Chapter Sixteen

Alex raked a hand through his hair as he looked at Samantha. She looked as down as he felt. “Caroline’s lying through her teeth.”

Samantha nodded and motioned for him to follow her to the solarium. “Presley isn’t out of the country,” she said the moment they were alone. “He’s been here every night, staying by your sister’s bedside while she was unconscious.”

Alex swore. “How—?”

“He’s charmed the nurses into helping him sneak past the guards.”

“We’ll see about that.” He started to storm past Samantha, planning to see that those nurses lost their jobs—along with the guards he’d hired.

“Wait,” Samantha said, grabbing his arm. “You don’t want to do that. Think about Caroline. Obviously Presley cares about her. Why else hang around here?”

He swore and walked to the sliding doors, shoving them open to step out into the hot humid night air as he looked out at the city. What Samantha said made sense. Or did it? He stepped back into the air-conditioned room, closing the door behind him.

“Why would Presley hang around here, especially if I’m right and he’s hoodwinked my family, stolen their money and planning to take off?”

“Exactly,” Samantha said. “Maybe he did con your father and brother into investing with him. But he already has their money, right? What reason does he have to stick around but the fact that he loves your sister and can’t leave her now?”

“He wants something.”

“What?”

Alex shook his head. “Why sneak around the hospital at night? Why have Caroline and his office tell everyone he’s not even in the country? He isn’t done,” Alex said as the theory began to grow. “He’s waiting for something. Something he needs before he’s done. Maybe one more big score.”

“And how do you explain him coming to the hospital every night to be with Caroline?”

Alex looked up in surprise. “That’s it. He needs whatever it is from Caroline.” He glanced at his watch. “Presley comes by every night, right?”

She nodded.

“Then tonight we’ll be ready for him.” She started to object but he cut her off. “You have all those wonderful contacts. Can you get a video set up in my sister’s room? I’m sure we can get her out of the room long enough for your contacts to set up the equipment. Given what I have on that nurse I’m willing to bet she’ll help us.”

Samantha had the good sense not to argue. She got on her cell phone, turning away from him, as she made the arrangements. Clearly she thought the video would prove that Presley was just a man in love.

Alex was betting it was going to prove to be a lot more than that.

SAMANTHA GOT the technical team to come in and install the equipment while the nurse wheeled Caroline down the hall for what was supposed to be more X-rays.

Both Samantha and Alex stayed out of sight, wanting Caroline to believe they had left for the night. Samantha suspected that Caroline would call Presley when the coast was clear for him to return to the hospital.

She’d had the team set up a monitoring device so she and Alex would be able to not only see but hear everything that went on in Caroline’s room. All they had to do was wait in the empty hospital room down the hall.

Alex was sprawled in one of the chairs next to Samantha, both of them facing the screen. Nothing had happened since the nurse had returned Caroline to her room. Samantha was beginning to think that Caroline had warned Presley not to come tonight.

Then, just past nine, Caroline checked her watch and made a call.

“Brian, I need to see you,” she said, sounding more upset than she appeared on the video screen. “Yes now. It can’t wait. No, I can’t talk about it on the phone. I have to see you. It’s about Preston.” She listened for a moment, then hung up and checked her watch before lying back in the bed and closing her eyes.

“What the hell?” Alex said.

Samantha was just as surprised as Alex by the call to Brian. “The nurse told me that Brian upset Caroline on his recent visit and they had to ask him to leave.”

“Something’s up,” Alex said. “You saw the way she was acting.”

Samantha nodded and they waited. Not twenty minutes later, Brian slipped into Caroline’s room. Clearly, he had figured out a way to get past the nurse.

“So where is he?” Brian said without preamble once in Caroline’s room.

She shook her head, tears filling her eyes. “I don’t know. I just found out that he isn’t even Preston Wellington III. His name is Presley Wells.” She began to cry.

“I had no idea my sister was such a good actress,” Alex said under his breath.

