A Treasure Worth Keeping (7 page)

The truth was, Evie McBride intrigued him.

Sam reached the phone on the third ring. It was within Faith’s reach but she was stretched out on the sofa with her eyes closed, headphones firmly in place.

After Evie had left, she’d retreated back into her shell. Lake Superior, for all its changing moods, had nothing on adolescent girls.

“Hello?”

A harsh crackle grated in his ear.

“Sam? This is…Patrick…Evie…needs help…Think we’ve…got a problem on your end.” Static distorted the words and Sam frowned. “Take care…her.”

“Patrick, I can barely hear you,” Sam said. “What did you say about Evie?”

Patrick’s voice broke up again and Sam felt a surge of frustration. “One more time, Patrick. The connection is terrible. Are you and Dad at the lodge yet?”

“Go…Evie. Might…danger.” The line went dead.

“Patrick?” Sam hit Redial and got a busy signal.

Now what?

Sam tried to convince himself he’d imagined the word
danger.
But why had Patrick called him instead of Jacob?

Sam glanced at his watch. Seven o’clock. Evie had left half an hour ago. She’d think he was crazy if showed up out of the blue to check on her. And he’d have a lot of explaining to do if he told her Patrick had called
him.
He still hadn’t found the right time to tell her what their fathers were up to. The truth was, he’d been hoping he wouldn’t have to.

Ten minutes crawled by as Sam paced the living room, waiting for Patrick to call back. Finally, he shook Faith’s knee to get her attention.

“I’m going to drop you off at Sophie’s for a few minutes, okay? I’ve got an errand to run.”

Faith, eager to play with Rocky, didn’t question him.

When he got to Evie’s ten minutes later, he saw a van parked close to the house. His stomach knotted. Beach Glass was closed for the day, and he doubted Evie had made friends in the short time she’d been staying at the house.

He knocked on the door but didn’t wait for someone to answer it. Giving in to an overwhelming sense of urgency, he turned the handle and went inside.

“M
iss McBride?” Seth poked his head into the kitchen. “Wow. Something smells good.”

“Garlic bread.” Evie wiped her hands on the old-fashioned pinafore apron she’d found in a box of linens at the shop. When she’d gotten back from Sam’s, she’d found Seth still hard at work in Patrick’s office.

Feeling a little awkward with someone else in the house, she’d reheated some leftover pasta from the night before and lingered in the kitchen, hoping Seth would finish soon. She wanted the house to herself to sort through the strange jumble of emotions she felt whenever Sam Cutter cruised the perimeter of her personal space.

She drew a deep breath. Even when he wasn’t around, the man had the most unsettling way of creeping into her thoughts. “Are you finished?”

“No. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a little problem. Your dad gave me his password but he must have changed it and forgotten to tell me. Think you can take a look? Most people use familiar words. Birthdays. Names of children. That sort of thing.”

“I can try.” Evie followed him into the office and sat down in the chair.

“Here’s what I’ve got so far.” He pushed a piece of paper in front of her. “Charlotte. Sara. Jo. Do you see a pattern there? Are they middle names? Old girlfriends?”

Evie didn’t think the last comment particularly funny.

“There’s more than one password?”

Seth smiled and shrugged. “You know Patrick.”

That she did. Her dad probably thought he needed a password to protect his password.

“They aren’t middle names.”
Or old girlfriends.
She studied the names a few more seconds and started to laugh. “I can’t believe Dad remembered. We had an aquarium when I was growing up. Every time we got a new fish, my sisters and I named it after the heroine of a book we were reading at the time. Charlotte is from
Charlotte’s Web.
Sara is in
A Little Princess
and Jo is one of the March sisters in
Little Women.
”

Seth leaned closer, his eyes strangely intent. “What’s the next one?”

“Let me think….” Evie bit her lip. Nancy Drew? No, Caitlin had vetoed that one. It had been a blue Betta fish and according to Caitlin’s logic, a fish named Nancy Drew had to be
red.
No wonder she’d started an image consulting business after graduating from college.

“Evie?”

The sound of Sam’s voice startled her. She twisted in the chair and saw him standing in the doorway behind her.

“I knocked but you must not have heard me.”

“Sam. What are you doing here?” Once again her first thought was for her father. She rose to her feet but Seth’s hand snaked out and caught her wrist.

“I’ve got two more calls to make this evening, Miss McBride.” The faint bite in the words surprised her. Seth hadn’t mentioned other appointments. And he certainly hadn’t seemed to be in a hurry to finish up before now.

Evie gently tugged her wrist free. “This will only take a minute.”

“Sure.” Seth’s lips worked into a smile. “No problem.”

