Carla Neggers - Cider Brook

Samantha Bennett.

Of all the people from Duncan’s past to turn up, why her?

“You can tell me what’s going on,” Julius said. “I won’t tell Dylan.”

“I’m not keeping secrets. I’m just...” She reined in her irritation. She wasn’t one to be at a loss for words. “I need to think.”

“She’s a treasure hunter? This Samantha Bennett?”

Loretta gave a reluctant nod. “She specializes in pirates and privateers who roamed the East Coast and Caribbean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.”

“Jack Sparrow.”

“Real pirates, Julius. Blackbeard, William Kidd, ‘Black Sam’ Bellamy. That ilk.”

“Cool.”

“It’s not cool. Samantha lied to Duncan about herself, and he fired her.”

“She lied? About what? And what does this have to do with you?”

Although Loretta hadn’t known Julius that long and had told him little about her past with the McCaffreys, he was adept at picking up on clues. “I wasn’t Duncan’s attorney if that’s what you’re asking. I work for Dylan. I never worked for Duncan.”

“I get that. Did you tell Duncan this Samantha lied and suggest he fire her?”

“I didn’t give him legal advice of any kind.”

“Not what I’m asking, Loretta.”

She knew it wasn’t. “Duncan discovered Samantha had sneaked into Knights Bridge between his visits. She didn’t tell him. Then she showed up in his office in Los Angeles. He hired her on the spot to work on his Portugal project. Once he found out she’d neglected to tell him some important details about herself, he couldn’t take the chance that she was spying on him.”

“Spying on him? To what end?”

“To get information she could use for herself.”

“Do an end run around him you mean? Get to some lost treasure before he did?”

“Possibly. Or just ruin his reputation.”

“Why would she want to do that?”

“I’m not saying she did.” Loretta stood by the open patio door and let the breeze hit her. She was hot. It was all this emotion. She turned back to Julius. “I’m saying Duncan couldn’t take that risk once he knew she hadn’t told him the truth about herself.”

Julius stretched out his legs and leaned back against the comfortable couch. He didn’t look emotional at all. “People lie all the time. Doesn’t always mean they’re up to anything underhanded.”

“Knights Bridge was too important to Duncan. I didn’t understand why at the time, but it wasn’t a part of his work as a treasure hunter. That Samantha inserted herself there and then lied about it was too much for him to ignore.”

Julius nodded. “I get that, too.”

“Then what don’t you get?”

“Why you’re pacing. Dylan’s a big boy. He can handle this woman if she’s up to something in Sleepy Hollow.”

Loretta plopped onto a chair across from him. She worked at her house—she had an office in a front room, with views of the street. She liked to see who was pulling into her driveway, and it allowed her to keep her living area separate. This room was home, where she relaxed and enjoyed looking out at her pool and the Pacific. Both were glistening now, with roses and bougainvillea along the pool fence adding splashes of bright red. She’d moved here before she’d known anything about ice hockey—before she’d met a driven young hockey player named Dylan McCaffrey. She’d worked with him throughout his years with the National Hockey League and then when he’d joined forces with Noah Kendrick and his high-tech entertainment company, NAK, Inc.

Dylan hadn’t heeded all her advice, but he’d done fine for himself. He was like a son to her. Noah was, too.

And now both of them had fallen in love with women from little Knights Bridge.

Loretta leaned forward, elbows on her knees, hands clasped. She had to calm down. “There’s more. Samantha painted herself as a quiet researcher. Duncan hired her and took her under his wing.”

“I gather she isn’t a quiet researcher,” Julius said.

“She’s Harry Bennett’s granddaughter.”

Julius was silent a moment. “Ah. She’s not just any Bennett.”

“Her father is underwater explorer and salvage expert Malcolm Bennett. Her mother is Francesca Bennett, a prominent marine archaeologist, and her uncle is Caleb Bennett, a maritime historian and adventurer.”

“Didn’t Harry die in Antarctica?”

Loretta shook her head. “He survived a tough expedition fifty years ago and died three years ago at home in his bed at the ripe old age of ninety-six.”

“Duncan didn’t make the connection between his Bennett and the Bennetts?”

“He did not.”

“You’d think having a Bennett on his team would be an asset.”

“Maybe it would have been, but Samantha didn’t tell him—and he didn’t ask.”

“He didn’t check her out before he hired her? Why not?”

“He said he was distracted by his reasons for being in Knights Bridge—his search for his birth parents—but I think it had more to do with his nature. He didn’t like getting bogged down in details. He preferred to trust his instincts.”

“Did he have good instincts about people?” Julius asked.

“Sometimes. I don’t know.” Loretta sprang to her feet. “It’s a mess.”

Julius eyed her from the couch. “If Samantha slipped into Knights Bridge before she met Duncan, how did she know he was there?”

“She’s part of the treasure-hunting community.” Loretta realized she had resumed pacing in front of the patio doors. “Apparently word got out that he’d been to Knights Bridge. Everyone assumed it was for personal reasons, which it was.”

“So this Samantha heard he was there and tried to see him, missed him, and came out to L.A. What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that she didn’t tell him. Duncan didn’t fire her because she’s a Bennett or because she sneaked into Knights Bridge. He fired her because she didn’t tell him the truth about herself. Trust is vital in the treasure-hunting world, given the stakes, the controversies.”

“It’s vital in any relationship,” Julius said.

Loretta frowned at him. “Yes. Right. I’m just pointing out its value in Duncan’s world.”

“He was worried this Bennett woman was a spy for her father or grandfather—”

“Her grandfather was already dead when she and Duncan met. He died the previous fall.”

“My point stands. Was she good at what she did for him?”

“Very good, apparently. She was in Portugal with him and his team right before he died. She was involved in planning that trip.”

“Not his fall, I hope.”

Loretta gave him a cool look. “Duncan had a heart attack. The heart attack caused his fall.”

Julius shrugged. “Don’t tell me it didn’t occur to you there was a connection.”

“You and I obviously live in different worlds, Julius, because you’re wrong, it didn’t occur to me. I knew this wouldn’t move your needle given the scandals and skulduggery you’ve unearthed up in Hollywood.”

“But this Samantha is sneaking around your Dylan, and that concerns you and therefore it definitely moves my needle.” He walked over to the patio doors and looked out at the pool, a classic kidney shape, its water sparkling under the blue sky. “How did Duncan find out what was up with Samantha? Did you investigate her for him?”

“Investigate isn’t the word I would use,” Loretta said, easing next to him. “I looked into her background once Duncan became aware she’d been to Knights Bridge. That by itself set off alarms. It wasn’t hard once I got started. She hadn’t lied so much as omitted things.”

“Why do you think she’s in Knights Bridge now?”

“Because Dylan’s there. Other than that, I don’t know.”