“Given is a pretty strong word.”
She shot him a fierce look. “You don’t think I agreed to marry Reynard because I was madly in love, do you?”
“No. I thought you were interested in his money.”
She dragged in a sharp breath. “Thanks.”
“I didn’t know you then.”
“And now you do?”
“You can’t lie with your thoughts.”
“At least that’s something.”
He turned his head toward her, then looked back to the road. “I’m working my way through this situation—just the way you are.”
“You had some experience with it.”
“This is different.” He waited a beat before saying, “To get back to the current problem, tell your father I’m a detective you’ve hired to find out who the men were.”
“He’ll think John could handle that on his own.”
Craig shrugged. “Do you have a better idea?”
“No.”
Stephanie climbed out of the car and walked up the driveway toward the detached garage. When she looked inside and sawthat her father’s car was missing, she breathed a little sigh of relief, then started wondering where he was.
Because she said she’d be outside, she waited for Craig on the wide front porch.
“It looks like my dad isn’t home,” she said.
“Good.”
“I hope so. He doesn’t like . . .”
She stopped.
“What.”
“Me sneaking around.”
“What the hell does that mean? This is your house.”
“Not anymore. I moved out.”
“Your father sounds like a real winner.”
“He’s had . . . a hard life.”
“Oh, come on.”
“He was used to wealth and privilege, and he lost that.”
“His own fault,” Craig pointed out.
“Maybe that makes it worse.”
