“Are you all right? You know I hate asking that,” Jenna said.
“We’re fine,” he assured her. “Can you call ahead to the yacht club and tell them—”
“It’s handled,” Paige said, her head bent over her phone.
“Did you find anything?” he asked his assistant.
“Yost has been practicing law in Charleston since he passed the bar. I can’t find anything that closely ties him to Jack Coker. So far just a picture of the two of them in the same charity golf tournament the year before Paige was born.” She paused. “Nothing obvious contradicts what Jayne told you. Thanks for recording that, by the way.”
“You’ve taught me well,” he said. “No recent ties between Yost and Coker?”
“Nothing that made news,” she said. “Makes sense if they did something as seedy as purchase a child, they might not really stay chummy.”
But as Paige had said, why not purchase both children?
“Something has spooked him if he’s sending out people to harass the twins,” Carter said quietly.
“Do you want me to let the cops know where to pick up Jayne? I’m still tracking her phone.”
Carter had a moment as they approached the yacht club. It would be easy to give Jayne over, but it would completely destroy the trust between him and Paige. He didn’t want to break that trust and he sure didn’t want to examine why. Not right now.
His gut instinct, backed by Jenna’s initial report, said she wasn’t the culprit, just caught in an untenable situation. “No,” he finally decided. “Keep digging. I hope to speak with Jack next. I’ll let you know what shakes loose.”
Paige did her best not to make any assumptions about the bits and pieces of Carter’s conversation she could hear during the short trip to the yacht club. It was his job to handle the investigation, his job to keep her safe. In her opinion, he was fulfilling both roles admirably. Especially now that they’d come to an understanding that she wouldn’t sit on the sidelines waiting for answers.
She worried that he thought Jayne was behind the attack. It was possible. Paige didn’t truly know Jayne at all. It had been hard to learn her biological mother was so awful and calculating. So cruel. She wanted—needed—to believe her sister was a better person than Yvette.
Carter ended his call just as they reached the club and all of her new questions had to wait until they had some privacy. He paid the bicyclist and then she slipped her hand into Carter’s. “Let me take the lead,” she said.
Every time she touched him, it felt like she was exactly where she should be. Was that infatuation, or was she simply reading too much into his innate skill as a bodyguard?
He gave her a nod and that intriguing half smile that never failed to send a tingle through her system. Trust was a cornerstone of any good relationship and with every passing hour she had more trust in Carter than anyone else.
Admittedly that was part of his appeal and possibly it was a byproduct of all the turmoil swirling around her. He was separate and objective when it seemed as if everyone else in her life had something to hide. Her own parents had been lying to her all her life.
Did that make her a hypocrite, standing here throwing around the full weight of her last name and her most charming smile to bluff her way onto her father’s fishing boat? Probably, but this was about survival and avoiding another attack. Watching Carter go after the man with the bat had scared her. He could handle himself, but she didn’t want him hurt because of her.
“Wow, this Cabo is in excellent condition,” he said as they boarded the forty-foot yacht.
“You know your fishing boats,” she said, impressed.
“That I do. Does your dad take her out often?”
“Not as often as he’d like. He’s hoping to take her out more once he’s retired.”
“I bet. I love my boat and get out on the water every chance I get. It’s a big step down from this.” He was grinning like a little kid. “I’m an ocean kind of guy.”
“When I first saw you at the house, I thought you’d stepped out of a sailing magazine.”
His eyebrows lifted over his sunglasses. “Is that so?”
“Before I remembered you’d been a lifeguard.” She moved to the second helm chair. “Go ahead and take the wheel.”
“You’re serious.”
“I am. Go on.” Whatever happened with her family crisis, she’d never forget the joy on his face as he took control. It gave her so much pleasure to see him happy.
He handled the yacht like an expert and soon they were out of the no-wake zone, Charleston behind them as they headed for her parents’ place.
“Is it normal to feel so guilty about Jayne? She had it so rough and I had it so easy.”
“It’s probably a normal reaction,” he allowed. “But you didn’t have any more control than she did over which parent did what.”
“Unfortunately, logic is not easing anything around my heart.” She pressed a hand to her chest. Her sister had had heart surgery as an infant. “I ache for her. No child should have to hear all the crap her mother dumped on her head.”
Carter touched her hand, taking away some of the persistent chill. “Having two parents who love you, who are stable and accepting of who you are, isn’t as common as it should be.”
“I guess not.” And that, too, broke her heart a little bit.
“My mom raised me alone, but she loved me. We were a team.”
“I’m glad.” Until she’d found the truth, she’d thought she and her parents were a team too. “Did I hear you say you want to talk to Dad?” she asked, shifting the subject.
“Yes. I want as much information as possible before we go back to Yost. I’m hoping the police will match up the thug who jumped us with Melissa’s murder. I forgot to look for any scratches on the man who attacked me. Jenna will coordinate with the police if she notices something helpful.”
“I hope Detective Lewis listens to her,” she grumbled.
“We’re missing something, Paige. I don’t understand how this escalated so quickly. Either Yost’s hired gun got confused, or he has orders to hurt you, too. Jenna is digging up background information as fast as she can. If Jayne is telling the truth, then we need to figure out what Yost is so afraid of.”
“Carter.”
“I know you believe her,” he said. “But what if the gunman is on Jayne’s trail because of some other illegal activity? We need verification. I won’t let her use you as a distraction or a patsy.”
Paige didn’t want to think about those scenarios at all, though she didn’t bother saying it. It was Carter’s job to be skeptical. She’d felt a natural, immediate kinship while talking to Jayne and she couldn’t imagine her twin being manipulative.
“I know you want to like her.” He’d raised his voice to be heard over the engine. “Honestly, I want to like her, but I also need to know she isn’t trying to hurt you.”
They were out of sight of the marina and no one else on the water seemed interested in them so she reached over and throttled down, letting the boat drift along in this illusion of privacy.