Sam leaned against the door frame and stuck his hands in his pockets. “I forgot to give you Faith’s reading list for her book reports when you were over this afternoon. I saw the lights on and decided to drop it off.”

Not exactly an emergency, Evie thought. Maybe he’d had another argument with Faith and wanted to talk about it. “I’ll be right back, Seth.”

As soon as they were in the hall, Sam took hold of her arm and guided her toward the door. When Evie opened her mouth to protest, Sam tapped his finger against her lips, shocking her into silence.

Once they were outside, she pulled away from him and planted her hands on her hips. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Who is that guy?” Sam asked tersely.

“Seth Lansky. Dad hired him to install some software.”

“Your dad set up the appointment? He told you about it before he left?”

“No. He forgot. But that’s nothing new—”

“Evie. Think about it.” Sam’s eyes held hers intently. “Patrick wouldn’t hire someone to install software. Not when he’s got a computer-savvy daughter coming to stay at his house for two weeks.”

Evie’s mouth went dry. “What are you getting at?”

“What did Seth ask you to do?”

Evie noticed Sam Cutter had an annoying habit of answering a question with a question. “Dad isn’t very knowledgeable about computers. He set up multiple passwords when one would have been sufficient.” There. That should prove her point.

“Maybe he set up multiple passwords on purpose.” Sam edged her into the shadows between the house and the shop. Evie squeaked as he backed her against the wall, angling his body so she was hidden from view and bracing a hand on either side of her.

“That’s crazy. The only thing Dad keeps on his computer is his personal budget and the financial records for Beach Glass.”

“If this guy is
installing
software, why does he need to access your dad’s files?”

Evie stared up at him. “I don’t know.”

Disbelief and fear skimmed across Evie’s face.

Good,
Sam thought. Now they were even. The vehicle parked in the driveway had made him uneasy, but finding Evie sitting at the desk, with an all-star wrestler wannabe leaning over her, had shaved ten years off his life.

“When did this guy show up? Did you ask him for any identification?”

“Right before I left this afternoon,” Evie whispered.

Her failure to answer his second question was an answer in and of itself. He’d lecture her about that later. Right now he had to determine if Patrick’s phone call and Lansky’s showing up was a big fat coincidence.

“I’m going to take a look inside his van.” He took a step forward and so did Evie.

“I’m not staying here.”

“Now isn’t the time to be nervous. You missed that opportunity. It would have been when a stranger came up to the door and you let him in your house.” He knew he’d already made his point, but he couldn’t help it. His heart was still doing jumping jacks in his chest, and he blamed it on the naive redhead standing in front of him. Apparently, there were times when her warm heart overrode her cautious nature.

He took another step forward. So did Evie.

“You can’t spy on him alone. What if he sees you and you get hurt?”

Thanks for the vote of confidence,
Sam thought wryly. “I’ll be fine. Stay here and make yourself invisible. I’ll be right back.”

This time when he took a step forward, she stayed put.

Sam sidled around the house, pausing to take a quick look in the window. Seth had taken Evie’s place at the desk and it looked like he was trying to figure out the password himself. Sam watched long enough to see him engage in the good old “hunt and peck” method of keyboarding. If this guy turned out to be a computer tech, Sam moonlighted as a gourmet chef. And everyone who knew him knew he lived on takeout.

He worked his way over to the van and tried the door. Locked. That was interesting. Apparently Seth wasn’t as trusting as the woman who’d let him into her house. Keeping a wary eye on the front door, he circled the van.

And bumped into someone coming around the other side.

“I thought I told you to stay put.” Sam said goodbye to another ten years. Only catching a whiff of a familiar floral scent in the air had prevented him from tackling the person first and asking questions later.

“Will this help?” The faint glow of a penlight illuminated Evie’s face.

“As a matter of fact, it will.” Sam plucked the key ring out of her hand, not prepared for the weight of it. “What do you have on here? A hammer? Never mind. Let me guess.
The essentials.
”

He traced the interior of the van with the tiny beam of light. Crumpled potato-chip bags, soda cups and empty paper sacks littered the seat and floor.

“Where fast-food lunches go to die,” Sam murmured. “Well, we know he’s got high cholesterol. Let’s take a look in the back and see what else we can find out about Mr. Lansky.” He pressed the light against the back window and his blood chilled.

Okay, Dad, what have you and Patrick gotten yourselves into?

And more important, what had they gotten Evie into?

Evie stood on her tiptoes, her nose pressed against the glass as she peered inside. “What is all that?”

“Diving equipment.”

Sam took a quick inventory and what he saw didn’t make him feel any better. The gear wasn’t amateur, weekend-warrior stuff. The front seat of the van might have resembled a college frat house, but the equipment in the back was practically arranged in alphabetical order. Expensive cameras. Oxygen tanks. Wet suits. And a very lethal-looking spear gun.

