A photo slipped free of the book’s pages. Bree’s fresh face smiled back at me. Steven’s arm was slung over her shoulder, the photo folded on either side of them so only the two of them were shown in the frame. I unfolded the sides, revealing the rest of the image. Another older man I didn’t recognize stood to Bree’s right, his arm around her waist. He was tall, a good ten or fifteen years older than Steven, with a strong jaw and handsome features, his light hair receding just enough from his temples to reveal tanned smile lines around amiable blue eyes. He looked familiar, maybe because he oozed the same unshakable confidence as my ex-husband. While he and Steven didn’t necessarily look alike, there was an alikeness to them, and Bree looked radiantly happy bookended by their arms.
To Steven’s other side, a thin middle-aged man with shaggy graying hair stood slightly apart, as if he’d been caught up in the pull of the other three and unwittingly captured in the moment. His close-lipped smile was tight, his face angled away, as if to downplay the large, dark mole high on his right cheek. While the blond man looked familiar for reasons I couldn’t entirely place, I had no idea who this man might be. Whoever these men were, they were clearly important to both Bree and Steven.
I tucked the photo in my pocket as a shrill ring rattled the room.
I swung toward the phone on Bree’s desk. The caller ID lit up: Incoming call from Homesafe Security.
“Finn? Are you seeing this?” Vero’s voice was tense, suggesting she was seeing the same thing I was on the phone on Steven’s desk.
“It’s the monitoring company. We have to answer it.”
“Then they’ll know we’re here!”
“If we don’t pick up, they send the cops!” The phone rang again. My heart pounded as I reached for it. I held it to my ear and covered the receiver, speaking through my fingers. “Hello?”
“This is Homesafe Security. We’re responding to an alarm. With whom am I speaking?”
My panicked eyes scanned the desk, landing on the box of time cards as the woman waited for my answer. All the names in the box had belonged to men, except for one. I cleared my throat, adjusting the pitch of my voice to match Bree’s bubbly lilt. “This is Bree. Bree Fuller. I’m the administrative assistant. Sorry to disturb you. I totally forgot my … umbrella.”
Your umbrella? Seriously? Vero mouthed beside me.
“When I came back to get it, I forgot the alarm was set. But it’s all fine here. Really. Nothing’s wrong,” I said through a nervous laugh.
“That’s fine, Bree. I’ll just need your verbal code word, authorizing us to void the alarm.”
“My verbal code word?” I turned to Vero. Her eyes went wide.
“Ma’am, do you need me to send an officer to your location? Are you in distress?”
“Yes, I mean no!” I slapped a hand over my face. “No, I am not in distress. You absolutely do not need to send an officer here.” Vero rushed to the window, peering through the blinds.
“Then I do need you to confirm the six-letter safe word to dismiss the alarm.”
My tongue froze against the roof of my mouth. What safe word would Steven use? The silence dragged on as I counted off letters. Delia was too short. Theresa was too long.
“Finlay!” Vero hissed. Hang up the phone! We have to go! she mouthed.
“Thank you,” the woman said cheerily. “That’s all I needed. I’ll let dispatch know to cancel the request for a property check.”
I stared at the phone as the monitoring service disconnected, still trying to piece together what had just happened. The only word that had been spoken, even faintly, was my name. But it had six letters.
Had my name been Steven’s safe word?
“How much time do we have before the cops get here?” Vero asked, pulling me out of a daze.
“They’re not coming,” I said. She sagged against the wall and pressed a hand to her chest. “Did you find Steven’s books?”
Vero held up her phone.
“Good. Let’s get out of here.”
CHAPTER 15
I switched off Bree’s desk lamp, nearly tripping over Vero in the dark as I turned to go. She stood motionless beside the front window, staring down the long gravel road toward the entrance of the farm. A glare skated over the glass as headlights swung toward the trailer.
“Shit!” Vero ducked. “Is it Steven?”
I peered around her through the slats. “I don’t think so.” The lights were still too far away to know for sure, but they seemed too low to the ground to be Steven’s pickup.