“Excuse me? She stole Caro’s wedding ring?” Sydney asked at the same time. She didn’t bother to keep the shock out of her voice. She’d faced Caro down and knew how formidable the woman could be. And she wasn’t exactly a fluff ball herself. She couldn’t imagine having the guts to steal Caro’s wedding ring. “I mean, that’s hard core. Who would do something like that?”
Griffin blew out a breath. “I think the bigger question is, why would my mother let her get away with it?”
“She did try to look for the girl,” Sharlene pointed out with an elegant shrug. “But I don’t think she looked that hard. Caro’s wedding ring was not very remarkable. It had been in Hollister’s family for generations. It was a simple gold band with a few unimpressive diamond flakes. I’m sure if it had been Caro’s engagement ring, they would have called out the national guard. Frankly, the weird thing isn’t that Caro didn’t get the police involved—it’s that Caro even noticed it was missing.”
“Still, it was her wedding ring. Don’t you think that’s bizarre?”
Sharlene smiled coyly. “Of course I do. It’s bizarre enough that I remember the incident after all these years. I think the real question you should be asking yourself is why Caro claims she doesn’t remember it. It’s obvious to me that your mother is lying to you.”
Thirteen
The charming playboy had vanished.
He was gone. Completely.
Which she should have been okay with. After all, it wasn’t as though she actually wanted to talk to him herself. She was too emotionally fragile for that. Too vulnerable.
Still, Griffin’s silence unnerved her. He had said absolutely nothing since they’d gotten back in the car. She didn’t ask where they were heading. She didn’t have to. He was whipping the car through the streets of Houston like a stunt driver on a closed course.
Clearly, he was pissed that his mother had manipulated him. Hey, Sydney couldn’t blame him for that. By the time he pulled onto the loop at about sixty, she figured she had to say something.
“Do you think that—?” she began.
“No. I don’t.” His tone was hard as nails and his gaze didn’t even flicker from the road.
“Maybe you should wait until—”
“No.”
“Look, I know you’re upset, but—”
“Give it a rest, okay?”
She twisted in her seat to face him. “No, I’m not going to give it a rest. Pull over.”
“What?” Finally, he looked at her. Just shot a glance in her direction, but at least he was loosening his death grip on the steering wheel.
“Just get off the highway.” When he didn’t so much as turn on his blinker, she added. “Look, you’re pissed off. I get it. You’re in no shape to drive, let alone talk to your mother.”
“I’m fine.” But then, as if to prove his point, a car darted in front of them and he had to slam on his breaks. Muttering a curse under his breath, he eased his foot off the gas.
She watched in silence as his hand twisted on the steering wheel.
“I’m not…” He broke off, muttering another curse.
He didn’t finish the sentence, but he didn’t have to. She could think of about ten different ways to finish it for him. He was not fine. He was not ready to talk about it. He was not nearly as in control as he wanted to be.
Tension practically radiated from him. His control was whisper-thin and it was all she could do not to rub her hand across his thigh. To try to soothe him. Maybe she would have if she hadn’t feared that he would snap altogether.
He flicked on the blinker, eased across the road and a second later exited the highway and pulled into the mostly empty parking lot of a strip mall near the off-ramp. He parked at the back of the lot, under the shade of a sprawling oak. He killed the engine and just sat there for a moment, his hands clenched so tightly around the steering wheel, she thought it might snap under the pressure.
She watched him struggling for a long minute, trying to give him the space he needed to process everything they’d learned in the past few hours. Obviously, his mother knew who the girl’s mother was. She’d known and she’d deliberately misled them. Caro Cain’s behavior was incomprehensible to Sydney. She couldn’t imagine why the woman would purposefully throw roadblocks into Griffin’s path, but she did know this. As frustrated as she was with Caro’s behavior, it had to be a hundred times worse for Griffin. Who didn’t want this job or this responsibility in the first place. Who had been sick of his family’s manipulation before this even started.
And the truth was, she didn’t know what to say to make any of this better. She didn’t know if there was anything she could say to make it better. So instead of trying, she reached out and put her hand on his leg. She felt the muscle twitch beneath her palm. His hands stilled on the steering wheel. Every muscle in his body seemed to freeze. Then he slowly turned and leveled a gaze at her.
