Page 115 of Never Fall Again

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I must confess that I did some digging into your past. I knew about your husband, and I knew it was too soon. So I made my plans and waited until your heart had healed enough to move on. When you bought the property from Bronwyn, I knew it was time to put everything in motion.”

“So was all of that you? Burning down the store?”

Ignacio preened. “The store took months to plan, an hour and a bit of good fortune to set up, and a second to start. The fire was glorious. I’ll be using that method in my next movie. Minimal risk to the parties involved, maximum damage.” He tapped her nose. “I thought when you saw the destruction, you’d be ready to move on.” He tsked at her. “But no. Not my brave warrior. Not my Landry. You went straight to rebuilding. And that’s when I realized I would have to do a little more to convince you that it was time to join me.”

“I’m not sure how destroying my studio was supposed to accomplish that, Ignacio.” She was on thin ice, and she knew it. But what kind of sick mind came up with a plan like this?

“Oh no. Look.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her to a curio cabinet she’d paid no attention to before.

Now she stared at the pieces inside. “Are these...”

“Yes. All yours. The pieces that won awards and the pieces that had sentimental value. I took them from the store and from your studio. I would never hurt you that way. No, my darling. I wasn’t trying to hurt you or frighten you. I was laying the groundwork foryour departure. After what happened at your studio, even Bronwyn will understand when you tell her you aren’t going back.”

“I’m not?”

“Of course not! You can create here. I have a studio for you behind the house. Several kilns, a wheel, all the tools, the clay, the glazes. It’s all there. You’ll be back at work whenever you feel up to it. You can continue to sell your work online. But there will be no pressure. None at all. I have more than enough money to provide for us. You can create what you want when you want.” He beamed at her, obviously proud of his efforts on her behalf.

He yawned and shook his head. Was it her imagination, or were his blinks slowing down? “Darling, this isn’t exactly the way I’d hoped the evening would go, but I think it’s time we go to bed.” The hand at her knee crept up her thigh. “I’ve been awake for well over twenty-four hours in my last-minute push to get everything ready for you. I need to get some rest.”

Landry forced a smile and stood up. His hand fell away and this time, it wasn’t her imagination. He was wobbly.Please let it be enough.She’d managed to avoid making him mad so far, but she didn’t know how much longer that would last. She needed to keep him content until the meds knocked him out.

“I’ll need to help Eliza before I come to bed.” She leaned toward him and tried to make her voice sound conspiratorial. “She has a routine. If we stick to it, she sleeps like a champ. If we don’t”—Landry made big eyes at Ignacio—“she’ll be up every thirty minutes.”

Ignacio was suitably horrified by the thought of Eliza’s nighttime antics. “Definitely do whatever you need to do. I’ll be waiting for you, my darling.” He ran his fingers along her cheek. She couldn’t stop the shiver that trembled through her body. He mistook it for desire, and his expression grew smug. “Just don’t be too long.”

Oh, she was going to be long. Far longer than he knew.

Thirty-Three

Cal paced around Mo’s house. “Why didn’t we build this place bigger?”

Mo kept typing. “This place has all the room I need. You’re welcome to go wear out the floors in your own house.”

“Anything?”

“What? Anything on this highly illegal search of personal records that I have no authorization, warrant, or approval for?”

“Yeah. That.”

“Almost.”

“Why are you so sure it’s Ignacio that’s behind this? Because if we’re wrong and we’re looking in the wrong place . . . ” Cal couldn’t make himself finish the thought. “If it is Ignacio, he could have taken them anywhere. They could be on their way to Eastern Europe by now.”

“No.” Mo sounded confident. “They’re close. Ignacio hasn’t been in Eastern Europe...or anywhere...lately.”

“He told La—”

“I know what he told her. But I’ve been looking for him since the incident at the studio, and that’s why I was calling you this afternoon. Unless he’s been traveling under forged paperwork, Ignacio hasn’t left the country in the past six months. He’s droppedoff the grid entirely. Everyone assumed that was because he was working. But he wasn’t.”

Mo handed an iPad to Meredith. “Can you pull up that article about him bailing on a job?”

Meredith tapped the screen a few times, then turned it toward them. A headline read, “Where is Ignacio?”

“He disappeared?” Cal leaned toward her screen.

“According to this, he flaked on his last role. Never showed up. No one seems to know what happened to him. And it’s not the first time. About five years ago, he pulled a similar stunt. Disappeared for a year. Reappeared with no explanation and went back to work.”

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