of this. I’m positively horrified that you were hurt. And for it to have been a potentially deadly car accident that Sam had to live through again—”
More tears fell as Karina turned to him. Sam’s insides were a mess. He felt gutted, shredded to the core. His stepbrother was reeling from the possibility of his father being duped when Mitcham had so freely given his affection to Karina. Scarlet sported wounds indirectly inflicted by Sam’s mother. And Sam …
He was a man raised on principle, honor, and loyalty.
All of that was being challenged today, pushed to the limits.
Then there was the matter of his mother fisting his shirt and staring up at him, imploringly, while fat drops rolled down her flushed cheeks. The agony in her eyes killed him.
She said, “I can explain all of this. I know it’s too late to apologize for it, but I can assure you that this was no sort of setup. Not in the way you all are thinking.”
When Sam swallowed, it felt like razor blades slicing his throat. “This had better be the truth, Mother. Tell us the honest-to-God truth.”
“Yes. I will.” She sucked in a sharp breath. Spared a glance over her shoulder at Scarlet and said, “You’re right in that I had a hand in this. And that I did work with Wyatt and Dylan to steal the collection.”
“Mother!” Sam exploded.
Her head whipped back to him. She rushed on, saying in a quavering voice, “It wasn’t for personal gain, Sam. I promise. I had to do it. I had no choice. Wyatt and Dylan came to me.” She relinquished her hold on Sam and turned once again to Michael. “I had to do what they demanded. I couldn’t let your father suffer any sort of humiliation because of me.”
“Oh, my God.” This from Scarlet. A low, sympathetic whisper.
Sam eyed her. “What?”
Scarlet shook her head. Said, “It’s not that she had no other choice. Your mother’s back was to the wall.”
“Yes,” Karina fervidly contended. “Wyatt didn’t want to have anything to do with me when he found out I was pregnant. He vanished. I had to give up Dylan. I just couldn’t manage two babies. Not financially. Physically. Emotionally. And I’m so sorry about that. But I did what I thought was right for all of us. I truly believed Dylan would have a better life with different parents. I was wrong.”
“Because he has his father’s genes,” Scarlet surmised.
“Yes.” Karina nodded. “Clearly, that apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. And when he was old enough, curious enough, he went looking for Wyatt. When he found him, they started down the path of father-son criminal activity. And when Wyatt saw my picture in the paper with Mitcham at a society event … He and Dylan hatched a plan.”
“They extorted that money from you,” Scarlet deduced, her entire demeanor softening. “They threatened you.”
Karina sank into a chair. Pulled in a few breaths. Sam handed over tissues and his mother dabbed at her eyes. She said, “I didn’t have a gambling debt. I don’t gamble at all. There was no loan to repay. But everything else I told you last weekend really is the truth. I had a terrible time adjusting to the Hamptons. And all I wanted was to be perfect for Mitcham, because I felt he deserved it. I feel that way even today. He’s been so good to me. And to Sam. I love him with all my heart. I just couldn’t have him caught up in my drama. I didn’t want him to know about my past.”
“It has to be more than that,” Michael said, leveling Karina with a look.
The color drained from her face, her complexion turning stark. “Yes.”
Sam said, “They really did threaten you.”
“No.” Her gaze locked with Sam’s and she told him, “They threatened you.”
Scarlet gasped. Stepped closer to Sam. An innate response, even though the man could certainly take care of himself. And there was no imminent danger at the moment.
Karina said, “Wyatt showed up at a charity luncheon one day, after I’d married Mitcham. He stood in the periphery so that I’d know he was there. He didn’t approach me. Then I caught sight of him at a gallery opening. Followed by a concert in the park. I knew I had to confront him. But I also knew that if he’d suddenly reappeared in my life after making a huge statement about not wanting to be in it by leaving Colorado, then he wanted something from me.”
“You didn’t tell my father about the sightings because you’d have to reveal that you have a second son? That you gave him up?” Michael was the one to make the observation.
“That’s correct,” Karina said. “It wasn’t quite a year before you and Sam turned twenty-four. Mitcham had just given me the art collection.”
She mangled the tissue in her hands. Took a few moments to compose herself as best as possible. No one else spoke.
Finally, Karina told them, “When Wyatt came at me, telling me he’d let all of New York society and my friends in the Hamptons know what ‘trash’ I was for ‘giving it up’ in the backseat of his car when we were eighteen, getting pregnant, and then putting one of my children up for adoption … All I could think of was how it’d tarnish Mitcham’s reputation and undermine the strides I’d made in proving I was sincerely in love with him. That I could be a part of his life and the community. Not just be some outsider, some waitress from a diner that he’d brought home to the Hamptons.” She shook her head miserably. Added, “I asked that he not tell anyone I was a waitress but instead let them know I was a docent at a gallery … say we met there. Otherwise, I feared we’d be doomed from the lies I’d crafted to fit in. Mitcham didn’t feel that way, but I begged for his acquiescence.”
Scarlet heard again in Karina’s voice the guilt and shame. And it tugged at her heartstrings. Sam’s as well, she had no doubt.
