Page 43 of Flyboy
"Oh." She knew his friend was trying to locate Gina so they could get her to sign Penny over. Not that Alyssa thought she'd do it but it was worth a try. "Okay."
"I'll check on Penny too."
"Why?"
He gave her a look she couldn't interpret. "Because she might want to talk about what happened tonight."
"You mean our argument?"
"No. I mean the fact that girl was so shocked you'd give her a birthday party."
At the reminder, Alyssa's stomach sank. "You noticed that too?"
"Yeah. And if I didn't want to strangle Gina already, I would now."
"Get in line."
He smiled, his hand coming up to cup her face, his thumb brushing the skin beneath her eye. "Go shower and get into bed. You need sleep. I'll take care of Penny."
Alyssa knew he would. He'd been doing it for a while without being asked. And if she were honest, ifshecouldn't be the one to take care of her sister then she'd want it to be Jack.
9
Jack took the stairs down two at a time; he already had his phone to his ear waiting for Roark to pick up. He'd duck into the study for this conversation then go find Penny to see if she was okay.
"Yeah?"
"Lys thinks Gina is in Sunnyville."
"What? Why? Has she seen her?"
"You're not monitoring their conversations?"
"No. We’re tracking the calls to try to pinpoint Gina’s location. They are being recorded though, just not monitored. I didn’t think we’d need that otherwise I’d have done it myself instead of running down other leads and helping Keaton pull those strings he mentioned."
"Right. Okay, well Lys hasn't seen her, but Gina has been calling. A lot. Although Lys hasn't said anything before now about the extra calls." Then again, it was hard to talk to each other when they were never in the same room, not that he'd say that to Roark. He shook off those thoughts and continued to explain, "Anyway, Gina has commented on the big house and it must be nice for Lys to have a sugar daddy."
"Jesus, that woman is a piece of work," Roark muttered.
"Yep. I need a team here."
"She's not going to like that." Roark didn't need to say whoshewas; they both knew it wasn't Gina he referred to.
"Don't care. But I will concede to not having Lys shadowed. She's an adult, and to be honest, I think Gina would come out second best in any confrontation between the two of them. Penny on the other hand… I'm not taking any chances with her; she's already spoken to Gina on the phone. Last week sometime; get someone to pull the logs for Lys's phone, I want that recording. I want to know every word that woman said to Penny."
"I'll be there first thing in the morning. I'll bring a couple of guys with me, but I'll stick with Penny; she knows me. It'll be easier if she's comfortable with whoever follows her around."
"How close is Keaton on the guardianship?"
"He’s got statements from people in Gina's old building. That Max guy and Mrs. Ellery, as well as a few others including her landlord. Who was not a happy man. Gina skipped out on her lease, owing two months’ rent, a week after Penny took off. He also got them from several of Penny's teachers. You know not one person had a bad thing to say about our girl. Her mother…well, that's another story all together."
"And?"
"Any judge would be an idiot not to grant permanent guardianship to Alyssa."
"Keaton hasn't added my name to the petition?"
"At the moment, no. He said he would mention which Townsend Alyssa had married to the judge at the hearing but there won't be an official record in the documentation. It's solely Alyssa's name on the paperwork."
