Operation Homecoming Page 6

  Cutter then turned to the other man, a muscular guy with a buzz cut who appeared quite a bit younger, who crouched down to the dog’s eye level.

  “Hey, buddy,” he crooned, “how ya doing?” As he went for that same spot behind the ear, Walker wondered if that would work for him even as he cataloged the man as, judging from the trace of a drawl, “that cute Texas boy” Amy had mentioned. Texas, anyway, he was no judge of cute.

  Except maybe Amy. But she wasn’t cute, not really. She was too serious for cute. But attractive? Oh, yeah. That had happened.

  “Rafe, Liam, you remember my dearest, best friend Amy Clark, from the wedding?” Hayley asked. Walker cataloged the names and faces instinctively.

  “Of course,” the taller man who had to be Rafe said. “Welcome back.”

  “Who could forget you?” the younger one asked rather blatantly. Walker saw the dark-haired man’s eyes roll slightly, but affectionately, while Amy herself merely laughed.

  “Anyone,” she said, “but I’m glad you didn’t. It’s good to see you both again.”

  With another woman who looked like this one, Walker would have thought the charming, self-effacing demeanor an act. But with Amy he knew it was likely for real, born of years when being overlooked had been a rare blessing.

  “So,” Rafe said as he took a sip from the coffee cup he held and shifted his gaze to Walker, “the prodigal brother returns.”

  Walker realized he was being studied, and from the man’s expression, not favorably.

  “Not exactly,” Walker said drily. “He got a warmer welcome.”

  The man lifted a dark eyebrow. “Figure you deserve one?”

  Okay, so no punches pulled there. “No. But your boss already decked me, so I’d appreciate it if you’d restrain.”

  The younger man straightened and looked at him consideringly. “I thought he looked a mite satisfied when he came in this morning.” Liam’s gaze flicked to Hayley. “More than usual, I mean.”

  “Liam Burnett, you brat,” Hayley said, clearly joking but with a tinge of pink in her cheeks. “Where is he anyway?”

  “Upstairs on the phone with Teague,” Rafe said.

  Hayley seemed to hone in quickly on that. “Any news?”

  “He’s onto something, yeah,” Liam answered. “I think he needed to know how far Quinn wants him to go.”

  Hayley’s gaze shifted to Rafe. “You okay with that? You did the heavy lifting on this, after all.”

  Rafe gave her a one-shoulder shrug. “As long as payment is extracted, I don’t care who the tool is.”

  “As long as it’s Foxworth,” Liam added.

  “Assumed,” Rafe agreed.

  Walker glanced at Amy, who seemed as in the dark as he was. Yet something about their manner kept him from asking. He doubted he would get an answer, anyway, although Amy might. Nobody here was going to trust him.

  And from their point of view, they were right, he told himself. Being Hayley’s brother wasn’t going to win him points here. Being the brother who had abandoned her was more likely to make him a pariah. It was obvious they all liked and respected her, counted her as one of them. And he was glad of that. Even if she never forgave him, he was glad of that.

  Cutter’s head came up, and he trotted briskly toward the stairs. A moment later Walker heard footsteps coming down. Quinn appeared, tucking a phone into his pocket. He seemed to pause for a split second when he spotted Walker. Maybe he’ll just throw me out, he thought.

  Hayley went to him and gave him a hug. The big man’s arm went around her protectively. And as far as Walker could see, the only person here Quinn would think she needed protecting from was him.

  But Quinn didn’t linger on him. He looked at Hayley. “So?”

  “Yes, we have an inquiry, at the least.”

  Walker frowned. He didn’t like that whatever Amy had wanted to discuss with Hayley, it was enough to get Quinn and his foundation involved. He didn’t like the idea that her problem was that serious.

  Quinn looked at Amy. “Your boss?”

  She looked hesitant, even reluctant.

  “Might be just as likely we can exonerate him,” Quinn said. “We always try, if someone’s not certain.”

