Ahandfulof hours later, she was starting to really get behind that plan.
Nathaniel had taken a suite for them in a very nice hotel, she’d had a lovely nap, then she had dressed for an evening that seemed more like afternoon given the time change. She was beginning to wonder, though, if she would exit any elevator in present-day Manhattan without running into someone she didn’t like.
Sheldon was skulking around in the lobby, obviously waiting for someone.
“Does he do this often?” Nathaniel asked mildly.
“Stalk?” she asked wearily. “Yes.”
“Perhaps it’s time you told him to stop.”
She looked at him. “And he’s going to listen to me?”
“Give it a try,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll be your second,as I promised. You might point out that you knew he was in the cab behind us the entire way to the hotel.”
She supposed it wasn’t attractive to gape at him. “Was he? How did you know?”
Nathaniel shrugged. “Sixth sense honed by time spent in other places. That and he seems like a very predictable sort of bloke. I assumed first, then verified next.” He smiled. “Keeps me head atop me shoulders, aye?”
She looked at him in his quite lovely suit and shook her head. It was far too easy to forget what else he did with his days besides show up to boardrooms. She put her shoulders back and walked across the lobby, her second hard on her heels. Sheldon caught sight of her and drew himself up.
“Get lost,” she said, before he could gather enough wind to spew anything out.
“You have myWhite Album,” he snarled.
She took a deep breath. “No I don’t.”
“I want it back! Besides, you damaged the cover.”
“Prove it,” she said, realizing at that moment exactly how close she could be to never having to talk to him again.
“I’ll sue—wait, who’s your attorney?”
Emma gestured elegantly to Nathaniel. He cleared his throat and stepped up beside her.
“I say, old bean,” he drawled, reaching out to pluck a bit of nothing from Sheldon’s suit coat, “I believe you’ve become somewhat trying to my client. I suggest you withdraw before I’m forced to alert the authorities.”
Emma couldn’t help but gape at Nathaniel. The only thing that surprised her was that he wasn’t wearing a tweed tam on his head and sporting a shotgun folded over his shoulder. She looked back at Sheldon.
“What he said,” she agreed.
Sheldon glared at her. “I have no intention of walking away from this. You have things of mine that are mine!”
Emma watched Nathaniel pull out his phone and dial. He smiled briefly at her, then fixed Sheldon with a polite but somewhat steely gaze.
“Alex?” he said. “Aye, I know what time it is. I need your particular services—aye, the usual business of digging into all kinds of things that were never intended to see the light of day, of course.”
“I won’t tell you my name,” Sheldon said, starting to become a little red in the face.
“Sheldon Jedediah Cook,” Nathaniel said. “He’s vexing my girlfriend and it’s beginning to annoy me. See what you can find, won’t you?”
“You won’t find anything,” Sheldon spluttered as Nathaniel ended the call. He shifted. “Nothing interesting.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about, do you?” Nathaniel asked smoothly. “Come along, Emma, and let’s leave Master Sheldon to his ruminations and the quick call to his attorney I’m certain he’s going to make.”
Emma looked at Sheldon and shrugged. “What he said.”
Sheldon began to yell, but she felt absolutely no compulsion to stay and listen. She walked away with Nathaniel toward the front doors. She looked at him.
