“Legal counsel came in the day after you fired her.”
So that’s where it started. “To help me figure out if I could do anything to stop Tanner’s firm from using the information he stole. The meeting was not about seeking revenge on Thea.”
Tim’s eyes narrowed and he continued to stare, as if trying to weigh the truth of Linc’s comments. Silence ticked by for a few seconds before Tim piped up. “Then there’s no reason to track her down.”
He tucked his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. The guy was long and lean and looked all of nineteen. Linc had studied his employment file and knew the guy was about a decade older than that, but the boyish face hid his age.
HR had hired Tim right around the time Thea came on. The file talked about his degrees and work on projects for NASA. The general sense was Campbell got lucky in grabbing the guy. Linc had agreed with that assessment until the Thea situation exploded. Now Linc just wanted to punch the guy in the face for knowing where she was when he didn’t.
Instead of fists, Linc tried for diplomacy, which rarely worked as a strategy for him. That’s why Thea turned out to be so vital in the office. She frequently saved them all from his quick-to-trigger temper, and that was only one of many talents.
“Maybe I want to talk with her.” No maybes about it. He had to talk with her. The way they left it ate at him. The hurt in her eyes and how her body curled into itself as if he’d been landing body blows instead of just trying to reason with her.
If it was all a con, she was a great actress. If she wasn’t then he was the biggest dick of all time. Didn’t matter if he had evidence, pushing her out like that would be unforgiveable. He never thought he’d be in a position to hope for her stealing.
“Why now?” Tim asked.
The guy didn’t appear even a little fazed at the idea of sitting across the desk from his boss and spouting off. Linc liked a tighter hold on respect, but he needed Tim and cut him some silent slack.
But that could end at any moment, and when it did Linc would likely lunge across the desk at the guy. “Excuse me?”
“You didn’t talk to her for five weeks. Why on week six do you need to find her so badly?”
Interesting Tim knew all that. Linc hoped that meant Thea talked about him now and then. Though she probably limited the conversation to calling him names. “She rented out her condo.”
“I know.”
Of course he did. Everyone knew more about Thea than Linc did. “Is she still in town?”
“Will I get fired if I don’t answer?”
So damn tempting. “No.”
“Then I’m going to decline and go back to my desk.” Tim didn’t wait for permission or even a dismissal, he turned around and walk away.
Linc bit back his anger as the younger man got to the door. “What if I’d said yes to your question?”
Tim turned and his smile suggested he’d expected the question. “Then I guess I would have been escorted to the street like Thea was.”
“Are the two of you dating?” The question slipped out before Linc could call it back. Probably because the sick possibility played like a never-ending horror movie in his head. The idea of him shutting Thea out only to have her crawl into Tim’s arms… Linc balled his hands into fists and dug his nails into his palms before the thought could go any further.
The investigator’s report didn’t talk about boyfriends. The conclusion had been she dated infrequently, pretty much never, since her parents’ deaths.
Linc held on to that thought because right now it was his only hope.
“Can I be honest?” Tim asked as his frown deepened.
The guy acted as if he’d been professional up until now. Hardly. “This is a personal conversation, not a work one. Nothing you say will impact your position here.”
“Interesting.”
Linc rocked back in his chair. “Meaning?”
“The way you separate personal and work when it comes to me but not Thea.” Tim didn’t laugh but amusement filled his voice.
Linc didn’t find one thing about this damn situation funny, and he already regretted calling the other man in. Still, Linc had a specific fact he needed or the tightness in his chest might not pass. “Answer my question.”
“You’re somewhat clueless about what’s happening around you.”
That amounted to the step too far. Linc put his boss hat back on and lowered his voice to threat level to let Tim know what was coming if he didn’t watch what he said. “You might want to rethink the way you’re talking to me.”
“You said this was personal.”
“I still demand respect.”