  Her expression cleared. “Oh. Yes. I’d much prefer that.”

  Quinn nodded, then looked at Rafe and Liam. “This is sort of a family thing, if you two have other things to do.”

  “Hey!” Liam protested. “We’re family!”

  “Unless,” Rafe put in quietly, “Amy would prefer it.”

  Liam subsided at that, looking a bit embarrassed.

  “It’s just that there isn’t much,” Amy said. “I’m not sure it’s worth your time.”

  “Liam was right. Family,” Rafe said, “isn’t just blood.”

  The man’s gaze flicked to Walker, and Walker read the look as clearly as if the man had spoken. And blood isn’t always family.

  No, there was no welcome for the prodigal brother here. No open arms, no homecoming celebration.

  Just the silent suggestion that he shouldn’t have come home at all.

  Chapter 8

  “I’m not at all sure there’s anything to this,” Amy said.

  Quinn smiled at her. “Only one way to find out.”

  “But I don’t want you to...mobilize Foxworth when maybe I’m just being... I mean, I’ve always thought my boss was a good guy, and...”

  “And he may be,” Quinn said. “Look, Amy, we’re here, we’re not busy at the moment, so let us put your mind at ease if nothing else.”

  “But if he finds out I’m poking around, I could lose my job. They’re not that thick on the ground these days.”

  “That’s why you let us do it. If we find anything, he’ll never connect you to the search. And you can call it off at any time, if you really want to.”

  She looked out the expansive windows of the upstairs meeting room. They took up nearly the whole wall, and looked out over the meadow. The meadow where just three months ago Hayley and this man had taken the pledge she knew in her heart would carry them forever together. Still in the throes of winter then, it was now dotted with splashes of color, wildflowers and a stand of daffodils here and there. She wondered if they were naturalized, or if Hayley had planted them in that artful way. It had been such a beautiful day, as if winter itself had blessed their union by holding back for the ceremony.

  She’d come to accept that some people—herself apparently included—just didn’t have that kind of luck when it came to love. Of course, Hayley had risked her life to win in that game, a situation where she knew she herself would have been a crumpled mass of jelly. But Hayley had always been braver than she.

  She managed not to glance at the man who was standing beside the window, looking out toward the evergreens and the big maple where, Hayley had told her, the eagles who had made that amazing salute often perched. He’d shaved, at least. And he was still lean, strong, with that easy grace to his movements that had always entranced her.

  And before her mind could career down that unwanted path, she pulled herself back to the matter at hand. Quinn was waiting, probably wondering why on earth his brilliant, decisive wife put up with such a fool for a friend. Or assuming she’d been pondering her decision, and not wasting her thoughts and his time on his scapegrace brother-in-law.

  “All right,” she said finally.

  Quinn nodded, as if she had answered when he’d first asked. He opened a drawer in the big table and took out a legal pad and a pen.

  “Give us everything you remember from the documents. Names, dates, addresses, anything. Writing it will help you clarify it in your mind.”

  “All right,” she said again.

  “There’s only one more thing you need to decide before we dig in here,
” Quinn said.

  “What?”

  He looked at Walker, who had turned back from the window. “Do you want him here?”

  Amy thought she saw a wince flicker across his face. And for an instant she felt a pang of sympathy. But then the memories flooded back. No, no sympathy here, she told herself firmly.

  “I’m not sure it matters,” she said, looking back at Quinn. “After all, he’ll be gone again soon, I’m sure.”

  The wince was definite then.

  “I’ll just go...play with the dog or something,” he said.

  “I’m still not sure he’s decided about you yet,” Hayley put in.

  “Then I’ll go tell him I’m grateful for the benefit of the doubt.”

  His voice had an edge this time, and that irritated Amy even more. What benefit of the doubt did he think he’d earned?

  “You do that,” she said.

  “Hoping he’ll go for my throat?”

  “He’s a smart dog.”

  Amy watched him go. She turned back to see Hayley smiling at her. “I’m glad you’re here to say everything I’m not saying to him.”

