Golden Lies - Barbara Freethy [127]
The two men exchanged a long look that Paige couldn't begin to decipher.
"Your grandfather certainly could have hired someone to do whatever he needed to have done," Riley said to Paige.
"No!" Paige turned on him in fury. "Don't accuse my grandfather of hurting his own son. Are you crazy? He wouldn't do that."
"Wouldn't he?" Riley looked her straight in the eye. "Look at the facts, Paige."
"There aren't any facts, just speculation. We need to calm down, talk this through."
"Playing the peacemaker again, princess?"
"Someone has to."
"You just want to give your grandfather and your father time to cover up. A Hathaway to the bitter end."
She was stung by the cold fury in his voice and felt her own temper rise. "Maybe you should go."
"So you can hide the dragon?"
"I'm not hiding anything. But you're not helping."
"She's right. Get out," Wallace said shortly. "Or I'll have you thrown out."
"And who's going to do that?" Riley challenged. "Are you going to call the police, Wally? Because I think I'd like them to come. I'd like you to tell them why you have a dragon in your safe that looks exactly like the one that was stolen from me."
"We know there are two," Paige said desperately. "They're identical. This could be the other one."
"Take off the rose-colored glasses, Paige. This isn't the other one. This is the same one."
"Please, just go." She had to think. She needed time to sort things out, to make sense of it all.
He looked as if she'd just stabbed him in the heart. "You really are choosing them, aren't you?" he asked.
"It's not a choice. It's too much too fast. I can't keep up with it all."
"Sure you can; you just don't want to. But this isn't over. I'll find out the truth, and when I do, someone will pay."
"That someone will be your grandfather," Wallace said.
"We'll see about that." Riley strode from the room without another glance in Paige's direction. His exit was punctuated by the slamming of the front door.
For a moment there was only silence in the room. Paige was afraid to look at her father or her grandfather, afraid of what she would see in their eyes. She had a terrible feeling that Riley might just be right about everything.
"I want to see the dragon again," David said. "Open the safe, Father."
"It's late. I'm going to bed."
She looked up as David moved in front of Wallace, blocking his way. There they stood face-to-face, shoulder-to-shoulder, father and son. Paige had always believed her grandfather was the stronger of the two, but right now her father was holding his own.
"The dragon in the safe is the same dragon I held in my hands," David said slowly. "Mr. McAllister was right. That's what you don't want me to see, isn't it? You didn't have two dragons. You had none. Until you stole the one from me in the alley."
"No," Paige breathed, but neither one of them was paying any attention to her.
"Did you mean to kill me, too?" David asked in a voice that sounded almost dispassionate. "Was that part of the plan?"
Wallace didn't say anything for a moment, then said, "I didn't want you to get hurt. They were supposed to take the dragon and bring it back to me. No one was supposed to get hurt."
Paige sank down on a nearby chair as her legs gave out from under her. Her grandfather had had his own son robbed? And she'd just stood up for her family? Taken their side over Riley's? She'd made a terrible, terrible mistake.
"Why didn't you tell me you wanted the dragon?" David asked. "Why steal it?"
"I didn't want to pay for it. It was mine. Ned stole it from me. I wanted it back. It was simpler just to take it"
"Simpler?" Paige echoed in disbelief, drawing their attention back to her. "Dad was almost killed. You call that simple?"
Wallace's face tightened at her criticism. "I told you that was an accident."
"And you expect him to forgive you for it? I don't understand you at all."
"You don't have to understand. I was settling an old debt. And your father will be fine." He paused. "No one will ever know. It's done now. Tomorrow this