“Family drama.” Gigi clapped her hands in front of her body. “I dig it! And Toby is…”
“My uncle.”
“So Eve’s your cousin?”
Grayson’s entire body clenched at that question. “Legally, no. Biologically, also no.” Toby was adopted. Eve had another man’s name on her birth certificate. She’d only met the Hawthornes—Grayson and Toby included—in adulthood. “Like I said, it’s complicated. What’s not complicated is that she’s dangerous—and so is that guy you were talking to outside.”
“Just out of curiosity,” Gigi said, her tone wheedling, “does he have a name?”
Mattias Slater. “Not one that you need to know,” Grayson told Gigi. “I need you to promise me that if you ever see him again, you’ll run.”
“Well…，” Gigi hedged. “What if…”
“No,” Grayson told her. “Just no, Juliet. If you see him, you get the hell out of there, and you call me. I’m fairly certain that Eve is responsible for setting the FBI on your mother yesterday, and I can’t swear that she won’t do worse.”
Eve had been a mistake, and if there was one thing that Grayson Hawthorne knew with every fiber of his being, it was that his mistakes always came back to haunt him.
“Why would she do that?” Gigi asked, crinkling her nose. When Grayson wasn’t forthcoming with an answer, she sighed. “Fine. If I see Mr. Tall, Dark-Eyed, and Broody again, I’ll call you. Code name: Mimosas. And if you’re wondering if it’s because I could get drunk just looking at the eyes, the cheekbones, the tattoos, honey-golden hair and sun-kissed skin, that little scar through his eyebrow…”
Grayson gave Gigi his most quelling look, and she plopped down on the floor next to the reassembled puzzle box.
“Any progress?” she asked.
Grayson didn’t say no. He didn’t lie to her per se. Instead, he sat down on the floor next to her and met her eyes. “I thought it might help to start again from the beginning.”
And that was what they did. They removed the loose strip of wood from the top of the box, sliding it out, then flipping it over to remove the tool. Gigi turned the box upside down, and Grayson used the magnet end of the tool to remove the panel on the bottom of the box, revealing a hole in which the other side of the tool could be inserted. That loosened the strips of wood on the top, allowing them to be pressed down on the ends to enter the combination that triggered another release. Off came another panel on the box, revealing a small opening, barely larger than a USB.
“Have we tried shaking it?” Gigi said thoughtfully. She didn’t wait for an answer. She shook the box—and out fell the USB key.
Grayson wondered then if he’d made a mistake by making it easier for the girls to open the box, but he didn’t let himself linger on the question for long. Regret never pays dividends, boys. Remember that. Once you start second-guessing yourself, you’ve failed.
“Was this here before?” Gigi asked, scrunching up her forehead. “Because I kind of feel like this wasn’t here before.”
“We didn’t check,” Grayson told her, willing her to drop it.
With a grin, Gigi did. She stuck the faux USB into the opening and twisted it, then hesitated. “We should wait for Savannah,” she declared, fishing her phone out of her pocket and firing off a text. “She’ll want to be here for this.”
There was something about the way that Gigi said her twin’s name that put Grayson on high alert. “Is Savannah okay?”
Gigi nodded, but she also didn’t quite meet his eyes. “She and Mom had a fight last night after you left. About our trusts.”
The trusts that Zabrowski still hadn’t gotten him the paperwork on. “Everything is going to be okay, Gigi.” Grayson came this close to calling her little sister, the way Nash liked to use little brother. “I promise.”
Grayson didn’t realize that he was going to pull her into a hug until he did it. Gigi hugged back. She fit under his chin, and for a single moment in time, Grayson felt like he was exactly where he belonged.
“Give me your phone,” Gigi told him. Clearly, that was an order.
Grayson gave her his phone. She turned it toward his face, unlocked it, and then leaned in next to him again. “Now smile and say I like my sister!”
Three days ago, Grayson would have resisted every part of that request. “I like my sister.”