  Amy smiled back, her mood suddenly lightened. “Better it’s me. My bridge with him is a lot less important than yours. And I’ll happily burn it down.”

  “Personally,” Quinn drawled out, “I wouldn’t want to go up against either one of you.”

  Amy’s smile widened. She was truly starting to like him for more than the simple fact that he loved her best friend.

  “Now,” Quinn said, his tone brisk, “let’s get this started. Then we’ll turn it over to Ty. If there’s anything to find, he’ll find it.”

  With the feeling she’d started the proverbial snowball down the mountain, Amy picked up the pen and started to write.

  * * *

  “At least you don’t appear inclined to chew on me,” Walker said to the dog as he brought back the tennis ball yet again. He took it and gave this throw his all, since he was well warmed by now. It sailed across the meadow toward the trees, but the dog caught up with it easily.

  “I need a baseball,” he muttered as he watched the dog start back. He could throw it farther, make him work harder.

  Cutter stopped suddenly, his head turned toward the Foxworth building. He seemed so intent Walker looked himself, wondering what had caught the dog’s attention. Nothing had changed that he could see.

  Correction, he thought as he turned back in time to see the dog move again. Limping. Now you’ve hurt Hayley’s dog. Just great.

  He ran out to meet the dog, hesitated, but then knelt to look at the right front paw he seemed to be favoring. He couldn’t see anything, no visible injury, but he supposed Cutter could have strained something in his energetic pursuit of that fuzzy yellow sphere.

  It didn’t seem so bad that the animal couldn’t walk at all, which was a relief since he wasn’t sure the dog would take kindly to being carried by a man he wasn’t too sure about, anyway. But Hayley wasn’t going to be happy. With a sigh he wondered if she’d blame him for this, although he wasn’t sure what he could have done to stop it other than not indulge the dog at all, when it was clear he played like this often.

  He walked beside Cutter as he half hopped his way to the back door, his right paw never touching the ground. Maybe she wouldn’t be so mad if he paid the vet bill, he thought as he pulled the door open and followed the dog inside. Maybe if he...

  The limp vanished. The moment the door swung closed behind them, that right paw came down and the dog walked forward as if it had never happened.

  What the hell...?

  Cutter looked back over his shoulder as if to be sure Walker was following. He gave a low woof that, added to the body language, sounded for all the world like “Come on.” Feeling a bit like one of the sheep he supposed the dog’s brethren herded, he obeyed. The dog scrambled up the stairs at a pace that made Walker think he’d been played beautifully.

  He hesitated, knowing the gathering he’d been pointedly excused from was still going on, but he also couldn’t deny he wanted to know what was bothering Amy so much she called this meeting. So he followed the dog.

  Cutter stopped in front of the three occupants of the room. Once he’d made eye contact with all of them, he looked back at Walker, almost pointedly. Feeling the gaze of the others, Walker thought about explaining, but since he had no idea how, stayed silent. Then the dog came back to him, walked behind him and nudged his legs as if to urge him forward.

  “Well,” Quinn said, “it seems he’s decided you need to be in the loop.”

  Walker blinked. Stared at the dog, who now crossed the room to a large, cushy dog bed beneath the big windows, and curled up on it with an air of satisfaction. Then he looked back at Quinn, who didn’t look overjoyed, but didn’t move to throw him out, either. Hayley looked thoughtful, while Amy didn’t look at him at all.

  Thanks, dog, he thought. He didn’t have a clue what had been in that canine mind, but he’d take the result. He couldn’t do anything if he wasn’t even allowed on the field. And Cutter had fixed that.

  Chapter 9

  Amy looked at the large flat screen on the wall, at the face of the young man Quinn had introduced as Tyler Hewitt. He’d been talking for a while now, explaining the twists and turns of what he’d done, and while he occasionally lapsed into tech speak she couldn’t follow, she got the gist.

