“I didn’t know where you were staying,” I said. “And if I had, I still wouldn’t have come by.”
“So you’d rather watch me through my window?”
“No,” I said. “That was Fernando’s idea.”
Fernando snarled at him, baring his sharp teeth.
“Wow. It’s a pleasure to meet the infamous Fernando in the flesh,” Silas said. “I’ve read so much about you.”
Of course he had. He must have read my book forward and back, searching for the secrets to my weaknesses. We weren’t supposed to read people’s books if it wasn’t an emergency. Thoseof the library employees were kept under lock and key, so he shouldn’t have been able to find out anything about me at all. I should have figured out how he’d managed it, and looked him up first.
“You look concerned,” Silas said to me. “It’s only good things, I promise. Come in…unless you’d rather sit out here and watch.”
“No,” I said. “We’ll come in.”
Fernando growled again.
Silas reached into a bag on the floor and pulled something out—a chocolate bar—and offered it to Fernando. “I hear you like snacks.”
“Everyone likes snacks,” I said.
Fernando grabbed the chocolate with both hands, showed it to me, his wide eye beaming, and bounced on his toes with pure delight. He popped the candy into his mouth, wrapper and all.
Fernando bounded through the window, wrapped his arms around Silas’s leg, and said, “Frens.”
It had been two against one, inmyfavor. But there went my partner—straight across enemy lines, with open arms.
CHAPTER 15
“You told me he was the bad guy.” I climbed through the window, put my hands on my hips, and shot Fernando my most disapproving glare. “Now you’re hugging him?
I wasn’t surprised, really, or even disappointed. It wasn’t Fernando’s fault he had a soft spot for sweets. This entire situation was Silas’s fault for tempting him.
“And you,” I said, turning my ire to Silas. “What exactly did you read about Fernando? And how did you know we were here? Have you been keeping tabs on me?”
“I knew you were here when I heard you banging around on the ladder and then saw you spying through my window,” Silas said. “It’s difficult to see how that would lead you to believeIhave been spying onyou.”
“You couldn’t have heard us. We were quiet,” I said, knowing it was a pathetic response.
“As quiet as a herd of elephants.”
“Impossible.”
He shrugged. “Thin glass.”
“Thin excuse.”
“As to where I read about Fernando—”
“You managed to get your hands on my book,” I said. “I must admit it’s deviously impressive. But now I have something to hold over you. I can simply tell the boss—”
“Not everything is about you, Lily,” Silas said.
My stomach hardened into a knot. How dare he. “You certainly seem bent on making it that way, constantly inserting yourself into my life, now not just professionally, but personally as well.”
“I didn’t read your book, Lily.”
I opened my mouth and snapped it back shut. The wheels turned in my head, trying to figure out how he could have gleaned information about Fernando otherwise.