He knelt alongside the chair his mother sat in and covered her hand with his. “How’d it all spiral out of control?”
Hitching her chin, Karina said, “I refused to be victimized.” Then her gaze dropped, as did her tone. “At first.”
“You would have told Mitcham everything at that point—before Wyatt could do it,” Scarlet guessed.
“I figured that would neutralize the situation with Wyatt. And I believed enough in my relationship with my husband that I felt I could tell him about my past. More so than what I’d ever said, which was just that I’d met someone, we’d gotten carried away, and I had Sam.”
“But there was a game-changer,” Scarlet ventured.
“Yes.” Karina sighed. “Wyatt threatened Sam’s life. I’m a mother, Miss Drake,” she said as her gaze lifted to meet Scarlet’s. “I couldn’t have that. Wyatt wanted twenty million. I told him I could get him eighteen.”
Scarlet frowned. “Why didn’t you go to the police or the FBI with this from the onset?”
“I just couldn’t.”
“They would have provided protection,” Scarlet told her. “Mitcham would have—”
“It was more than that, Miss Drake.”
“You didn’t want any of your self-perceived dirty laundry aired,” Scarlet said. “I get that. But—”
“It wasn’t just about Sam,” Karina hissed out. “Or me.” Her gaze shifted. “Wyatt threatened Michael’s life, too.”
Scarlet shot him a look. He appeared on the verge of erupting with his own fury.
Karina continued. “He accused me of neglecting one son, not loving Dylan enough to keep him. And now I had a new son. One he was willing to take away from me—along with Sam.”
“Son of a bitch!” Sam jerked upward, towering over Scarlet and Karina.
“Jesus,” Scarlet mumbled. “Didn’t see that one coming.”
“Believe me, Miss Drake, if I’d really thought I could turn my back or go to the FBI and we would have all come out of this unscathed, that’s precisely what I would have done. But it all got so convoluted. And I couldn’t discount Wyatt’s threats. I’d witnessed his temper and his wrath before. I’ve been on the receiving end of it, as a matter of fact.”
More shame visibly tormented her. She couldn’t look at Sam. Or Michael. Her gaze remained on Scarlet.
Karina said, “It’s the reason my parents kicked me out of their house when they found out I was pregnant.”
“The ‘devil’s mistress’?” Sam offered.
“Yes,” his mother said, her focus still on Scarlet. “They didn’t call me that because of some religious affinity. They believed it because they knew the damage Wyatt was capable of and I kept going back to him. Refused to tell the police he’d beaten me. My parents had no choice but to shut the door on me. Tough love and all that. It was tearing them up to see me with Wyatt. I was eighteen and could do what I pleased. They were correct in their assessment that I was going to continually choose Wyatt over them. I was young and foolish, absurdly so. But I had this incredibly sunny disposition—it was all going to work out. It’d be all right.… I’d show them.… That sort of thing. Then Wyatt disappeared.”
Sam started to pace. Scarlet desperately wanted to comfort him, but she couldn’t make a move toward him or do anything that might derail Karina’s confession.
Karina told them, “My parents had given me some money when they’d thrown me out and I moved us to New York. I knew it’d be expensive, but I also knew there’d be more job opportunities here. Longer shifts I could work to earn extra money and accommodate a babysitter. I also had some theatrical aspirations and performed in small playhouses from time to time. Those stints came with paychecks. I got by. Not well, but we always had a roof over our heads and something on the table, even if it was just ramen and a couple slices of bread sometimes.”
Scarlet’s heart wrenched. She’d had no idea Sam’s upbringing had been quite so bleak. Apparently, Michael hadn’t either.
Across the room, he muttered, “Fuck.”
Sam said, “Get over it. I survived.”
“Yeah.” Michael is expression turned intense. Remorseful, even. “And I lived here, with limos and country club memberships and Sunday brunch.”
“And no college tuition or a trust fund until you’re forty,” Sam pointed out, “so you weren’t exactly Bill Gates from the get-go. You had to make that happen.”
The two men stared at each other. Scarlet sensed their camaraderie, their solid connection with each other that had nothing to do with blood and everything to do with the fact that they’d chosen to be friends when thrown together. That they’d bonded at a difficult time in their lives. And that bond clearly could not be broken.
Scarlet found a measure of relief in that, particularly because everything was unraveling in this house.
She asked Karina, “It was your idea to stage the theft?”
“It was the only thing I could think of. The only way to get the money without having to explain anything to Mitcham, without having to reveal my past to him or his friends. His son. And of course, I couldn’t allow Michael and Sam to be in any sort of danger. You yourself have suffered Wyatt’s cruelty. I didn’t doubt for a second that he’d go through with his plan to terrorize my new family.”
“Yes, I can attest to his diligence.”