Brian swore as he moved to the bed and tossed his sister the box of tissues. “I already knew that. I thought you had some new information. You got me over here for this?”

“You knew?” Caroline cried. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Brian shook his head, looking more than a little upset. “I need to find this fiancé of yours. Do you understand?”

Samantha figured Caroline understood perfectly.

“Could you just hold me for a minute?” Caroline asked, still crying.

Brian looked as though he’d rather leap out the window but he awkwardly leaned over and put his arms around her.

Caroline put her arms inside his coat and pulled him closer, drawing back a couple of times to blow her nose, until Brian seemed to have had enough.

“Look, you got the family into this mess, Caroline, you have to help me find him. If he calls you, find out where he is. You owe me.”

Caroline nodded, red-eyed and still weepy. “I’ll do everything I can, Brian. I’m so sorry.”

“Brian’s actually buying her act,” Alex said, sitting up and shaking his head in wonder.

As Brian left, Caroline shut down the waterworks instantly and reached beneath her covers to pull out a small object that Samantha recognized at once.

“She’s got Brian’s PDA.”

Alex was up out of his seat and pacing the floor. “What the hell? You can bet Presley Wells is behind this.”

But Samantha was thinking about what information Brian would have on his PDA—and what Alex had said about a last big score.

Presley showed up a little after eleven. It was all Alex could do not to storm down the hall and beat the hell out of him.

Instead, Samantha stayed between him and the door just in case and he watched the monitor with her, pretty sure he knew what would happen next.

He watched Presley go to Caroline, hold her, kiss her, brush her hair back from her face, and felt uncomfortable witnessing something so personal and intimate.

Alex could feel Samantha’s gaze on him. “Okay, maybe he loves her. Or maybe he’s an even better actor than my sister.”

He watched Presley Wells lean over Caroline as if to give her a kiss, his heart in his throat. If the man made any kind of move to hurt her—Presley pulled back.

Caroline was smiling up at her fiancé. It broke Alex’s heart to see the love in her eyes. As Presley started to leave, she pulled him back as if somehow she knew she might never see him again. Alex saw fear in her face as Presley left. Then tears.

“Son of a bitch. She knows he’s not coming back. I have to see her. Keep an eye on Presley but I think we both know where he’s headed.”

Caroline’s eyes widened with fear when she saw Alex step into her room. “What are you doing here?” she asked, hurriedly drying her tears.

“I know Presley was just here. I know you gave him Brian’s PDA. Caroline, why?”

“Alex, you don’t understand. It isn’t what you think.”

“I know we sometimes do things when we’re in love…”

She shook her head. “It isn’t like that. Presley found out that Brian has been skimming money out of my trust fund. He needs to get into the records to prove it.”

Alex shook his head sadly. “Caroline, don’t you realize what you’ve done? He is going to clean out every dime and take off.”

“You’re wrong, Alex. He’s trying to protect me, our family, our baby. He loves me. You’ll see tonight, after he finds the evidence, you’ll see that you’re wrong about him.”

Alex nodded, unable to argue anymore with his sister. She loved the man and was blind to what was happening. Later, Alex would come back because Caroline was going to need him. Arguing with her now wasn’t going to make that easier for her later.

“Everything is going to be all right,” he said.

“Presley knows what he’s doing.”

Alex didn’t doubt that for a moment.

“Don’t go after him,” Caroline cried. “You don’t realize how dangerous this is. Someone has been trying to hurt Presley.”

Alex stopped at the door. “Caroline, someone tried to kill me and Samantha in Tennessee.”

Shock registered on her face. “It wasn’t Presley.”

He gave her a sympathetic look. “I’ll be back.” Then he pushed out of the door, trying to ignore her cries for him to stop.

When Presley left he had Brian’s PDA and it didn’t take much to figure out where he was headed. To the Graham building headquarters and Brian’s personal offices. No doubt Caroline had given him the codes to get in.

