“Of course I’m not going to pretend. I’m here to talk to your mother, just like you are.”
“The question is, why are you here when you’re supposed to be back at the office?”
“Your mother called me. She offered to help in any way she could. I tried to get a hold of you, but you weren’t available. When she offered to talk to me instead, I accepted. I wanted to strike while the iron was hot. I didn’t do this to undermine you or go behind your back. I was trying to help. That’s all.”
He opened his mouth, his hand raised like he was about to jab a finger toward her to emphasize his point. Then he snapped his mouth shut, spun around and paced about five steps away. Only to turn back around, fists clenched at his side, and glare at her. “You do not need to be here.”
“I feel like she’s really starting to open up to me. Maybe I—”
“If you feel like she’s starting to open to you it’s because that’s what she wants you to feel.”
“You’re saying she’s manipulating me?”
“That’s what my mother does best.” Suddenly, there was no belligerence in his tone. No frustration. Just exhaustion. “Just go back to the office and let me handle her.”
She responded with as much honesty as she could. “I don’t think I should,” she answered simply. “I’m supposed to be helping you find the missing heiress. Your mother obviously has information that we need. If she’ll open up to me—”
“We don’t know that.”
“She must! And I’m sorry, but the fact that you can’t see that makes me question your judgment.”
“My judgment?”
“Yes, your judgment. This argument we’re having is ridiculous. I’m trying to do what’s best for Cain Enterprises and I really believe your mother will open up to me. You’ve admitted to me that you don’t get along with her. Maybe I’ll have more luck. Shouldn’t you at least let me try?”
*
And this, Griffin realized, was why sleeping with his assistant was a dumb-ass idea.
Marion might be nearing fifty and matronly, she might be a little slow to navigate the latest software and she might even be still reporting to his father—which he’d long suspected, but never had any firm evidence of—but at least Marion followed directions. If he’d sent her back to the office to dig pointlessly through boxes, she’d have done it with a cheerful smile and brought him cookies later.
But no, not Sydney. Because Sydney knew him too well to fall for his bull.
“Look, there is nothing wrong with my judgment. Let me question my mother.”
Her brow furrowed with doubt. Hoping to push the argument over the edge, he ran a knuckle across her cheek. Her eyelids dropped a fraction and she swayed just a little. And this was the advantage of sleeping with your assistant. At least when she was as responsive as Sydney was.
“Trust me,” he coaxed.
Her eyes snapped open. “Trust you?” She stepped back, putting more distance between them. “I’m supposed to just trust you? That’s really rich coming from a guy who won’t even let me glance at his Day-Timer.”
Where the hell had that come from? “That has nothing to do with this.”
Her gaze narrowed slightly. “Try to see it from my point of view. How am I supposed to trust you when you never explain anything? Do you deny that you’re hiding things from me?”
He turned away from her and stared out at the lush green lawns of the golf course. He gritted his teeth. “I was just trying to protect you.”
“I don’t understand…protect me from what?” Her expression was blank with confusion.
“I’m trying to protect you from my parents. They’re not nice people,” he admitted. “Bitter. Angry. Manipulative. Pits of nuclear waste are less toxic. And things at the house have only gotten worse since this crap with the heiress started. Why the hell would I want to expose you to that?”
He heard her steps behind him, felt the air shift as she propped her hip against the limestone. The rock was cool beneath his palms. Solid and strong. Everything about the country club, everything about this entire neighborhood was designed to convey strength and power. It was designed to intimidate and exclude.
He waited for her to speak, but when she didn’t say anything, he finally looked up at her.
Though her body was facing him, she’d turned her head to stare out over the lawn, too. “So you think…what? That she would intimidate me?”
There was confusion in her voice, but also something else. Something he couldn’t quite identify. Like she was hurt maybe.