She felt stripped bare by the intensity of his Cain-blue eyes. Naked and vulnerable. Completely at his mercy.
“Griffin, I—”
Before she could finish the sentence, before she even knew what she was going to actually say, he threw open the door, unclicked the buckle on his seat belt and propelled himself out of the car.
“Damn it,” she muttered before fumbling with her own seat belt buckle and scrambling out of the car.
She rounded the hood and just stood there for a minute, watching as he paced restlessly. He traversed the distance from the car to the tree and back again in long, restless strides. He clenched and unclenched his hands as he prowled, giving the air of a caged beast. But where the panther in the zoo was trapped by the fence and the electric current pumped through the wires, he was confined by his anger.
“Griffin, this isn’t as bad as it seems.”
He whirled to glare at her. “Are you kidding? I always knew my family was a mess of crazy, but this? This is beyond crazy.”
“You don’t know that.” Yeah. Maybe he did know that. Maybe it was as bad as it seemed, but she figured, for now, her best bet was to get him calmed down before he did something he really regretted.
“What? You think this isn’t bad? You think there’s any scenario in which my mother deliberately lied to me, deliberately misled me that’s not bad?”
“I didn’t say not bad, I just…” Damn. She didn’t know what the right response was here. All she knew was that if Griffin went to see his mother now, he’d say or do all kinds of things he regretted. “Look, no matter how bad it is, confronting her now gets you nothing.”
Finally, he stopped pacing and whirled to face her. He stood, stone-still, maybe ten feet away, and just stared at her.
Suddenly nervous, she babbled, “I’m just saying maybe you should wait a bit. Calm down first.”
“What exactly,” he said slowly, his voice pitched low, “do you recommend that I do instead of confronting my family?”
His gaze was hot enough to damn near burn the clothes right off her body.
She swallowed hard as a shiver skittered across the surface of his skin. “Um…maybe some yoga?”
“Yoga?” He gave a bark of laughter and a smile spilt his face. It was a fierce and wild smile, but at least he no longer looked like he wanted to rip something apart with his bare hands.
“Like, meditate or something,” she suggested, even though she knew meditation was the last thing on his mind.
He stalked slowly toward her. “I’m not really the type.”
She swallowed again, but it got harder and harder to do past the lump her pounding heart had pushed up into her throat.
Oh, dear, she was in so much trouble here. Because, obviously, Griffin wasn’t the type. She doubted he’d ever meditated a single instant of his life. He wasn’t a guy who could sit still at all, let alone meditate. The only time she’d seen him relaxed—ever—was in bed. And only after they’d both cl**axed more than once. Even sex he treated like an Olympic-level sport.
She should not be thinking about sex right now. They weren’t supposed to be sleeping together anymore. She couldn’t sleep with him, because… Why was she supposed to be holding him at arm’s length again? Oh, right. He was her boss. Her boss!
And she was already dangerously close to getting her heart broken as it was.
She needed to remember that. Because after a week of being in his company nonstop, she was like an addict jonesing for a hit of Griffin.
Even though he was the last thing she should have, he was still what she wanted. What she needed.
Geez, she needed to check herself into some sort of rehab program. She just couldn’t imagine twelve steps of any kind that would give her the ability to walk away from him.
She couldn’t even think when he was looking at her like this. She glanced around, hoping to spot something to distract them, but they were essentially alone. This end of the parking lot was empty. Cars zipped by on the access road without slowing down enough to notice two people talking under a tree. “Um…what were we…”
“About to do?” he asked, his voice pitched low and seductive.
“No.” The last thing they needed was to do something. “Talking about. What were we talking about?”
He smiled like he knew exactly what she was thinking. And he probably did. “You were telling me how to meditate.”
“Right. Meditate. It’s really not that hard. I hear… Um, I think you need to visualize a happy place.”
He stopped a fraction of an inch away from her. So close she could feel the heat sparking off his skin. “Okay,” he murmured. “Some place happy. I’ve got a place in mind already.”
His lips twitched into a smile and she felt the last of her reserve of willpower melt away.
When he reached for her, she went right into his arms. He buried his hand in her hair as she tipped her mouth up to meet his. Despite the teasing smile that had been on his lips just moments ago, there was nothing light or playful about his kiss. His lips were firm against hers. His mouth hot. His hand possessive. His body hard.