Wild Dirty Secret(22)

She glanced pointedly at my eye, her disbelief clear. “You can tell me the truth. I already know, and I don’t judge you. Seriously, it’s about time. The only thing I’m surprised about is that you didn’t start with this one.”

She nodded at Philip, and I realized we had an audience. Philip was stone-faced, as he tended to be around Allie; exuberance made him nervous. Standing behind Allie was her fiancé, Colin. Though he filled the hallway, his stillness and stoicism caused him to blend into the background. I had always liked that about him. He was the blackness behind Allie’s bright star, each one vital to the other.

“Oh hey, Colin. Where’s pip-squeak?” I asked about Allie’s little girl. Bailey wasn’t Colin’s real daughter, but that didn’t stop him from doting on her.

“At preschool,” Allie said. “She goes two days a week now, which you’d know if you came by anymore. Nope, you’re not going to distract me. Tell me what happened and how we can help. Here, let’s go someplace private, where the guys aren’t glaring at each other.”

Colin also happened to be Philip’s brother, and last I heard, the two siblings weren’t speaking. They’d had a little falling-out last year when Philip had tried to kill Allie. I was surprised he’d even come, except that Allie probably insisted on seeing me, and Colin wouldn’t have let her come here alone—just in case.

“Allie,” Colin warned, apparently still concerned.

“The testosterone is suffocating.” She patted his chest, the gesture infused with both obstinacy and affection. “We need to have girl talk. You two try not to kill each other.”

Most likely Philip would be cordial, but just to make sure, I kissed him on the cheek to placate him before Allie and I shut ourselves into the library. I sank into the plush armchair, relieved to be away from the tension.

As soon as the heavy doors clicked shut, Allie whirled on me. “What the hell is going on?”

I explained what had happened, from Henri’s visit to the party. I omitted the part about Luke, knowing Allie would take the fact that I had run to him as a sign that we were an item. Behind all her bluster, she was constantly watching me. She knew something was there, and she thought Luke would be a good influence on me. If I told her what I’d overheard, she would defend him. Odd that she trusted him better than me.

“I wish you would have called me,” she said quietly.

“You know why I didn’t.” I would never let anything happen to Allie or her daughter. I had made that silent promise years ago, when a hurting Allie held a positive pregnancy test in her trembling hand. No matter what happened now, I could never regret my time with Henri, because it had given us all the security she and Bailey had needed.

She stood at the window. “One of these days, you’re going to have to rely on someone.”

A repeat of earlier? No, thank you. I much preferred my precarious position with Philip. Our relationship was like a stream, shimmering and shallow with no chance of drowning.

“How did you know to find me here?” I asked.

She flopped into an armchair beside mine. “I don’t want to tell you.”

“Do you guys have Philip under surveillance?”

She laughed. “No, but I like the way your mind works. I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to do anything stupid. Like leaving this very safe fortress to wander around the shittiest part of town. That counts as stupid, just so we’re clear.”

Excitement ran through me. This was a lead. “Jade called you,” I guessed.

Jade was a small-time madam with a few brothels in a seedy part of Chicago. She had been in the game a long time—an eternity, it seemed—and she knew everything that went down, everyone who went down. If she was contacting me, then she had information.

Allie scowled. “She showed up with a couple of muscle guys. Colin practically shit a brick to see those bozos come around the corner of the house. Apparently she doesn’t believe in phones. There is something wrong with that woman. And don’t say cultural differences. She’s not right in the head.”

I shrugged. “What did she say?”

“She claimed to have something important to tell you, that you have to visit her. She knew you were here, but she couldn’t come—”

“Without Henri finding out,” I finished. And since Colin was related to Philip, he could visit without arousing suspicion, like the childhood game of Telephone.

Allie continued. “I told her absolutely not. But at the time, I was going out of my mind trying to find you, wondering if you were hurt or… You know, and she made a deal to tell me where you were as long as I delivered the message. So, message delivered, and you’re not going anywhere.”