“The people who requested the cars. The people that, in a way, I worked for.”
“And I’ll bet they were not pleased either.”
I saw his hand tense on the gearshift knob, then soften, as if he feared hurting Yvette.
“You’d be right.”
“No broken legs or anything?”
“Nah, not their style.”
“What is their style?”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. It was unpleasant, but eventually they saw the value in me divulging my contacts. I only gave them a few at first, until I was sure that there would be no repercussions and they were sure they could trust my people.”
“And this has all happened since the night Lucas was arrested? And you’ve become Nurse Nancy? Stick has been a very busy boy.”
He rolled his eyes at me without looking my way. I could justfeelit.
“Shortly after that night, yeah.”
We rode in silence for a bit, entered Schoolport and took the turn off Main to head to campus.
I played it all in my head, the series of events that landed us here. “Why do I have the feeling that Grayson Spaulding played puppet master on all of this?”
“I don’t know, whydoyou have that feeling?”
I sighed. “Oh, shut up. Tell me how he was involved.”
“Shut up? Or tell you how Spaulding is involved? What’s it going to be, Jane?”
He was infuriating. It was like dealing with a five-year-old. Except a five-year-old didn’t make my insides squirm like they did now as Stick looked at me and grinned.
I quirked a brow at him and motioned with my hand for him to go on.
“Spaulding and I had a conversation not long after that. And somehow it came up about my experience with my father dying from cancer.”
“Somehow?”
“You wanna hear or not?”
“Go on.”
“Caroline was going to need help. And as you now know, she didn’t want Betsy or Joey changing their plans just to be with her.”
“They would want to know.”
“That’s what I told her early on. And she agrees when it gets…closer, she’ll tell them.”
“That’s what she said to me, too.”
He nodded. “She promised. I made her promise. I told her that as hard as that year was, I was glad I was able to be there for my dad.”
He seemed embarrassed that he said that last part, and quickly went on. “Anyway, they didn’t want the news to get out yet. Wanted to keep it controlled.”
“Because of the campaign?”
“That, and the kids. And she really just wants to keep it private.”