“Mitcham told me when he gifted me with the collection that it was mine. Hang the pieces where I wanted, exchange anything that didn’t suit me, whatever. It was all mine. He took out the policy but said that if anything ever happened to the paintings—he was thinking in terms of a fire, mostly—I’d have the funds to replace them. So in my mind, I really did consider the collection mine to do with as I pleased. Having it ‘stolen’ wasn’t what pleased me, but I didn’t feel I had an alternative. I worked with Wyatt to get the paintings out of the house. In the exact fashion you detailed, Miss Drake.”
Damn. At the moment, it was hideously painful to be right.
Karina said, “I made sure no one was in this wing when they boxed up the paintings. Mitcham filed the claim and you know the rest of the story.”
“Not entirely,” Scarlet told her. “I don’t know where that collection is and the curiosity has been driving me mad.”
“In a warehouse,” Karina said on a heavy sigh. “Perfectly safe and sound.”
“Tucked away until the statutes run out,” Sam added.
“Yes,” his mother said. More tears spilled as she told Scarlet, “I may not be an ethical person in your eyes, but I’ve always been a good mother and wife. I can’t let someone hurt my family if there’s something I can do about it. Yes, I was willing to lie, cheat, and steal to protect them. I’m sorry to say that I would do it all over again. Because it was worth the try to keep Wyatt and Dylan away from us and to safeguard Mitcham’s reputation, his image. I did struggle; I still do. I never thought it was fair for him to take on the burden of my insecurities. He’s given me and Sam so much. I felt I owed him.”
“You never owed me anything.”
At Mitcham’s deep, distinguished voice, Scarlet’s head whipped in the direction of the archway. Not a smooth move on her part, because that spot above her right eye started to throb again. She winced from the pain and Michael was instantly by her side.
“You need to sit down,” he insisted, and helped her to the sofa.
Karina was on her feet in the next instant, but she didn’t go to her husband. She poured a glass of water for Scarlet and handed it over.
Gingerly lowering herself to the cushion next to Scarlet, she said, “I am so sorry you got caught in the cross fire. I never dreamed things would go this far.” She sniffled, then added, “I thought it was over. I put Wyatt and Dylan behind me. Focused all my energy on being a wife, being a volunteer in the community, being someone respectable. Not so … shady. And I’ve worked hard, for my own company. I’m making back the insurance money. I’ve had every intention of returning it. Unfortunately, it takes quite a bit of time to earn that sort of cash, even when business is booming.”
“I’ll pay it back,” Sam told her.
“No,” she was quick to say. “It’s my debt. I’m sure the insurance carrier will set up some sort of payment plan after I make a good-faith payment.”
“I’ll look into it when I notify them,” Scarlet assured her.
“I’ll take care of the restitution,” Mitcham said.
“It’s not your responsibility,” Karina maintained.
“You’re my wife.”
They stared at each other across the room.
Scarlet knew she wasn’t helping to ease the tension when she said, “I have to report all of this, Karina. And it’ll make the papers, have no doubt. It’s eighteen million dollars’ worth of artwork we’re talking about.”
Karina dragged her gaze from her husband and nodded at Scarlet. “Yes, I understand. And I’ll do whatever’s asked of me. If there’s any criminal recourse at this point, past the statute of limitations, community service, whatever … I will do anything to make up for this.” Her attention returned to Mitcham. “I never meant to hurt you. Everything I did was for the direct opposite result. I made a huge mistake. I can’t apologize enough, but please know that I did it because I love this family. Because I love you.”
“We’ll talk,” was all Mitcham Vandenberg said. He held his hand out and Karina went to him.
At the archway, she turned back to Scarlet, Sam, and Michael. “I really am so very sorry.”
More tears fell as Karina left with her husband.
For once in her life, Scarlet did not want to be a fly on the wall. Lord only knew how that discussion would go.
Besides, she had her own cross to bear. A heavy, painful one.
Gazing at Michael and Sam, she said, “I have to turn her in.”
“Yes.” Michael eased onto the seat next to her and put an arm around her shoulders.
Sam paced again.
Scarlet felt shredded to the core. She’d cracked the case—and this family. She’d revealed Sam’s mother as the villain. Not an intentional one, because Scarlet considered Karina a victim of circumstance. But Karina Reed Vandenberg had, indeed, committed a crime.
It was in Scarlet’s nature to want to see justice served. Yet she could also empathize with Karina, could understand her motive. Could accept she was a woman who would go to any length to protect the people she loved. And perhaps she really had saved this family six years ago. Unfortunately, she’d torn it apart today.
With Scarlet’s help.
The backs of her eyes burned. Emotion swelled in her throat. How did relationships bounce back from something like this? Karina’s or Scarlet’s?
Scarlet was going to hand over Sam and Michael’s mother as the mastermind of the theft. She’d be committing romance homicide. Had no choice but to do so.
Michael told her, “You look wiped out. Let’s get you to my apartment so you can rest.”
She didn’t currently have the wherewithal to protest or provide another suggestion. She certainly wasn’t in any shape to wait around JFK for a flight home.
So Scarlet let Michael help her up. The trio left the mansion just as silently as they’d entered, each of them engrossed in their own dismal thoughts.
Scarlet mostly fearing that the end for the threesome was very, very close at hand …