I nodded and hurried to finish the large bite of lasagna I’d taken. “Yes, sir. This is my first semester.”
“And where were you before this?” Tommy took a bite of his own dinner but kept his eyes locked on me.
“Shane went to Loyola,” Spencer said, clearly trying to save me from Tommy’s grilling.
“I see,” Tommy said. His expression was unreadable.
I dropped my eyes to my plate and took another large bite in the hope it would delay any more questions for at least the time it took to chew. I chewed very slowly.
“He’s from New Orleans,” she added.
The bit of lasagna I’d just swallowed caught in my throat, and I coughed. I lifted my head and rapidly shifted my gaze from Spencer to her father. Tommy’s expression darkened and I saw the muscle of his jaw twitch, but his face was impassive again within a second. I looked back at Spencer and was relieved to see she hadn’t seemed to notice her father’s reaction because she hadn’t taken her eyes off me. She frowned, her expression a mixture of concern and amusement.
“You okay?”
I nodded and took a few gulps of water. “Fine, yeah.” I grinned at her. “Sorry. I guess I should take smaller bites.”
She giggled. “Respiratory distress tends to take the fun out of the meal. Chewing is recommended.”
I snickered, relieved the moment had passed without incident. “Thanks for the advice.” I winked at her.
She beamed and caught her bottom lip between her teeth. I returned my attention to the plate in front of me but glanced at Tommy from the corner of my eye. He continued to eat in silence but occasionally looked at his daughter with a sort of worried expression. Spencer smiled at her plate and pushed her food around its surface with her fork. I wondered if she wished as badly as I did that we were back in her sorority room instead of sitting at her father’s dinner table in uncomfortable silence.
After several minutes, Tommy laid his fork across his empty plate and leaned back in his chair. “That was wonderful, hon.”
Spencer set down her fork and smiled wearily at him. “Thanks, Dad.”
“It was amazing, Spence,” I said, propping my elbows on either side of my empty plate.
“Thanks.” She smiled at me, too, though she seemed much happier for the compliment now. “Oh, so, Dad…” She turned back to Tommy. “You know the thing on Friday?”
“The very important dinner I’m having for clients that you promised to help with?” Tommy raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m aware of it.”
“Yeah, that.” Spencer rolled her eyes. “I’m definitely going to be there, but I was wondering if you’d mind if Shane tagged along? We could always use the extra hands, and if he’s there, I wouldn’t have to spend the whole night talking to a room full of boring old guys in suits.”
“Those ‘boring old guys in suits’ pay your tuition, you know.” Tommy tried to look stern, but it was obvious he very rarely said no to his daughter.
“Please?” She folded her hands like a little girl begging for a pony.
“Sure,” he relented. “Fine.”
Happy to get her way, she stood and began collecting the dirty dishes and utensils. As I watched her, I was aware of Tommy watching me.
Neither of us moved to help clear the table until Spencer spoke. “You know, I did most of the cooking. It would be great if I didn’t also have to do all of the cleaning up.”
I pushed my chair back, jumped to my feet, and reached for the plate she held. Had we been in the Village, it wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary for an entire table of men to sit while she cleared every dish, but we weren’t in the Village, a fact I needed to keep in mind while I was here. Besides, I had a feeling that Spencer might not have stood for it even if she’d grown up as a Traveler.
Spencer retrieved a glass and started toward the kitchen. I followed her with my armload of dishes, and Tommy brought up the rear with the now-cool pan of lasagna.
“You can put those in the sink.” She pulled the salad bowl from the top of my stack. I crossed to it and set the plates, flatware, and glasses down on the stainless steel.
Tommy worked on putting away leftovers, and Spencer started a pot of coffee. I saw my opening. “Mind if I use the bathroom?” I asked.
“Sure.” She smiled at me over her shoulder. “It’s just down the front hall, around the staircase, first door on the right.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
I moved quickly down the hall, aware I had very little time before either Spencer or Tommy might come looking for me. Since Spencer had said they didn’t use the upper levels of the house, I assumed Tommy’s bedroom, and maybe an office, would be on this floor. I rounded the staircase and found a second hall with doors along the right side. I ignored the first one, where Spencer had said the bathroom would be and reached for the handle of the second.
Jackpot. The room was dark, but the shape of a desk and chair was visible in the light from the hallway. I debated whether to flip on the wall switch but decided against it as I moved into the room and gave my eyes a second to adjust to the dim light. I went to the desk first.
A laptop sat in the middle of the blotter on its surface, and a neat stack of folders was on the left. Tommy’s apparent preference for order made scanning the contents of the desk easy, and there was nothing resembling the ledger Pop had described. I pulled open the middle drawer and found neat rows of pens and pencils and a pile of paperclips stored in one of the drawer’s compartments. I slid open the drawers that ran down each side and found a postal scale, a jumble of cords, printer paper, notebooks, and one drawer of hanging folders, but no ledger.
There was a bookshelf built into the wall behind his desk, but most of the shelves were taken up by a collection of leather-bound law books with spines that looked like they’d never been cracked and a handful of framed pictures of Spencer at various ages. I wouldn’t have minded getting a closer look at those, but my pulse quickened with each second that ticked by. I moved closer to the bookcase to get a better look at the law books in case the ledger had been hidden among them, but no dice.
I was about to give up and go back to the kitchen when something caught my eye. A stream of light from the doorway fell on a watercolor seascape that seemed out of place in an otherwise tastefully decorated office. It reminded me of the painting in Pop’s office—the one that hid his wall safe. It would be an intriguing sentiment for Tommy to choose a similar painting to cover his own safe, but it was worth a try.
The painting swung away from the wall on hidden hinges, and a black safe with a silver keypad stared back at me from behind it. If the ledger was in this office, this is where I’d find it. I glanced back over my shoulder to make sure no shadows moved down the hall and then punched in the first combination I could think of: 0418. Spencer’s birthday. The green digital display flashed, but the safe door refused to budge.
“Shane?” Spencer’s voice echoed down the hall.
I swung the painting back over the safe and moved quickly back across the room. I pulled the door closed and made it to the hallway just as Spencer rounded the staircase.
“Find it okay?” she asked, a slight frown pinching her brow.
“Yep,” I lied. “But thanks for coming to get me. It gives me a chance to do this.” I pulled her into my arms and kissed her. It was definitely not the sort of kiss a girl expected to get with her father a few rooms away, but she soon relaxed against me. I pushed her back against the wall, and when she brought her arms up around my neck, I knew any suspicion she’d had about what I’d been doing was gone.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“SO, WHAT YOU’RE telling me is you fucked up?” Judd angrily paced the floor between the kitchen and sofa. “You were in his house, and you didn’t get the book.”
“I didn’t have much time, but there will be way more people at the party on Friday, so it’ll be easier to get into his office without someone noticing. There’s a safe. I just need to figure out what he’d use as the
