Page 50 of Smoke Screen
“Forget the car, for now. There might still be reporters hanging around the garage. We need to get you set up somewhere.”
“I’ll go to a hotel.”
“No. If they find you, you’re toast. They’ll swarm the place. Phin, I know it’s a lot to ask …”
He didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know what was coming and his intestines loosened. That statue Zeke would make of him just got to be King Kong’s size.
“Cilla—”
“Can you take her to your place?” Cilla, being Cilla, plowed right over him. “Y’all have that insane security.”
“No,” Maddy said, her voice firmer now. “I can’t do that.”
“Why?”
Maddy gawked at Phin while hitting the mute button. “She really is nuts.” She tapped the button again. “Cilla, I’m not comfortable with that. Phin and his brothers work for the Thompson Center. Plus, I barely know them. I’m not moving into their home.”
“Please. People bunk in with strangers all the time. My niece is sixteen and living in France with a host family. You’re all adults. You can handle it. Phin, can you make this happen?”
He considered it. Zeke would lose his mind. He’d already told him to distance himself from this situation. Now Phin was supposed to move Maddy in?
Surprise!
ButZeke had moved Liv and Brodie in when necessary. Plus, Phin had withstood his brother’s wrath plenty of times.Plenty.Zeke would bitch and moan, but he wouldn’t turn away someone needing help. Blackwells were suckers that way.
“I’ll work it out,” Phin said. “There’s a guest suite. And I’ll get Neuman, Zeke’s protégé, to pick up Maddy’s car later.”
Beside him, Maddy raised her hand. “Hey, does anyone care what I think?”
Phin shrugged. “If you’ve got a better idea, let’s hear it.”
She pinned him with a look.
“I don’t hear anything,” Cilla said. “I guess she doesn’t have one. I’ll have my assistant call you and set up a meeting place. Glad we got this settled.”
9
Phin hitthe remote and the iron gates leading to Chez Blackwell eased open. Knowing Zeke had the timing set tightly, he hit the gas and drove through. God forbid he should dawdle. He’d find himself locked out of his own damned house.
“Wow,” Maddy said. “Cilla wasn’t kidding about the security.”
“Sometimes it makes me nuts, but I get it. We did a job a few weeks ago that involved storing a three-million-dollar painting overnight until the client could get here.”
“That must have been something to see. After the break-in at the Center, I understand wanting the extra protection. And the jewels weren’t even mine. I’m just the hired help.”
Phin shook his head as he cruised the long asphalt drive bordered with towering oak, maple, and pine trees. Ahead, the Friary came into view, the setting sun casting an orange glow that gave the place a peaceful, Zen quality.
These were the times he loved living here. Times when he could go out on his balcony and just breathe. Forget all the negativity—the dreams he’d abandoned, the secrets, the idiots who judged him—roaming around in his head and take in the quiet. He wasn’t one to meditate, but sitting on that balcony might be the next best thing.
“You’re not just the hired help,” he said.
“True. Now I’m the suspended hired help accused of theft.”
“Not for long.” Intending to change the subject, he gestured out the window, “Welcome to Chez Blackwell. Straight ahead is the Friary.”
“You call it a friary? Is that a joke or something?”
Considering he and his brothers were far from monks, it probably did seem like a joke. “No kidding. We bought the property a few years ago. It was an abandoned church youth camp at the time, but prior to that, Franciscan monks lived here. The center part is the original building. We added two wings, so we could all have our own suites.” He pointed down the road. “There are cabins down that way. We refurbished those and our staff members live there.”