Tim didn’t roll his eyes but he looked like he wanted to. “You asked who I’m dating, which is none of your business, but we’re just chatting so I’ll point out that I’d think if you looked around you’d know the answer to that.”
That comment didn’t help one bit. “What’s with all the cryptic bullshit?”
Tim shook his head as he stared at the floor. “I’ll let Thea know you’re looking for her. That’s the best I can offer.”
“You can give me her new phone number.” It was unlisted but he’d ordered his investigator to get it and locate her.
Watching Tim, Linc came up with an easier way to get the information. A way that would let him see her and make sure she was okay without going directly through this guy.
“No, I can’t,” Tim said.
Linc almost missed the comment because he’d buzzed right past it to another option. “Why?”
This time Tim didn’t bother to hide his smile. “She specifically asked me not to let you have it.”
Chapter Five
Thea hadn’t been to the house at Skaneateles Lake since before her parents died but when the bottom dropped out of her life she’d headed there. So many powerful memories, all of them good.
When she arrived weeks ago, she feared walking through the red front door would somehow suck the good times away, possibly break her, but the opposite happened. As the days passed, being in the cottage they’d cherished gave her strength, and right now she needed as much as she could muster.
For as long as she could remember, they’d spent summers here, hiking and boating. During winter vacations from school, and over her mother’s complaints about tramping through a foot of snow, Dad would drag them up to New York for skiing and cuddling around the fire. He insisted it was a family tradition, and it likely was.
Her father’s father had picked the lot with four hundred feet of lake frontage sitting back from the main road on a private drive. Then he started building. Family lore said he stopped when he ran out of money, but until he died he denied the charge. He declared one bedroom big enough for a house and argued that kids could sleep on the couch. He also argued it didn’t need air conditioning or heat. Thea’s mom put her foot down on the heat part, and that was added at some point.
But no one dared argue with Grandfather. Not even Thea’s dad when his father insisted the house never be expanded. Her dad said adding onto the place would only mess up the view of the sixteen-mile lake and the long dock over the clear water, and kept it small.
Over the years, larger homes had sprouted up around the lake, around most of the Finger Lakes in central New York, actually. But locals and the old-timers preferred the small summer cottages. Sitting on the front porch now with her feet propped up on the railing, she understood her grandfather’s plea.
Leaves rustled as a cool fall wind blew over her. Not that she felt it. She’d bundled up in layers and topped them off with a heavy sweater and leggings. Back in DC the outfit probably would be too much for the time of year. Not here.
The snow came early in fall and stayed until spring. It was early November. It had snowed four inches last week and melted already, but she could smell the water on the crisp air. That meant additional inches were on the way. She’d stocked up on supplies and checked the generator just in case.
Between the quaint center of town two miles away and the city of Syracuse within twenty minutes, she didn’t find the location isolated. The two cottages on either side were seasonal rentals and both stood empty, but that was fine. She had access to an emergency generator, all the food she needed and a charged cell phone.
If she could stop throwing up, everything would be fine.
She tipped her head back and rocked on the chair’s spindly legs. Linc had flipped her life upside down when he fired her nine weeks ago. Her little surprise a few weeks later had flipped it again. She’d been choking up her breakfast and every other bit of food she put in her mouth ever since.
The balmy DC summer had given way to a chilly New York fall…and she was pregnant. She had the eight positive tests and prescription vitamins in the bathroom to prove it.
So far the pregnancy had been uneventful except for the constant barfing. That and the prospect of being a single mom, which had anxiety bubbling inside her twenty-four hours a day. She’d lost her family, so building one meant everything to her. Doing it alone had her rearranging priorities and worrying nonstop.
Linc deserved to know he was going to be a dad and she would never hide the important information from him, but there was no reason to give a too-early head’s up to a guy who hated her. Once the critical period of the first twelve weeks was behind her she’d call…or write…or whisper a message on his machine. None of the options sounded great to her because they promised a huge confrontation, and the idea of seeing him, dealing with his fury, made her queasy all over again.