“Are you really up to getting into that now?” he asked, and she sensed his wary watchfulness.
She nodded. She was tired, but the things Thad had said that night had been like a worm burrowing under her skin. So much had come out tonight; so much released to the surface. She couldn’t bear the thought of Thad’s allegations continuing to haunt her.
“Thad had said something that upset me,” she began, her voice sounding congested.
“What?”
She lifted her head but kept her gaze lowered. “He said that his father had told him that the circumstances by which you became CEO of Durand were . . . suspicious.”
He slid his fingers beneath her chin and lifted gently. She met his narrow-eyed stare.
“Schaefer was trying to warn you about me?”
“I guess so.”
“Why? Does he know we’re involved? Did you tell him?”
“No!”
“Then how does he know?”
“I don’t know,” she exclaimed, suddenly feeling like she was on the witness stand. She struggled to recall what Thad had said when she asked him how he knew she was involved with Dylan. “Do you think a guy doesn’t notice when the girl he’s fallen for is completely in love with someone else?”
She was uncomfortably aware of Dylan waiting.
“He said something about recognizing the signs because he cared about me so much . . .”
She faded off, her cheeks warming.
“Because he’s in love with you himself, and bound to notice where your attentions lie?” Dylan asked incredulously. “That’s bullshit, Alice. You didn’t believe him, did you?”
“That he’s infatuated with me?” she asked, frowning.
“No. That he knew you and I were involved because he can read the mind of the woman he loves,” Dylan said sarcastically. “He’s been following you. He knows where you go at night.”
“He’s not following me! That’s—” She halted herself from saying ridiculous because she suddenly remembered those two times he’d come upon her in the woods. The Durand Estate was awfully large to just coincidentally run into her when she was alone and vulnerable.
“I refuse to believe that my two choices are either to trust in Thad or trust in you,” she said, feeling cornered. “Maybe he has noticed us coming up here at night, I don’t know, but that doesn’t mean he’s got evil intentions toward me.”
“So that’s it?” Dylan asked, a hard gleam to his eyes. “Schaefer is trying to turn you against me because he doesn’t want the competition?”
“No,” she admitted reluctantly after a moment. “I think someone is telling him things, negative things about you.”
“Who do you think it is?”
Alice swallowed thickly, Dylan’s sharp question bringing the importance of her answer home to her. “He wouldn’t say,” she admitted. “But he said they were trustworthy. And he got at least some of the information from his father. I got the impression that whoever is telling him stuff about you or about you and me is friends with his father or something. Do you think it could be Kehoe?”
“It could very well be. I don’t think it’s much of a secret that Kehoe would like to see me taken down a peg or two. And he is friends with Thad’s father.”
Alice frowned. “So we get back to Kehoe again.”
“We do,” Dylan mused. “And he’s on my list.”
“Your list?”
Dylan nodded distractedly. “I have a list of people who were alive during the kidnapping, who had the means to hire a couple known criminals, and who had some knowledge of Addie’s activities at the camp. But the essential fact remains, Kehoe would have had no motive whatsoever to become embroiled in a crime of that magnitude. So what did the mighty Judge Schaefer have to say about me?”
“Just that the there was more than one person who expressed their doubts about the validity of you being named CEO by Alan Durand before he died.”