Both guards were at their posts again. Alex promised himself he would fire them both as soon as he returned.

Samantha was waiting for him downstairs. “He took a cab. I have the number.”

Alex swore, finding it hard to believe that his sister would be taken in by this man. “Obviously, he’s coerced Caroline into helping him rip off the family. Even love can be a form of coercion,” he added, looking at Samantha.

“I like to believe love doesn’t make you do things you don’t want to do,” Samantha said.

He met her gaze, the depth of his feelings for her convincing him that a person in love did a lot of things he wouldn’t have conceived of just days before. He knew firsthand since the last person he wanted to be in love with was an agent. Especially right now.

Samantha started to reach for her cell phone but he placed a hand on her arm to stop her.

“Let me handle this,” he said. “It’s my family. Can you give me this? I know you’re an agent. I’ve accepted that.” Her look said she didn’t believe it. He wasn’t sure he did, either. “I have to handle this in a way that Caroline will be hurt the least. Do you understand?”

“You know I do.”

“Then no agents. Just let me go alone.”

“I can’t do that, Alex. Maybe Presley’s only crime was falling in love with a rich woman. Maybe it’s swindling your family. But one of Weddings Your Way’s clients is still missing after her abduction in front of the shop. There still hasn’t been a ransom demand. For all I know Presley is somehow connected to all of it. And if that’s the case, I can’t leave the agency out of it.”

“But you can give me a little time,” Alex said, knowing that he was using her feelings for him. Wasn’t he just as bad as Presley? He saw the pain in her expression.

“I won’t make the call yet,” she said. “But don’t try to stop me from coming with you.”

“Would it do any good?”

She shook her head.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Let’s take my car,” Samantha said. “He doesn’t know it.” A set of car lights blinked in the lot.

The headlights Alex saw were connected to a sleek black sports car convertible, the top up. “That’s yours? You had someone deliver it?” He couldn’t help his surprise. But then how could he forget the body she’d been hiding under those baggy suits? Or the brain and determination of the woman she’d been hiding behind the role of wedding planner?

SAMANTHA TOSSED Alex the keys. He looked surprised, then grinned at her. All she could think about now was Presley. How could she have been so wrong about him? She hadn’t stopped believing in him—even when all the evidence was so weighted against him. Until tonight.

Caroline had taken her brother’s PDA. Unless Samantha missed her guess, it would contain passwords to Graham accounts. Presley could clean out whatever funds Brian managed for the family. Why else get Caroline to steal it for him?

“Ready?” Alex asked as he slid behind the wheel.

“You do know how to drive something other than a truck, don’t you?”

He cranked up the engine. As it roared to life, he shot her a look. “What the hell’s under that hood?”

She grinned back at him. “You’re about to find out.”

He hit the gas and they careened out of the parking lot. “I think in this we might be able to beat Presley to the Graham building.”

Samantha nodded, her thoughts on what she’d agreed to do. She should have called Rachel. She should have had the team meet them. She’d broken one of the cardinal rules of Weddings Your Way. It might cost her her job.

But as she looked over at Alex, she also knew that he needed to do this on his own. The team was standing by. All she had to do was call them and they would be there in minutes. She could give Alex a little time. And it wasn’t as if she was letting him go in alone.

“There is something you should know,” she said as Alex took a corner. “Brian’s in financial trouble. Possibly on the verge of losing everything your father entrusted to him.”

Alex didn’t ask how she knew this. He seemed to remember who she was, what she was. His face clouded. “You’re sure?”

She nodded. “So the only thing Presley can steal is the rest of Caroline’s trust fund.”

Alex seemed to concentrate on his driving without looking at her. “Do you have any idea what my father is going to do when he hears about this? How much did my father invest with Presley?”

“A lot, but,” she added quickly, “not enough to jeopardize the family fortune.”

“And Brian. He invested, too, right?”

