Page 47 of The Final Gambit

“I’ll go.” Grayson wasn’t asking permission or volunteering.

Eve finally joined the rest of us at the desk. She looked up at Grayson, tear tracks on her face. “I’ll go with you, Gray.”

He was going to take her up on the offer. I could tell that just by looking at him, but I didn’t object. I didn’t let myself say a single word.

But Jameson surprised me. “No. You go with Grayson, Heiress.”

I had no idea what to read into that—if he still didn’t trust Eve, if he didn’t trust Grayson around Eve, or if he was just trying to fight his demons, set aside a lifelong rivalry, and trust me.

CHAPTER 36

Grayson and I found Zara in the greenhouse. She wore white gardening gloves that fit her hands like a second skin and held a pair of shears so sharp they probably could have cut through bone.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Zara angled her head toward us, the look in her eyes coolly advertising the fact that she was a Hawthorne and, by definition, missed nothing. “Out with it, both of you. You want something.”

“We just want to talk,” Grayson said evenly.

Zara ran her finger lightly over a thorn. “No Hawthorne has ever just wanted to talk.”

Grayson didn’t argue that point. “Your brother Toby has been abducted,” he said, with that uncanny ability to say things thatmatteredas if they were simply facts. “There’s been no demand for ransom, but we’ve received several communications from his kidnapper.”

“Is Toby alright?” Zara took a step toward Oren. “John—is my brother alright?”

He gently met her gaze and gave her what he could. “He’s alive.”

“And you haven’t found him yet?” Zara demanded. Her tone was pure ice. I could see the exact moment she remembered who she was talking to and realized that ifOrencouldn’t find Toby, there was a very good chance he couldn’t be found.

“We think there might be a family connection between Toby and the person who took him,” I said.

Zara’s expression wavered, like ripples across the water. “If you came here to make accusations, I suggest you stop beating around the bush and make them.”

“We’re not here to accuse you of anything,” Grayson said with absolute, unerring calm. “We need to ask you about your first husband.”

“Christopher?” Zara arched a brow. “I assure you, you don’t.”

“Toby’s abductor has been sending clues,” I said, rushing the words. “The most recent involves the biblical story of the prodigal son.”

“We’re looking,” Grayson stated, “for someone who viewed Tobias Hawthorne as a father and felt as though he got a raw deal. Tell us about Christopher.”

“He was everything that was expected of me.” Zara lifted the shears to clip a white rose.Off with its head.“Wealthy family, politically connected, charming.”

Wealth, Alisa had said.Power. Connections.

Zara set the white rose in a black basket, then clipped three more. “When I filed for divorce, Chris went to my father and played the dutiful son, fully expecting the old man to talk some sense into me.”

It was Grayson’s turn now to arch a brow. “How thoroughly was he destroyed?”

Zara smiled. “I assure you, the divorce was civil.” In other words:utterly. “But it hardly matters. Christopher died in a boating accident not long after everything was finalized.”

No, I thought, a visceral, knee-jerk reaction.Not another dead end.“What about his family?” I asked, unwilling to let this go.

“He was an only child, and his parents are likewise deceased.”

I felt like the mouse I’d imagined earlier, like I’d been made to think I had a chance when I never really had. But I couldn’t give up. “Is it possible that your father had another son?” I asked, going back to that possibility. “Besides Toby?”

“A pretermitted heir whodidn’tcome crawling out of the woodwork after the will was read?” Zara responded archly. “With billions at stake? Hardly likely.”

“Then what are we missing?” I asked, more desperation in my tone than I wanted to admit.