Sleight Mistake (Stone Investigations Book 2) Page 7

  ‘Doesn’t explain why she was like this before the pregnancy,’ he mumbled.

  Letting one of her hands rise to still his, she peeked over her shoulder at him. ‘She’s terrified about becoming a parent. She thought Bruce was a better bet, that he would be there for her and have the means to support her, and now she fears he’s cheating. Sorcha could find herself alone if Shep comes up with evidence to support Bruce’s cheating.’

  ‘And if he does, are you sure that Sorcha will leave him?’

  She wasn’t. Sorcha might be too afraid to embark on this journey by herself and she had been raised to believe that appearances were important. Not marrying the father of her child would send Sorcha into uncharted territory. As bold as her friend could be, Lacie wasn’t sure that Sorcha coveted the role of pioneer.

  ‘We should go down the stairs,’ Lacie said, patting his hand. ‘I feel better.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yeah,’ she said.

  Rising from the couch, she used her link with his hand to bring him to his feet too. With another gulp of her champagne, she put the glass aside.

  ‘If you start to feel anxious or you need some time out from the party…’

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ she said. Smiling, she took his glass away from him and they headed out for a return trip downstairs.

  By the time they walked into the party, they were almost an hour late. After being delayed at home and then their trip upstairs, time had mounted. Sorcha would have been expecting them at the commencement of the party, and Lacie could only hope that Sorch had been too busy basking in the adoration of the guests to notice their tardiness.

  ‘We don’t have to do this,’ Ryder said, as they followed the sign indicating the engagement party location.

  ‘Sorcha’s going to kill me,’ Lacie muttered, looking around for the familiar face of her friend.

  ‘I care about you, not her,’ Ryder said. ‘If you’re uncomfortable—‘

  ‘Why would I be uncomfortable?’ Lacie asked, turning to walk beside him so that she could look into his eyes. ‘You’re here. You’re not going to leave me to the hounds if there are any, are you?’

  ‘No—‘

  ‘My boyfriend’s a bodyguard,’ Lacie said, squeezing his hand with both of hers. ‘Sorcha got it right. How many ways do you know how to kill a person?’

  ‘One’s enough,’ Ryder said. ‘But I believe in variety.’

  Lacie leaned in close. ‘I know. I share a bed with you.’

  Ryder dipped near her when she stopped outside the open function room doors. But Sorcha’s sudden arrival stopped him before they could seal their kiss.

  ‘Lacie! Where have you been?’ Sorcha exclaimed and rushed up beside them to grab Lacie’s arm.

  ‘Sorry we’re late,’ Lacie said, but Sorcha wasn’t listening.

  ‘It’s a nightmare in here. Bruce is too busy drinking with his cousins to notice everyone staring at my stomach.’

  Sorcha wore a sand coloured dress that draped beautifully but she was very pregnant and there was no way to disguise that now.

  ‘You get over there and tell him to get with it,’ Sorcha commanded Ryder. ‘Lace, you’re with me.’

  Sorcha began to walk with Lacie in her clutches but Ryder didn’t let go so Lacie rebounded against him.

  ‘Not tonight, Sorch,’ Ryder said.

  ‘Uh, it’s my party,’ Sorcha said.

  ‘Cry if you want to,’ Ryder said, not swayed by Sorcha’s declaration. ‘But I’m not leaving Lacie tonight. You get two for the price of one right here.’

  ‘Who’s going to tell Bruce to forget about his stupid cousins?’ she asked, at a loss as to what to do if Ryder wouldn’t step in.

  ‘Bruce and I don’t exactly know—‘ Ryder began.

  Lacie cut him off. ‘I can talk to him if—‘

  ‘You’re not going near him,’ Ryder said and his ease became anger.

  ‘Which reminds me,’ Sorcha said, coming nearer and decreasing her volume. ‘Ixnay on the… you know.’

  ‘No one knows about what happened?’ Lacie said, finding it difficult to believe no one knew about Bruce’s involvement with Jamie Wallace and her kidnap.

  ‘Except they do,’ Ryder said, cutting through the bullshit. ‘They know what happened to Lacie. They must know about Bruce’s involvement as well.’

  ‘Well… yeah…’ Sorcha said. ‘But we’re not talking about it.’

  ‘It’s fine,’ Lacie said. Their group of three began to move into the sparkling room filled with champagne, and finely dressed society, which were all encompassed in the melody of the string band.

