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“You’re a great breakfast date,” he said. “Very entertaining. It’s just one humdinger after another. I can’t wait for the car chase.”
My snorting giggle sprayed coffee over the table, but when I looked up from sponging coffee off my cuffs, he was looking pleased with himself.
“You know what scares me the most?” I said. “The responsibility. Because I have no proof. Nothing to help the cops. Nothing to convince them things are different from what they’ve already concluded. Just spooky hints about a menacing secret. Some mysterious, sinister ‘thing’ that I’ve never heard of. I don’t know what or where it is, just that somebody wants it. And that somebody might have killed my mother. And gotten away with it. And I’m the only one who knows.”
There it was. I’d said the unsayable. I let out a shaky breath. Liam just accepted my words, not reacting, not negating, just acknowledging them with a grave nod.
I hid my face with shaking hands. “If somebody killed Lucia, I have to do something about it,” I said, my voice low. “I can’t just let it go. But what?”
“One step at a time,” he said in a soothing voice. “Let’s start with the necklaces. She said that they’re a key. Do you know what she’s referring to?”
I held up the pendant that glittered at my throat. “She has to be referring to these. They came the day before yesterday, hand delivered directly from the jeweler’s shop. Evidently, she’d commissioned them for us before … before it happened. Three pendants, each one decorated with our three birthstones. They’re reproductions of Renaissance jewelry, but knowing Lucia, the gold and the gems are definitely real.”
He leaned forward, peering at the pendant. I unclasped it and handed it to him. He examined it from every angle and passed it back. “Very pretty. Looks great on you.”
“Thank you,” I said, reclasping it. “That’s what I thought, too. It’s just pretty. A beautiful replica of a fifteenth-century noblewoman’s pretty bauble. No mysterious keys to menacing secrets that I can tell. And probably expensive. More than Lucia should have spent, considering that she was renovating the house.”
He drummed his fingers thoughtfully on the table. “It might be worthwhile to talk to the jeweler who made them. Find out more.”
I nodded. “An excellent idea. I will do that. This very day.”
“I’ll take you,” he suggested. “We can go together.”
“Oh, no, don’t worry about it. I have my car, and you must have all kinds of things to do, so?—”
“Nope. Nothing at all to do. I was going to work on Lucia’s house today, and I can’t do that now, so I’m just kicking my heels. Don’t fight me on this. You’ll lose.”
Whew. There it was, a naked challenge, right out there in the open. I blinked as I studied his set jaw, his narrowed eyes. Hello, Mr. Alpha Dog.
Here it was: the part in the script where I made it abundantly clear that he was not the boss here, that he was not dealing with a fluttery pushover, and that my decisions were entirely my own, thank you very much. Buh-bye.
The words wouldn’t come out. Just a strangled silence and lots of nervous blinking.
The truth was, having some company today would be very nice. Having big, tough, hard-muscled, keen-eyed, hyper-protective company? Even better. Stellar, in fact.
Maybe, just maybe, I could let him have this one. Like a chunk of meat flung to a hungry wolf. But just this once, mind you. Never again.
“Let’s talk about something else,” I said.
He lifted his teacup, eyes smiling over the rim, figuring he’d scored a point. “Whatever you like,” he said magnanimously. “Be my guest.”
His expression made me squirm on the cushion. “What do we talk about, then?”
His lips twitched. “You were the one who wanted to change the subject. I was fine with the subject.”
“Don’t start with me,” I warned.
“Not at all. Relax.” He reached out, pausing as I flinched, and touched my forehead with the tip of his finger, massaging the anxious crease between my brows as if trying to erase it. Hah. Good luck with that.
“Oh, that’s just my face,” I said. “That never goes away.”
His boldness made me feel naked. I hadn’t known there was a good side to feeling naked, but with Liam Knightly, there was. The feeling was both exciting and unsettling.
I stiffened my spine. “So, Liam,” I said. “Tell me about yourself. Lucia told you about me, and that puts me at a disadvantage.”
His smile faded. I felt a flash of regret for killing the charged moment, but I hardened myself. I had to be tough with this guy. Guarded.
“What do you want to know?” he asked.