“Of course.”
“I mean it, Alex,” she said even more sternly. “I can’t do this with you unless we’re serious about this commitment. If we want to have the kind of relationship my parents have had all these years, we have to make a covenant with each other, right here, right now. Or we can’t go forward with this.”
“I promise you, Taylor. No lies, ever.”
The smile on her face nearly exploded.
“Good. Let’s get married!”
I had remained true to that covenant. But this was something entirely different.
“How did it go with Steve?” Taylor repeated. “Is everything good?”
“Yeah, for sure. We’re good.”
I swallowed again and quickly walked out of the room because I didn’t want her to keep pressing me on it. But the lie felt like acid on my tongue.
SIXTEEN
The next morning, I woke really early and asked Taylor if she’d be okay if I put in several hours at the office to catch up on a few important work items. She said it was fine. I kissed her goodbye before she even got out of bed. But I didn’t go to the office. Instead, I made the three-hour drive north up I-35 to Dallas. My list of lies was beginning to grow and made me feel so conflicted. But Ethan Tucker clearly knew something about Joe’s investment money. I wasn’t simply going to leave him alone. The man might be able to sidestep my phone calls, but he was going to have a difficult time avoiding me when I showed up to meet with him face-to-face. I really hoped he might give me a sensible explanation for all this. I hated the uneasy feeling stirring inside me that Joe might have been killed for reasons that were connected to the funding for my company.
I arrived a few minutes before ten. Lone Star Financial was on the twelfth floor of a downtown office building near Reunion Tower with its ball-shaped observation deck. I took the elevator up and found myself standing in front of a young receptionist with a nameplate identifying her as Maggie.
She was all grins. “Hi, can I help you?”
“I hope so, Maggie. First, you can tell me where you got those cool earrings. Because my wife would love them.”
I figured a little charm might help me get in to see Ethan without an appointment.
Her smile grew bigger. “Aw, thanks. I got them over at Aéropostale.”
“Perfect. You just made birthday gift buying a little easier for me.”
“Glad to hear it. Who are you here to see today?”
“Mr. Ethan Tucker.”
The smile on Maggie’s face quickly disappeared. “Oh, do you, uh . . . do you have an appointment?”
“Yes,” I lied. “Jeff Bagley. Ten o’clock. I’m a few minutes early.”
“Uh, okay.”
“This was last minute,” I explained, noticing a clear change in her affable demeanor. “I scheduled this with him personally yesterday.”
“Oh, well, it’s just . . . Can you give me just a moment, Mr. Bagley?”
“Certainly.”
Maggie left her reception desk with a concerned look on her face and headed around the corner. I wondered why she suddenly seemed frazzled. I went over in my mind what I would say upon seeing Ethan in a few seconds. I knew I’d have to get straight to the point. Once he found out who I really was, he might tell me to get lost again and turn back around. But I was prepared to cause a scene if he refused to answer my questions. I needed to know why talking to me about the investment money was dangerous.
A few seconds later, Maggie returned, along with an older gray-haired man in a blue suit and red tie who was not Ethan Tucker—based on the profile page I’d been looking at on their website yesterday. He came right up to me with a forced smile. “Mr. Bagley, my name is Ted Ashton. I’m the managing partner here at Lone Star Financial.”
We shook quick hands.
“Do you mind if I speak to you in private?” Ted asked me.
“About?”
“It will just take a moment. Right over here in our main conference room.”
“Okay.”
I glanced over at Maggie, who had a bit of deer-in-the-headlights look about her, and then I followed the man into the glass conference room. Again, I wondered what the hell was going on. I was starting to get a bad feeling about showing up here without an appointment. Had Ethan Tucker put out an alert to be on the lookout for any unexpected visitors who might come to see him? That seemed highly unlikely. I wasn’t threatening him. Plus, something like that would have probably put me in front of a buff security guard and not the firm’s managing partner. So what was the deal? Ted shut the glass door behind us and offered me a seat at the end of an expansive conference table.