  Sorcha snagged a glass of champagne and downed half of it. ‘I thought this was supposed to be fun,’ Sorcha grumbled when they stopped just inside the door. ‘Bruce just ignores me. This isn’t how I expected…’ She trailed off and gulped more champagne.

  ‘I wish you wouldn’t do that,’ Lacie said, scowling at the champagne in Sorcha’s hand. ‘You know how I—‘

  ‘Ryder Stone.’

  The booming voice drew all of their attention away from Sorcha’s drinking. Tellingly, Sorcha shoved the flute into Lacie’s hand. The man approaching was Lawrence Reynolds himself, not a man known for being easily impressed or won round. At his side was his smaller, but by no means meek, wife, Amelia Reynolds, Sorcha’s mother.

  ‘Lawrence,’ Ryder said, accepting the hand Lawrence held out. The men shook hands like old friends—like close, trusted compadres.

  ‘I didn’t realise you’d been invited to this thing. It’s good to see a friend.’ Lawrence Reynolds didn’t need to vocalise his boredom. This was a man who pandered to his girls, or at least enabled his wife to.

  ‘I’m plus one tonight,’ Ryder said, lifting his hand joined to Lacie’s, while Lacie put Sorcha’s flute aside.

  ‘So I see,’ Lawrence said, smiling at the couple. ‘Lacie, this is a surprise. Stone’s a vast improvement on anything we’ve seen you with before, though I have to say we rarely see you with anyone.’

  ‘And you won’t,’ Ryder said. ‘No one but me.’ Ryder kissed the back of Lacie’s hand.

  ‘Is that so,’ Lawrence said, nodding in approval. ‘You’ve been tight lipped about this, both of you. How did it…? Oh, your disappearance, were you—‘

  ‘She’s here where she belongs,’ Ryder said.

  ‘Shame for you, Sorcha,’ Lawrence said. ‘You’ve missed a great one here. It’s a shame you didn’t find this one first.’

  ‘Before our Sorcha found Bruce, or before Lacie got to our Ryder?’ Amelia Reynolds said.

  Lacie saw the way Amelia Reynolds smiled at Ryder. The woman hadn’t lost that sparkling flirtation of her youth but Amelia kept her hand in the crook of Lawrence’s arm proving that she adored her husband. Sorcha on the other hand was positively fuming, though she kept her plastic smile in place.

  ‘I love my girl, Lawrence,’ Ryder said. ‘She turned my head. I knew it in that first minute.’

  ‘You’re a serious man,’ Lawrence said. ‘I know what happens when you’ve made up your mind.’ Lawrence turned his attention to Lacie. ‘It’s about time for you, girlie, you’re a good girl. You’re a lucky man, Ryder.’ The men shook hands again.

  ‘I know it.’

  ‘Shame you don’t have your friend’s taste,’ Lawrence said to Sorcha.

  ‘Lawrence,’ Amelia chastised with a smile. ‘Our daughter’s taste is…’ No one knew quite how to finish that thought.

  ‘Where is Booth?’ Lawrence asked and they all looked around to no avail.

  ‘Daddy, he’s hosting. This is our party,’ Sorcha said and Lacie realised Sorcha would spend most of their married lives making excuses.

  ‘Stone, come and sit at our table,’ Lawrence said, slapping a hand to his shoulder. ‘There are some people I want to introduce you to. And I want to talk shop with you for a while.’

  ‘Not tonight, Lawrence, like I said I’m plus one.’

  ‘It’s ok,’ Sor
cha said, grabbing Lacie. ‘We’ll do a few laps together.’

  ‘I’m Lacie’s date,’ Ryder said.

  ‘I can go with Sorcha,’ Lacie said, but Ryder didn’t release her hand. ‘I’ll stay in your eye line.’

  ‘Wow, how insecure are you, Ryder?’ Sorcha asked, not disguising her snort of disapproval.

  Before Lacie looked to the floor, she saw that each face around them was flabbergasted by Sorcha’s words.

  ‘He’s looking out for me,’ Lacie said, revealing more of herself than she ordinarily would in such a large group. ‘I was uncomfortable tonight. I have some trouble with strangers.’

  ‘Sit with us,’ Lawrence said. ‘No one will approach you at our table.’

  ‘Uh, who’s going to work the party with me?’ Sorcha demanded.

