A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [113]
“When was the last time you heard from him?” Matt asked.
“A few days afterward when he called to compliment me on a job well done. He said his client was pleased.”
Matt and Brian exchanged glances at that last piece of information. “Describe this man to us,” Matt said.
No one Brian knew fit the description she proceeded to give. “Where did the two of you make connections?” he then asked.
“We met at Stella’s.”
“When?”
She provided him with the date.
“What time?” Matt asked.
“Our meeting was at six but he was already there when I arrived.”
Brian knew Matt would try and trace the identity of the person through the use of the man’s credit card.
A short while later as he and Matt were leaving, Brian paused at the door and suggested she put in her resignation. Donna agreed that would be the best thing under the circumstances. She apologized and said what she’d done hadn’t been personal and hoped he and his girlfriend got back together. Now, how ironic is that? Brian thought.
“So what do you think?” he asked Matt when they were back in the car.
“I think you might have an idea just who that ‘client’ might be, don’t you?”
Yes, Brian had a real good idea, but it floored him that Karen Sanders not only hated him that much but was willing to sacrifice her daughter’s happiness to get what she wanted. That proved just how manipulating, deceitful and uncaring she was. But he still couldn’t understand why getting him out of the picture was so important to her. Why was Erica’s marrying Griffin Hayes an obsession with her?
“Yes,” he finally responded. “I have a pretty good idea.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Griffin didn’t care how many times he visited Hawaii, he would always appreciate the island’s beauty. After talking to Erica yesterday, he hadn’t wasted any time booking a flight to California and then, after an overnight stay at a hotel in San Francisco, he had flown from there to Maui.
He rented a car at the airport and, using his GPS, it didn’t take long for him to find the villa, which seemed to be situated right in paradise, amidst lush greenery, flowering plants and foliage. He didn’t intend to leave until he found out the real reason April had decided to end things between them.
It was late-evening when he arrived but he pulled into the driveway, already lit by tiki torches. It was a huge two-story contemporary-style home with slate roofing, set against the ocean and mountains. His heart began beating faster at the mere thought that somewhere inside was the woman he loved. She had come here to escape him and he was determined to find out why.
After getting out of the car he took a moment to stretch his legs. Maybe he was a fool for running after a woman as if he didn’t have a damn ounce of pride. But at the moment his heart was his main concern and it didn’t take much to be reminded that she had his heart wrapped real tight.
There was one thing he couldn’t shake from his mind and that was what Erica had shared with him. She was not getting married. The wedding was not just postponed but had now been called off completely. Although she hadn’t gone into any details as to why, he felt it had to do with something more than finding out her father was having an affair with her future mother-in-law. And whatever happened had occurred rather recently. He could tell the pain of her decision was still raw.
He hadn’t questioned her about it, but if the reason she was no longer getting married was due to something other than her father’s alleged affair, then Griffin could only wonder at the timing of the demise of both his relationship with April and Erica’s relationship with her fiancé. It might be just coincidental, a cruel twist of fate…or was it something else entirely? But what?
He thought about April’s fears regarding Karen Sanders and shrugged them off. Like Erica had said, her mother had too many of her own problems to deal with to worry about his or anyone else’s. Besides, what sort of trouble could one woman cause to two affairs? You would have to be a twenty-four-hour