He lowered the light before Evie spotted it.

Sam’s mind raced over possible scenarios and none of them included a computer tech. What he did have were two AWOL senior citizens with delusions of grandeur trying to track down clues to a sunken treasure. A frantic phone call from Patrick. A guy trying to access Patrick’s computer files…and Evie somewhere in the middle.

The front door opened, tripping the motion light in the yard. Sam dropped to his knees, taking Evie with him.

She struggled against him and Sam saw the outrage and mistrust in her wide blue eyes. She didn’t trust
him?
She let some guy into her house without asking for ID, and now
he
was the bad guy?

“Let me go.” She struggled against him.

“Sorry.” Sam eased away from her. “It looks like Mr. Lansky is done for the night and until we know if he’s legit, I don’t want him to catch us checking out his van. Time to work on your acting skills.”

Sam did it again. He grabbed her hand, kept low to the ground and pulled her into the woods bordering the driveway.

“Play along,” he whispered.

“Play along with what—” The words died as Sam rose to his feet, wrapped his arm around her waist and nuzzled her hair. Evie’s feet melted to the ground, but somehow Sam managed to nudge her out of the shadows.

“He’s watching.” Sam breathed the words in her ear. “Let him think we were taking a romantic stroll.”

Evie swallowed hard as she and Sam stepped into the light. Seth stood beside the van, scowling at them. When she’d met him that afternoon, Seth had reminded her of a teddy bear, but now his barrel-shaped frame and thick arms looked more menacing than cuddly.

Sam stiffened, as if he were bracing for a confrontation. Both men topped six feet, but even though Sam was muscular, he lacked Seth’s solid bulk.

Evie had never been a flirt—she didn’t even have a clue
how
to flirt—but she smiled playfully up at Sam and linked her arm through his. “Saturday sounds great…. Oh, hi, Seth. I’m sorry it took us so long but we had some things to…discuss.”

She didn’t have to pretend to be embarrassed that he’d caught them. She could
feel
her freckles getting hot.

For one heart-stopping moment, Seth stared at them, his fists clenched at his sides as he took a step closer.

“You two go ahead and finish on the computer, Evie.” Sam tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and gave her a smile. “I’ll make some popcorn and put in a movie.”

Evie had never had a man look at her like that before—even if he
was
pretending. Her older sisters both had had their share of romances, but Evie had shied away from dating. In high school and college, she’d preferred reading to socializing and knew her serious nature turned off guys who wanted to have fun. Self-conscious of her pale skin, flaming red hair and gangly figure, Evie had discovered that even though she couldn’t make herself physically disappear, she could get lost in the pages of a book. She could join adventurous people who didn’t wear cardigans or carry dental floss in their purse.

“Honey?”

Honey?

Sam squeezed her hand and his eyes flashed a warning, reminding her to play her part.

Evie recovered and gave him an adoring look. “All right…dear.”

Sam made a choking sound and Evie turned to Seth, giving him a bright smile. “Should we all go back inside? I’m sure I’ll remember the password but I can always call my sisters. Maybe they’ll know.”

Seth looked as if he’d just swallowed broken glass. “I don’t want to take up any more of your time. I’ll finish the job when your dad gets back from his fishing trip.”

He unlocked the van and climbed inside. As the van rattled down the driveway, Evie realized she was still clinging to Sam’s arm. She let go and stepped away from him, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I think he bought it.” Sam exhaled. “Or maybe he decided your house wasn’t big enough for the both of us.”

“What. Is. Going. On?”

Sam raked a hand through his hair. “I wish I knew,” he muttered.

The man who’d given her the adoring, lopsided smile had disappeared. The man who replaced him looked as though he’d rather be treading water in Lake Superior than be with her. And it stung.

“You show up here out of the blue. Some guy is trying to access Dad’s computer files. Why?” Evie’s voice cracked on the last word.
Terrific.
She sounded like a hysterical female.

Sam pivoted and strode toward the house, leaving Evie no choice but to chase after him while he gave her a brief explanation. “I didn’t show up out of the blue. Your dad called me.”

“Dad? Why would he call
you?
”

“Believe me—I have as many questions as you do. The connection was bad but Patrick said you might be in danger. That’s why I stopped by. And it’s a good thing I did.” He gave her a dark look.

“That’s silly. You must have misunderstood him. Why would I be in danger?” A thought whisked through her, sending her heart speeding into overdrive. “Do you think Seth is planning to rob the antique shop? But why would he need Dad’s password? Is
Dad
in trouble?” Fear spiraled through her. “I’m going to call the lodge and talk to him myself….”