  ‘Find Booth,’ Ryder said, noticing that Lawrence was muttering to himself as he glared around the room, presumably trying to find Bruce.

  ‘He’s busy,’ Sorcha said.

  ‘Hello all, you guys keeping the party all to yourselves?’ Sadie approached from the side to invade their group. Sidling up close to Ryder, she widened her smile.

  ‘There, take your sister,’ Lawrence said to Sorcha and held his arm out for Lacie who linked her hand into his elbow while keeping the other hand in Ryder’s.

  Sorcha wanted to argue and Sadie wanted to say something to their father’s command. But Lacie didn’t leave the protection between these men. She’d save Sorcha in a while, once she had her bearings.

  Chapter Seven

  Of all the Reynolds parties Lacie had been to this engagement party was the best by far, with the last one coming a close second. The fact that Ryder was at her side for the duration wasn’t lost on her. She had come to realise that just having him around made a host of activities more fun.

  Ryder and Lawrence spent most of the night in conversation but Ryder’s hand remained on her thigh throughout their discussions.

  ‘How you doing?’ Ryder asked, turning his lips down to her temple. ‘Do you need anything?’

  ‘You,’ she said.

  The corner of his mouth slid upward. ‘Right here?’

  ‘I meant in life,’ she said, nudging him. ‘Everything you’re doing, that’s what I need.’

  ‘Lawrence wants an invite to our party.’

  ‘What party?’ she asked.

  ‘Our engagement,’ Ryder said.

  ‘StoneWall’s party is tomorrow night,’ she said, reminding him of the event. ‘Invite him to that.’

  ‘That’s not a classy event like this,’ Ryder said, scanning the door. ‘It will be one step above a frat party.’

  Taking her attention away from the partygoers around her, she did a little teasing of her own. ‘Thanks for the warning,’ Lacie said. ‘I wasn’t warned about the mandatory alcohol poisoning and group sex.’

  His hand found its way under the hem of her dress. ‘Get as drunk as you like,’ Ryder said, leaning in closer. ‘Sex is required but the group part is plain absurd. Do I seem like the sharing type?’

  He kissed her but she deliberately tipped her chin down to keep it chaste. ‘A party like this isn’t us,’ Lacie said, looking out into the room.

  ‘It’s not?’

  She observed the faces and the glamour surrounding them. The details of the environment emphasised the highly convoluted situation. ‘You have to get the business up and running again before we can think about having any kind of party for ourselves,’ she said, not ready to start planning their own engagement party.

  ‘We exchange on Tuesday,’ Ryder said. ‘We’ll never have to see that place again.’

  ‘What happens next?’ she asked. ‘Have you decided?’

  ‘Actually I have,’ he said and she stopped moving to blink up at him.

  She hadn’t expected him to respond in the affirmative. He hadn’t hinted to her about any plans he’d made or places he’d scoped out. ‘You have?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, keeping his head up, though his smug smile teased her.

  Squeezing his thigh, she was too intrigued to play with him. ‘Tell me.’

  ‘I’m going to let you see the place when it’s finished,’ he said, pulling her closer and kissing her head. ‘I want it to be a surprise.’

  ‘I’m not sure I like surprises,’ she said, accepting that he was keeping her in the dark about this development. He did seem pleased with himself, so she took it on faith that he was doing something positive.

  ‘You’ll like this one,’ he said.

  Ryder was confident. When it came to business, and to her, he knew what he was doing. Being involved in the process would put pressure on her and ultimately, this was his place of business, so it was right that he made all the decisions about it. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t be eagle-eyed in her search for clues as to what he was setting up.

  The knock on her apartment door had speared Lacie with hope. When she opened it to reveal Sorcha, Lacie was frustrated with her foolish hope that Ryder would have dropped by. He wouldn’t drop by unannounced, not when he delighted in teasing her about what he was doing at his new place of business. It had been a week since the engagement party where he’d revealed the existence of this secret plan. Despite her attempts to wheedle more information out of him, she was no further forward in deciphering what he was up to. Ryder knew how to be covert.

  Seeing Sorcha happy boosted Lacie’s mood. Bruce had been more attentive and Sorcha had spent the morning with her future mother-in-law buying clothes for the baby. While showing off her wares, Sorcha beamed, and Lacie dared to hope that they’d been wrong about Bruce’s infidelity.

