Liam shook his head. “That’s not what he was asking. Could you?”
She decided to be honest, no matter how arrogant she sounded. “Probably.” She thought about it another couple of seconds, then added, “Yes, I’m sure I could. Happy now?”
Liam grinned. “You have no idea.”
SIX
Allison wanted to find out why she was being interrogated, but her curiosity was overridden by her desire to escape. Liam Scott’s piercing green eyes were staring intensely into hers, yet giving nothing away.
“Let me guess. You’re not going to explain,” she said.
“No, not now,” Liam said. He opened the door for her. “We’ll talk tonight, and you can ask as many questions as you’d like.”
“Will you answer them?”
“Yes,” he assured her. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”
Before she could argue and tell him she wasn’t going anywhere with him at seven tonight or any other night, Agent Phillips spoke up. “Trust me, Allison. I’ll find a way to convince you. I think you’ll enjoy working here.”
She shook her head to let him know she disagreed, and when she turned back, Liam was gone.
“Would you like to see the rest of the facility now?” Phillips offered.
“No, thank you.”
She didn’t wait for an escort. Quickly exiting Phillips’s office, she located Jordan and convinced her it was time to leave. When they were finally alone in the car, Allison began to grill her.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Agent Scott?”
“Who’s Agent Scott?”
“Liam Scott.”
Jordan drove through the gates and onto the road before glancing over at Allison. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“You didn’t know they checked up on me and planned this whole visit to get me out here?”
Jordan looked completely befuddled. “What?”
“Liam Scott is coming to your home tonight for dinner, and he thinks he’s picking me up at seven and bringing me along.”
Since they were driving on a deserted gravel road, Jordan didn’t bother to pull over. She stopped the car and turned to her friend. “What do you mean, he’s coming over for dinner?”
Before Allison could respond, Jordan said, “Take a breath and tell me what happened. Start at the beginning and try to make sense.”
“I’m not sure I can. None of it made sense to me. You really don’t know Liam . . . ?”
“No, I don’t.”
“What about your husband? Maybe Noah invited him. They’re both FBI. Maybe they’re old friends, and he just never mentioned him to you.”
Jordan dug her phone out of her purse and went through her messages. There weren’t any from her husband, but there was one from her brother Alec, who was in town from Chicago. He hoped she wouldn’t mind the late notice, but he had a friend who wanted to meet her. They were coming over for dinner. Jordan read the message to Allison.
“Alec’s FBI, too, isn’t he?” Allison asked.
“Yes,” Jordan replied. “You still haven’t told me what happened.”
“Phillips had a file on me. He knew about my family, my years working on my degree—”
“Why?” Jordan asked.
“He was offering me a job. I think there’s more to it. If this was only a recruitment opportunity, why wouldn’t they have called me for a meeting? Why did they get you involved? And why would they have been so manipulative about us coming out here?”
“I’m sorry, Allison. I didn’t know anything about this.” Jordan thought for a second. “It’s a given they want something from you,” she said. “Maybe tonight your date will tell you what it is.”
Allison looked appalled, which made Jordan laugh. “Liam Scott is not my date. In fact, I don’t think I’ll come tonight.”
“Yes, you will,” Jordan said. “You’re curious to know what he wants, aren’t you?”
“You could find out and tell me.”
“Oh no. You have to be there. Besides, from what you’ve told me, I don’t think Agent Scott will let you decline. FBI agents like to get their way. What’s he like?”
Sexy. That was the first word that came to mind, but Allison wasn’t about to admit such a foolish thought to Jordan. Instead, she said, “Oh, you know.”
“No, I don’t know. Tell me.”
Allison shrugged. “He’s an FBI agent. He smiles, though. Unlike Phillips.”
Jordan put the car in drive and took off. “I guess I’ll learn more about Liam Scott tonight. I wish Noah could be there, but he won’t be back from Miami until next week.”
Several minutes passed in silence as Allison replayed the bizarre encounter in her head. “Phillips sounded so sure of himself,” she said.
“How so?
“He told me he’d find a way to get me to work for him, and I don’t think he’s one to bluff.”
“No, he isn’t,” Jordan agreed.
“He also said I would have to take a lie detector test, and I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
Allison trusted Jordan but hadn’t told her about all of her forays on the Internet. “Why do you think?”
“You don’t think you would pass.”
“I know I wouldn’t pass, and I could end up in prison.” Allison knew she had never caused any damage to the sites she’d broken into, so she wasn’t worried about being prosecuted for vandalizing them, yet the sheer volume of her hacks had to mean something. They could add up to a serious charge.
“You’re exaggerating.”
“No, I’m not.”
Jordan didn’t miss a beat. “Okay, so don’t take the test. Stand firm. No one can force you.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me what I did that could send me to prison?”
“You’ll tell me when you’re ready.”
Allison smiled. “You’re a very unusual woman. I’d be dying of curiosity, and I would probably nag you until you told me.”
“Is that your phone beeping or mine?”
“Mine,” Allison said. She saw that there were three voice messages, all from her aunt. The first message was quick and calm. Her aunt asked her to call as soon as possible. There was a problem, she said, but she didn’t give any further explanation. The second message was more aggressive. Her aunt’s voice had a bite to it. She said she had waited two hours for Allison to call back. Why hadn’t she done so? Did she realize how selfish and ungrateful she was? The third message was almost comical. In the middle of a blistering rant, her uncle began to shout at her aunt, and within seconds the two of them were in an all-out fight, screaming at each other. Unfortunately, Allison was used to their loud quarrels. The tirades in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? were polite disagreements in comparison to this couple’s arguments.
“Are you going to call her back?” Jordan asked.
“You heard?”
“It was impossible not to hear. Your aunt and uncle were shouting.”
Allison didn’t make any excuses for their behavior. “I’ll call when I get back to the house.”
Three messages so close together indicated the issue was serious. Was Will in trouble again? Of course he was. How many times had he promised he would not be so impulsive?
They were almost back to campus when Jordan said, “Has it always been like that? You know . . . the screaming and the anger?”
“Pretty much,” she answered. She quickly changed the subject, letting Jordan know she didn’t want to discuss her dysfunctional relatives. “What are you going to do about dinner? Your brother knows you can’t cook, doesn’t he?”
“I’ve gotten better,” Jordan protested.
“So . . . carryout?”
Jordan nodded. “I’m thinking Chinese.”
—
Allison paced around the living room. She didn’t want to go out tonight, not after the conversation she’d had with her aunt. It seemed that her aunt and uncle had gone over the numbers and were convinced there was a missing payment from Giovanni. The amount was substantial, and they believed Allison had either spent the money or misplaced it. She’d heard that she was ungrateful a good five times during the call, and after her aunt finally wound down and her uncle stopped shouting into the phone, Allison calmly explained that Giovanni hadn’t issued the check yet. The payment would come at the end of the month, just like all the others.