“Yes.”
“It was inevitable. If he gives you a hard time again, please let me know.
“I can manage Kehoe.”
“Good. I realize it’s not an easy position I’ve put you and Josh in, having to report both to Kehoe and myself. Anything else about Kehoe?”
Rigo hesitated. “I catch him looking at Ms. Reed at times.”
Dylan narrowed his gaze. “Like Schaefer looks at her?”
“No. More like . . . he’s trying to figure something out about her or see some characteristic that’s invisible. He studies her.”
Dylan nodded slowly. “Yeah. I think I’ve caught him at it a time or two.”
“Sir, I’d like to suggest again that we consider phone surveillance.”
Dylan closed his eyes briefly at Rigo’s familiar urging. “I’m the CEO of Durand Enterprises, not the head of the FBI, Sal.”
“You’re the CEO of an extensive, privately held company. You have a right to know what’s happening in your domain.”
“You call it ‘right to know,’ but I call what you’re talking about corporate espionage. I have no grounds for ordering something like that at this point. The other problem with your argument is that I’m not worried about Durand Enterprises. I’m worried about Alice. And unfortunately, no one, including the sheriff of Morgantown, believes I have any solid grounds for being concerned about Sebastian Kehoe at this point. By all accounts, he’s an upstanding, respected citizen.” He noticed Sal’s upraised brows. “We’ll proceed with my plans for the present,” he said levelly. “Did you have any other observations?”
“Just one other thing. I noticed Sidney Gates talking very intently to her tonight at the cocktail party, but I couldn’t get close enough to hear what they were saying. I do think Ms. Reed became . . . upset in a subdued kind of way at one point.”
“I noticed that, too,” Dylan said thoughtfully. He’d also wondered what his good friend had been saying to Alice when he noticed her stiff expression and tense posture. He exhaled. “Well, I think that’s it for now. Thank you for the briefing. I’ll see you out,” he said, starting to walk around his desk. He noticed Rigo’s hesitation and paused. “Is there something else?” Dylan asked.
“I was just thinking it might be best to bring in two other people from Durand security for Ms. Reed’s night watch so they could have days off. I could recommend another good man.”
“That won’t be necessary. The fewer people involved in this the better. I don’t expect this situation of Alice sleeping beyond the security of Castle Durand to last for long,” Dylan said grimly.
“Of course, sir. And I can see myself out. Good night.”
“Good night.”
Dylan doubted very seriously it would be a good night. Certainly it’d be a sleepless one.
Several images flashed into his mind’s eye like a video clip: Alice’s pale, shocked face when he’d threatened to send Schaefer home, her determined refusal to meet his eyes as she left the house tonight. As she’d walked out, she’d been surrounded by Schaefer and her friends in what irritably struck Dylan as a protective cadre.
He recalled her disembodied whisper emanating from the darkness.
I remember Addie.
He was desperate to know what she’d experienced, but she’d denied him. One look at the stubborn tilt of her chin and the suppressed fury on her face had said it all. Alice wouldn’t be returning to the castle for any clandestine meetings with him for the time being. She was angry, yes, but he knew her well enough to recognize her confusion, as well. She was having trouble telling up from down in this new world in which she found herself.
For now, he had no choice but to accept defeat. But it would definitely be a temporary one.
THE night after the Alumni Dinner, Kuvi walked out of the bathroom and caught Alice peering between two closed blinds.
“Do you think he’s out there?” Kuvi asked in a conspiratorial whisper.
Alice started and the blinds snapped shut. “Jesus, you scared me.”
“You’ve been awfully jumpy. You didn’t sleep last night, did you?” Kuvi asked as she crossed over to her dresser.
“I don’t know how you can possibly know that since you were sleeping like a baby,” Alice said, rolling her eyes.
“This morning, your bed looked like you’d been holding a wrestling match in it,” Kuvi said loftily, shutting a drawer with a snap. “As if your grouchy mood today wasn’t enough to tell me that I wasn’t the one you wanted to be spending the night with. And you never answered my question. Do you think Dylan is out there in the woods?”