  Ryder had been manic, so busy in fact that Lacie had spent the majority of the week alone, which reminded her of how empty her life was without him. He could be overprotective sometimes, but he was a bodyguard who had seen the worst of life and he wanted to shield her from those things. Lacie should have been more grateful for the man who adored her and could think of nothing worse than losing her again. She felt like she hadn’t truly appreciated him, not until he was too busy to spoil her with his attention.

  Her days had been filled with work and her muse had always been with her through every peak and valley in her life. In spite of all those hours alone with her clay, Lacie was still preoccupied by Ryder, where he was and what he was doing.

  Usually when she was worried or distracted, a few hours with her clay would make the world right again. Ryder had become her grounding point and as much as she missed him, she was also excited by what he had in store. It was important to her that he had focus and this new venture, she hoped, would be it.

  The two women had been seated in Lacie’s apartment for a little more than an hour. Sorcha had been talking for a while, but Lacie had no idea what her friend was saying. When her eye caught the clock on the windowsill, she tensed and straightened her posture.

  ‘I should get going,’ Lacie said, cutting Sorcha off mid-sentence.

  ‘You have that thing with Monty today,’ Sorcha said, taking another cookie from the plate Lacie had brought from the kitchen for her on her arrival. ‘For the exhibit. Are you excited?’

  ‘I should be,’ Lacie said, mustering a pathetic smile.

  Sorcha admired her cookie as she chewed a chunk then swallowed it. ‘Are you doing that piece for Darwin? He’s been very understanding about the delays and everything.’

  ‘He met Ryder,’ Lacie said. It turned out, he could be quite a useful weapon in her arsenal.

  ‘Ryder scared him?’ Sorcha asked, brushing crumbs from her thigh.

  Ryder was more of a diplomat than Sorcha might give him credit for. During their dinner with Darwin, Ryder had been attentive and managed to win Darwin’s favour despite the businessman appearing perturbed when they sat down together.

  ‘Ryder didn’t scare him, but… Darwin is happy being patient,’ Lacie said, focusing on the cookie plate. ‘I’m not really in the mood to work on commissions.’

  ‘You agreed to do the exh
ibition with Monty.’

  ‘He’s a friend and he hasn’t put any pressure on me,’ Lacie said. The agreement had been made weeks ago and the date had seemed so far away, Lacie had been sure she would be back in top form. But work still took a lot out of her and she knew she wasn’t yet back at her best. ‘He’s marketing it as a career re-launch. Since the abduction there has been more interest in my work. Monty’s been handling all of the press interest. He’s been great.’

  ‘He runs a small, private gallery,’ Sorcha said. ‘You’re a star. He gains notoriety with you.’

  ‘He’s been good to me,’ Lacie said, not happy with the implication that Monty’s motives had been anything other than noble.

  ‘I know,’ Sorcha said, swaying toward Lacie to snag her hand on her knee. ‘I love him, you know I do.’

  ‘Jimmy too,’ Lacie said, never forgetting the hard work Jimmy had put in over the last couple of months for her.

  Jimmy was Monty’s young assistant at the gallery. He’d been obsessed with Lacie for years, but it was harmless infatuation that usually manifested in the youngster losing the ability to form complete sentences whenever she was around. His admiration never failed to humble Lacie.

  ‘Yes, of course. Jimmy is a misguided sweetheart,’ Sorcha said.

  ‘I have to get going,’ Lacie said. If they got onto a new topic of conversation then she would be delayed and she didn’t want to be late. Monty might believe something had happened to her and she didn’t want to cause anyone to worry.

  Sorcha gathered up the baby clothing, and Lacie helped her pack it up. They folded each item back in its crisp paper and boxed it or bagged it where necessary. The baby was due in eight weeks. A new human would be in the world, and Sorcha would be responsible for that new life. Seeing Sorcha engaged with that reality filled Lacie with hope, but she couldn’t join in the joy.

  The cookies and cups were cleaned up in the kitchen, then both women donned their outdoor gear. They were approaching the door when there was another knock.

  ‘Doesn’t Ryder have a key?’ Sorcha asked, stopping just a few feet from the door.

  ‘Yes,’ Lacie said. While she wasn’t expecting anyone, Lacie didn’t hold out hope that Ryder was on the other side of that door because she hadn’t seen much of him during daylight this week. Passing Sorcha, she opened the door to find that she was right. ‘Shep?’