  Hayley had told her that, like Liam, Tyler had once been on a wrong path, using his tech skills for questionable purposes. But then he’d run afoul of Quinn, and had come out of it converted.

  “It sounds,” Quinn said now, “like that corporation was formed specifically to shell money out.”

  “That’s the only function it’s got as far as I can see. Of course I just started looking.”

  “Keep going,” Quinn said.

  “Limits?” the young man asked.

  “It can never be traced back to Amy, which means us.”

  Amy felt a warmth blossom inside her at the easy inclusion. Quinn had never hesitated to take this on, simply because she was Hayley’s best friend. What must it be like to be loved like that, by a man like that?

  You’ll never know, as long as you keep falling for guys like Walker.

  She managed not to look at him, knowing it would only confirm the realization she’d ruefully had some time ago, that many of the men she’d dated over the years reminded her of him in some way. The fellow paralegal had had a similar grin, the photographer had hair that fell the same unruly way, the cop she’d truly thought was the one had walked with that same easy, tight-knit grace. After that string, when she’d finally figured it out, she’d taken a long vacation from dating at all. Not that she had guys knocking down her door.

  Nevertheless, it had been a jolt when she’d realized what she’d been doing, subconsciously looking for a replacement for Walker.

  If you want to replace a Cole male, you’d be better off looking for someone like his father, she had told herself the night that realization had hit. And that had been what she was thinking about when she’d stumbled across that bank data.

  “...dig into Leda Limited. The people behind it,” Quinn was saying. Amy pulled herself out of her useless musings. They were doing this for her, after all; the least she could do was pay attention. She wasn’t thrilled with Walker being here, but it wasn’t like he was going to be involved. “Find out where the checks are going. If we can find out who that money’s being shelled out to, then maybe we can figure out where it’s coming from. And why this way.”

  “Without a trace,” Tyler said, grinning. The screen went blank, the connection severed abruptly, apparently on his end.

  “Bit in his teeth,” Hayley said with a smile.

  Amy hesitated, glanced at Quinn, then back to her friend.

 
“Out with it,” Quinn said mildly.

  “I... You didn’t tell him why.”

  “He didn’t need to know. And there are reasons for him not to.”

  “Like not going in with a preconceived idea of what’s going on?” Walker said. They all turned to look at him in surprise. “Yeah,” he said, his tone wry, “he speaks. He even thinks now and then.”

  “He’s even right now and then, it seems,” Quinn said, and Amy thought she saw a flicker of gratification in Walker’s eyes at the words.

  “It happens.”

  After a moment Quinn nodded.

  “We don’t want Ty focused on what we think might be happening. He might miss what really is happening if we’re wrong.”

  That made sense, Amy thought. And Walker had seen it right away. She needed to remember how smart he was.

  “Plus,” Quinn added, turning to Amy, “it’s another layer of protection for you.”

  She’d still been looking at Walker, so she saw him stiffen at the word protection. Of course, Quinn had meant insulating her from the inquiries Ty was making, not actual physical protection. Hadn’t he?

  Walker shifted his gaze to her, and she had the strangest feeling that he knew she was hiding something. Well, not really hiding, just not telling them about her silly paranoia. But there was no way he could know.

  And besides, he’d been right. She didn’t want to plant any ideas; she just wanted the truth.

  She had known it was real, that what Hayley had told her about Foxworth and what they did was true, simply because it was Hayley. But it was somehow different to see it in action in person. And this was just the investigative end, with Tyler Hewitt. But there was no doubt in her mind they would handle anything more strenuous that came along. Just looking at Quinn and his quiet, solid strength, made her sure of that. After all, she’d seen Quinn put Walker Cole on the ground with one blow. And a satisfying one it had been, almost as satisfying as doing it herself would have been.

  She glanced at Quinn, who was making some notes on the laptop. She had the feeling he would say that in itself made it worth it. He, and all the men of Foxworth, had truly renewed her faith that not all men were selfish, heedless of the damage their own chosen path did to others.