Dear God, please guard my heart. I don’t want to make a mistake. Not again. Please. Thank you for sending Jason to protect me over the last few days. He’s, without doubt, an answered prayer for my physical protection, of that I’m sure. But as far as my heart . . . I’m not sure I should hope . . .
“This is interesting.” Jason’s voice pulled her back to the discussion about the recordings. “But I don’t see a direct link to Drakos, Frederick, or their disputed items.”
“Except,” Rowan said, clicking some more keys, “when you look up the location of Rock Point Pier. It’s miles away from anything else on the island, but it’s less than one hundred yards from the property line of the orphanage. It’s, by far, the closest pier, or anything for that matter, to the orphanage.”
“Good point.” He looked at Knox. “If this is a plan to steal everything out of the basement, and it’s clearlynot organized by Drakos or Frederick, then this could be our mystery player—the one who killed Gus and hired the sniper.”
“Or someone else entirely,” Leland said. “Drakos was right. Several parties are interested in what he has. We know that from the recordings. Not all of them seem keen to do much about it. Most who mentioned it didn’t even know where he has the stuff hidden. Seems only Frederick, and possibly the person hiring extra muscle for tonight, know where Drakos hid the stuff.”
“We need to fill you in,” Jason said. He and Knox spent the next few minutes relating everything Frederick shared at their meeting, including his negotiation.
“Humph.” Leland glared at Jason, but Tayla knew Frederick was the source of his frustration. “He’s over his skis in this mess. We don’t need to do a thing for him. I say we just go over to his singed suite and get the phone.”
“You need the phone before tonight,” Tayla said. All eyes turned to her. Apparently, they hadn’t expected her to speak in this ‘meeting.’ Leland, Knox, and Rowan looked surprised. Jason didn’t.
He looked at her and nodded. “I know. We need to know if the guy running things on Rock Point Pier tonight is also in Gus’s video.”
Tayla didn’t like the look in Leland’s eyes. “What are you thinking?”
Leland leaned back in the overstuffed chair and directed his answer to Jason instead of Tayla. “If someone is cleaning out the basement tonight, and it’s not Gus’s killer, I propose we let them haul it all away. They’re meeting on a pier, so it’s probably all leaving the island, maybe the country. No more threats against Drakos. Problem solved.”
“And if it is Gus’s killer?” Jason asked.
“We let them fill up their boat with the goods, arrest Gus’s murderer, then hand the boat over to Frederick. Or Drakos. They can duke it out for all I care.”
Jason stood. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. But with those two, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“Where are you going?” Knox asked.
“I’m going to scout around Rock Point Pier, in the daylight.” He looked at Rowan. “Can you give me four inconspicuous cameras? I’ll try to place them around the pier to give us more eyes tonight.”
Rowan started rummaging through a black backpack. “Yeah. We’ve got some more.”
“Actually, give me two more. I’ll leave a couple at the orphanage. That way, we’ll know if someone is cleaning out the basement tonight.”
Tayla was surprised when Jason turned to her next. “Want to come along?”
He wants me to come with him? Just the two of us? She couldn’t read his expression. Maybe he wanted to talk to her alone so he could let her down easy—explain that last night was an emotional mistake. The thought made her nauseous. It didn’t feel like a mistake to her. But a relationship with Jason didn’t make any sense, either. And she definitely didn’t deserve a man like him.
She wasn’t about to say no to speaking to him alone, though. She needed to find out what he wanted to say. Maybe he wasn’t interested. Maybe last night was just an in-the-moment thing for him. She realized she really needed to know. “Sure. Yes. I’ll grab my purse.”
She ignored the awkward silence hanging in the air and made a beeline for her room to fetch her purse. She could hear Jason explaining they wouldn’t be gone long, and thathe, Knox, and Leland would go together to retrieve Gus’s phone from Frederick as soon as they got back.
“I think we can convince him to hand it over,” Jason said.
Leland stood as Tayla reentered the room. “Sounds good to me.” He seemed pleased with Jason’s plan, but the subtle look he gave Tayla made her pause. That was a look she knew. And one she knew how to handle.
She walked straight to Leland and squeezed his forearm with her brightest smile. “Stop worrying. I’m fine. Be nice to Rowan while we’re gone.”
Satisfied with the change in his expression, she didn’t wait for a response. There wouldn’t be one. Her uncle loved her, but words were not his forte.
Yes, her insides were doing cartwheels thinking about being alone with Jason again. But Leland didn’t need to know that.
Chapter 14
When they got to the SUV, Jason opened Tayla’s door for her.
He’s chivalrous. That scored him some more points.
