She pressed a hand to my chest, perhaps wanting to confirm my racing heart matched hers, which it did. And then she peered up at me, her chest heaving and her eyes wide, acting like the world had suddenly changed around us and I was the only constant.
“That was kind of amazing,” she whispered.
My smile was so big, it hurt.
It was amazing, and it was all because of her.
The day of Damon Lynch’s retirement party arrived, and Emery wore the green dress Jillian had sent to her, which I found fitting. She’d be wearing his daughter’s work when we cracked open Wayne Lambert’s safe, discovered his secrets, and Emery finally got the revenge she rightfully deserved.
The Lambert estate was only a decade old, but it had been built to look historic and match the other houses in Cape Hill. Even though she’d been there before, she surveyed the estate critically from the back seat of the Range Rover while we waited to unload at the front door.
She was understandably anxious, but I took her hand in mine and reminded her how prepared she was. Thursday and Friday we’d done dry runs, and she’d been flawless. Even still, if at any point she wanted to abort, she knew to do that. She already had one strike on her record, and she’d lose everything if she got caught.
We were one of the first couples to arrive, and that was by design. I wanted Emery to make an appearance before disappearing upstairs early in the evening, giving her as much time as possible to work on the safe.
When the back seat door opened and she stepped out of the car, it was like she’d flipped the switch on her nerves to the ‘off’ position. Emery’s smile was perfect and her eyes calm as we walked together up the stone steps to the front entrance. It was impressive how good she could be at playing a role.
Wayne and Serena Lambert were waiting in the foyer to greet their guests, and both sets of eyes lit up when they saw me. Wayne’s because he wanted to discuss his progress with the board, and Serena’s because . . . well, I was everything her husband wasn’t.
Even when I was dating her daughter, Serena had hinted that she wanted to have an affair with me. She found reasons to get me alone when I was visiting Jillian or had been invited over for dinner. She always had excuses to touch me, such as standing too close and putting a hand on my arm while laughing.
Her attempt at flirting was annoying, and I wasn’t interested. Even if I were—shit, my sex life was complicated enough at the time with Alice. I wasn’t about to add another married woman into the mix, especially the mother of my girlfriend.
We pressed on fake smiles and shook hands with our hosts. Wayne’s grip was uncomfortable and tight as he jerked me close. “I’ll come find you later so we can talk.”
“I’m sure you will,” I said.
We were ushered deeper inside the house, only to be led out a door and onto the back lawn. A massive white tent had been erected there, complete with portable air conditioners to combat the summer heat. Most people wouldn’t have bothered to send guests through their house, but Wayne wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to show off his place.
The entire Lynch family was already in the tent, and Duncan perked up as soon as he saw me. I swore under my breath as he got up from the table and headed straight for us.
“Do I need to steal his watch?” she whispered.
I doubted he wore one, and if he did . . . “He wouldn’t notice.”
So many of the guys I’d been ‘friends’ with during high school were douches, and Duncan was the king of them. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree for most of the families in Cape Hill, and Duncan was just like his father. Arrogant. Entitled. Spineless. He treated women the same way he treated his income—disposable.
There was no one else to talk to, though, so I was forced to introduce Duncan to Emery and put up with his inane conversation about his favorite places to go rock climbing.
From the moment we’d made it on the Lambert property, I felt the ticking clock. Even if the party were a bust, it’d last a minimum of three hours. I wanted to give her as much time as possible to get the safe unlocked, but we also had no idea what we were going to find inside. If there were hard drives or other devices, it could take a while to copy them.
Thankfully, more people began to arrive, including Royce and Marist, which gave us a chance to escape from Duncan.
Marist had a hand draped over her belly, and I wondered if she were subconsciously trying to shield her future son from the wicked gods of Cape Hill. She had to know he’d be a future king, continuing the Hale lineage. My father was quite pleased he was going to have a grandson.