“Yeah. Me too.” Impatient to be gone before I no longer have the strength to adhere to Evelyn’s wishes, I grab my jacket off the back of my chair, then swipe my keys from the edge of the desk. “I gotta go.”
“Where to?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I just know I can’t stay here.”
That much is true. But despite the fact that I’m no longer part of the Baine security team, I will for damn sure be paying a visit to the boutique to turn Evelyn’s office upside down to locate and destroy the camera someone’s hidden there. In the meantime, I’ll have one of my brothers test the lipstick tube at my apartment for fingerprints and sic a computer forensics investigator on all of the other evidence uncovered at the shop.
Simply put, I’m not going to rest until I’ve taken care of Evelyn’s stalker. After this morning, it’s clear that the situation is only going to escalate unless someone puts a stop to it.
I intend for that person to be me, whether or not I’ve got the authority or the right to see this through to the end.
“I’ll catch you later, O’Connor. Right now, I need to talk to my brother. Jake’s running some background checks on L’Opale employees. I want to make sure he’s got those in hand before the end of the day.”
She stares at me. “Jake’s at the hospital, Gabe.”
“How do you know that?”
“Umm.” Color blooms in her cheeks. “Because he told me when we spoke on the phone this morning.”
My brows rise at her admission, but I don’t have time to deal with that newsflash, or the implications of it. Right now, I’m more concerned with getting a hold of my brother. “What’s he doing at the hospital?”
“He’s there with your parents. Your dad was admitted again overnight.”
“Jesus. Another stroke?”
She shakes her head. “Angina. He’s okay. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything to you sooner. I thought you knew . . .”
“No. I didn’t know.”
And why would anyone tell me after the way I behaved at my parents’ house the other night? Evidently, I’ve ensured that every corner of my life is scorched Earth now.
I walk past my friend, trying not to see her pitying expression. “Thanks for letting me know, Kelsey. I need to go see Jake.”
~ ~ ~
My brother is seated in my father’s hospital recovery room when I arrive twenty minutes later.
It appears he’s been here a while. His face is shadowed with dark whiskers and he’s out of uniform, dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt, slouched in one of the three guest chairs lined up along the wall at the foot of Dad’s bed. Straightening in his seat when he sees me outside, he motions for me to come in.
My father’s eyes are closed, his chest rising and falling in a sedate rhythm as he sleeps. Beside him, machines hiss and beep softly at the ends of the monitoring lines and IVs attached to his chest and arms.
“You just missed everyone,” Jake tells me. “Shane and Ethan just took Mom down for some breakfast in the cafeteria. You want to go join them?”
“No. I need to talk to you.”
I indicate the hallway, but Jake gives a faint shake of his head. He nods in Dad’s direction. “We won’t disturb him. He’s okay, been asleep for a couple of hours. Besides, I think he rests better hearing a little conversation going on around him instead of all these machines and hospital noises. What’s going on, brother?”
Since I don’t plan on staying long, I just lean my shoulder against the wall and jump right in. “Were you able to run those background checks I asked you about?”
He nods. “I was going to call you this morning once I got in the office, but then I ended up here. Anyway, yeah. They all came back clean, every one of them.”
“Even Katrina Davis?”
“Yep. Unless you count a couple of parking tickets.”
“Shit.” I cross my arms, my disappointment obvious. “And nothing on any of the former employees, either? No red flags that could turn into bigger problems downthe road?”
Now he frowns. “No, Gabe. Like I said, there’s nothing to report. You want to tell me what this is about now? Obviously, these weren’t just routine checks like you wanted me to believe when you asked for this favor.”
