Once Upon a Friendship

And she had no idea what to do.

Funny, though. Now that the press was trying to frame Liam and Gabrielle in an illicit affair, Marie didn’t seem to be as worried about it actually happening.

“My hearing is next Friday,” Liam said, looking more tired than she could ever remember seeing him as he glanced at the document on the table and then over at her.

She’d been trying to figure out what was so elementally different about him that evening. And then it struck her.

Liam Connelly no longer believed he was invincible.

“I don’t think we should make an appearance.” She hated to have to tell him that.

“You think I’ll lose.”

“No. I think that you’ll feed whatever fire is burning here. It’s wrong, Liam, what he’s doing to you. But until we figure out how to beat him, until we can find proof that will stand up in court, until I can figure out how he’s hoping to prove that you had anything at all to do with the Ponzi scheme, we need to not fan the flames. Let him think he’s winning.”

He nodded.

“What about Elliott?” Marie asked. “Should we let him in on what’s going on?”

“No.” Liam didn’t hesitate. “He’s working for the enemy, whether he knows it or not. He could be our ace, though. If we need something leaked to my father.”

Gabrielle agreed with him.

And Marie stood with them.

One way or another, the three of them were going to get through this.

Together.

* * *

GABRIELLE WAS THE one who found the link between the Ponzi scheme and Liam. During his stint as a Connelly liaison—a complimentary term for delivery boy—he’d sent documents to every single investor who’d been scammed in the Grayson deal.

If he’d fudged numbers on one account—as Walter could prove with the Donaldson deal from years ago—then it wasn’t a far reach to the conclusion that he’d repeated his pattern—his mode of operation. No actual documents with fudged numbers had turned up. But they could in time.

Or perhaps the forgery was to be found, this time, in the description of the land. Grayson development instead of swamp.

Before she told Liam what she’d found, Gabrielle made an appointment to meet with Kyle Donaldson away from Connelly Investments.

The fact that the man asked to meet her in a travel plaza off the highway between Denver and Boulder told Gabrielle that he had something to hide.

Or something to confide.

Either way, for safety’s sake she told Marie where she was going that next Monday when she left work early to beat Elliott Tanner’s mandated arrival and headed down the highway away from Denver. But she didn’t tell anyone else. Marie didn’t like what she was doing, but agreed to keep her secret.

S

he was halfway to her destination when she noticed the car that she’d seen shortly after leaving her office still on the road with her. And then noticed it again when she got off the highway for gas she didn’t need. The nondescript black vehicle pulled into a fast food place across the street.

Changing her mind about the gas, she pulled away from the pump and sped by the black car on her return to the freeway. She already had Donaldson on the phone, changing their meeting plans to the following morning, when she recognized the driver of the car that was now immediately behind her.

Elliott Tanner.

* * *

THE NEXT MORNING, Gabrielle left for work earlier than normal to meet with a regular client an hour ahead of their original schedule. Her second Tuesday morning client had been moved up as well, so Kyle Donaldson could take the third slot.

Once Gabrielle was at work, she’d seemed to be left alone. She wasn’t a threat to Elliott Tanner or anyone else who wanted to know what she was up to. She was dedicated to her job and while she was there, the expectation was that she’d be working. Doing her job well.