“Apparently not. At least not on paper.”

Alex let out a low whistle. “What about Caroline and Presley?”

She hesitated. “They both sank most everything into this condominium project near the water.”

“Presley had some money?” Alex asked, sounding surprised.

“Some. Not as much as Caroline of course.”

“You think Brian invested with Presley under the table knowing how risky it was. Maybe made a deal to bring our father into it to sweeten the pot. That would be like Brian. So Brian lied to C.B. about how risky the venture was. He put his head on the chopping block and now Presley is about to chop it off.”

That did seem to be the case. Samantha watched Miami became a blur as Alex drove toward the Graham building. “But if Presley had it all working for him, why try to kill us?” she asked, thinking aloud.

“Because he couldn’t let us return from Tennessee and tell Brian and C.B. who he really was before he finished whatever it is he’s doing tonight,” Alex said.

Maybe. Samantha was still having trouble believing it. “Why tonight? Why not a month ago?”

Alex cocked his head at her, his smile heart-stopping. “I’ll ask him when I see him.”

She leaned back in the seat unable not to think about Caroline and Presley. No more an unlikely match than she and Alex. C.B. would do everything possible to prevent Caroline from marrying Presley even if it turned out that his only crime was lying about his background—and possibly losing Graham money in one of his schemes.

She glanced over at Alex. He was already the black sheep of the family. Imagine how C.B. would react if he knew about her and Alex. If C.B. knew about her past. It wasn’t as if a person could keep something like that a secret. Hadn’t Caroline and Presley known that?

“You know my whole life history,” she said. “But I don’t know anything about you.”

“Your whole life history?” He chuckled as he was forced to stop for a light. “Not likely. You know as much about me as I do you.”

She shook her head. “I told you why there was no man in my life.”

The light changed. Alex seemed to concentrate harder on his driving. A muscle jumped in his jaw. “You and I have both been hiding. The last woman I trusted proved to want nothing more than my money. I guess I’ve always had a hard time believing a woman could love me for anything but my money.” He shot her a glance. “Once they hear the Graham name…”

Samantha smiled ruefully and nodded. “The exact opposite of Presley Wells.”

Alex’s lips turned up at little. “At least he knows Caroline loves him for who he is. Or did.”

Ahead, the Graham office building loomed up into the Miami sky.

“This car, it’s the part of you that I’m just getting to know, isn’t it?” Alex said, his face serious as he parked and shut off the engine.

“Yes.” She felt his gaze flick over her as they both exited the car and headed for the security entrance. The question was: was Alex Graham man enough to handle that woman? At least that was the question she imagined he was asking himself.

Samantha on the other hand had been convinced a long time ago that Alex Graham was plenty man enough for both of her lives.

In the end, he would have to make that decision. Whether or not he could live with her being an agent.

Or she would be faced with her own decision. Could she live without Alex Graham?

Samantha glanced back at the street and saw a tan sedan drive slowly by. They’d been followed from the hospital. She reached into her purse, her hand closing on her gun as Alex put in a call to his father.

“I need the code to get into the Graham building,” he said into his cell while Samantha watched the street. “There isn’t time to explain. For once, Dad, just don’t fight me. Give me the code now.”

Alex listened, then pressed the key pad. The door opened and he ran toward the stairs, Samantha right behind him. The door thunked shut as a set of headlights swung past, reflecting in the window in the door.

“Dad, I have to go. I don’t care if you call Brian. I figured you would the moment you hang up anyway,” Alex said into the phone. “But when you do, ask him where his PDA is.” He closed his phone and pressed his back against the wall of the stairwell next to her.

Samantha heard the outer door open and close. A moment later the elevator doors hummed open. She waited next to Alex until she heard them close and the elevator begin its ascent.

Pushing open the stairwell door, she looked up to see what floor Presley got off on. Fourth.

Behind her, she heard Alex already running up the stairs to the fourth floor.