Scarlet Nights (Edilean 3)

“Maybe we should hire—”

“You’re going with me,” she said. “I am the one who is afraid of that odious old man and you are supposed to protect me.”

Mike kept his head down over his pancakes. “From bullets, yeah, but not from …”

She sat down across from him. “What’s going on that I don’t know about? You weren’t afraid of Mr. Lang the other times we talked about meeting him.”

“Mmmm, uh, hmmm grandfather,” Mike said.

She stared at him a moment, then picked up her BlackBerry. “I’m going to call Tess and ask her.”

Looking up, Mike gave a big sigh. “Tess won’t know anything because this is your fault.”

She cut off the call. “What’s my fault?”

“I didn’t tell you that Grans used to correspond with Lang. Not often but once or twice a year.”

“So?”

“She loved sympathy, so she told him she’d had a baby from the rape.”

“She didn’t have one, did she?”

“No. Although now that I’ve heard she had a sister she never mentioned, maybe she did. I’ll get someone to look into that.” He picked up his phone, but at Sara’s look, he put it down and stared at her.

She had no idea what he was silently telling her, but after a moment she began to understand. This was yet another bit of information that Mike hadn’t told her. “If Mr. Lang was with your grandmother, then he’ll think you are his grandson.”

Mike went back to his pancakes.

“That’s rather funny, isn’t it?” she said.

“Maybe to you but not to me.”

“My goodness.” She couldn’t repress her laughter. “When you came to this town, your only relative was your sister, and now look at you. You’re a property owner, you have a wife, and you have cousins. So why not add a grandfather?”

“I’m really not seeing the humor in any of this.”

In the end, Sara won. Mike suggested that Luke deliver the dogs, but Sara pointed out that it took Mike’s background and knowledge to ask Mr. Lang the correct questions.

“Questions about what?” Mike growled.

“About why Greg and Mr. Lang have been at war,” Sara said. “Did you forget that?”

“I haven’t forgotten anything in spite of my great age that you keep reminding me of.”

She ignored his remark. “Okay, I’ll go alone.”

Mike looked at her with almost a smile.

“But I tried the big collapsible dog crate, and it won’t fit in my car or Joce’s, so I’ll have to use yours. I’ll drive it with the trunk lid up. That’s all right, isn’t it?” She blinked innocently at him.

“Luke’s truck,” he said with his teeth clenched.

“In the shop.”

As he picked up his car keys, he said, “I remember when I used to be in charge of everything.”

By the time they got to Merlin’s Farm and saw Mr. Lang’s old truck there, Sara was having to work to keep her courage up. When Mike turned off the ignition, she was tempted to say she couldn’t do it—but he didn’t give her a chance.