Page 57 of Just My Luck

The man, Nova’s uncle John Forrest, was a bear of a man. Not fat. Muscular. About one hundred percent of it, from what I could see. He looked nothing like his older sister, except for the smile. There, I realized, they were identical.

John rolled his eyes. “I see you’re still playing too much chess, little sis.” He motioned for his men to get out. “When I got your message, I told you it wasn’t a good idea to plant the bugs.” He eyed Rick and me. “Jacob and Richard Mylonas, I presume?” he asked.

We both nodded dumbly.

“You can put your hands down, son,” he told me.

I realized I had them raised and dropped them, feeling stupid.

“This is Rick’s fiancée, Sofia Ferreira,” Beth said. “Now everyone has been introduced.”

“You could have told me where you were staying, instead, we had to trace the radio signal,” he said to Beth. It wasn’t a question but a statement.

“I wasn’t going to hand you all the chips, besides, you know your job better than I do.” she laughed. “Besides, I had hoped we’d get what you needed from Sterling first,” she said, standing up and planting a kiss on her brother’s cheek.

“Okay, it’s time to pull your girl out. We’ve got this,” John said firmly.

“She hasn’t—” Beth started to say, but John glared at her.

“That’s not a request,” he added.

I watched Nova’s mother sigh then pick up her phone. Through the speakers, we heard Nova’s phone ring.

When Nova answered, her mother hung up the phone. Then we listened while Nova faked an emergency phone call.

“My mother fell down a flight of stairs at the hotel. They’re taking her to the hospital for X-rays. They think she broke her foot.” We could hear Nova standing up, the chair scraping against the floor.

“Of course,” Kit said, sounding annoyed. “I’ll have you delivered to the hospital.”

“That would be wonderful,” Nova said. “I hope we can pick this up later?” Nova said softly.

“Let me know and I’ll send a limo. If you want, you can move back into the Apex.”

“Let me get my mother situated first. She was supposed to be on a flight back home in the morning, but I’ll let you know.”

“She’s good,” John said, listening in.

“Two years of drama class,” I said without taking my eyes off the speaker.

“We are supposed to pick her up when the limo drops her off at the hospital,” Sofia said to John.

“We’ll get her,” he said, listening as Nova left the space.

To our surprise, Kit continued to talk to a man name Don.

Was this the skinny balding man I’d seen before?

“He’s ours,” John surprised us all by adding.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

John looked amused. “We’ve been watching Christian Sterling for bigger transgressions than setting you up, which, by the way, we suspected instantly.”

“From the sounds of it,” I said dryly. “Still, I’d like to see that my name gets cleared.”

John nodded. “We’ve already been in contact with a few women who swear up and down that you were busy shopping at their stores minutes before you were arrested. Plus, with this”—he motioned to the speaker—“I’d say your case is officially dead.” He turned back to the speaker.

“See that it’s done,” Kit was saying firmly.