Treasured by Lexi Blake

Chapter Nine

“Baby, I need you to wake up now.”

Tessa yawned and realized someone had turned on the light. The clock beside her read five in the morning. She’d set a timer on her phone for five thirty. She started to tell him they still had thirty minutes, but then she realized they weren’t alone.

“Stay calm, Tessa,” David said.

Fuck. She was caught without her pants on. Without anything on.

“Get out of bed, David, and don’t move too fast. I don’t want to have to shoot the lovely lady,” a deep voice said.

Tessa went tense and made a real threat assessment. The question was how many she could take out before one of them got off a lucky shot. Or a professional shot. The trouble was they were in close quarters and she had zero idea who these people really were because she’d come in with no intel.

No real intel because no one thought the danger would be here on the island. All the intel they had had been about a potential kidnapping before they got to the island.

What if the goal of that kidnapping hadn’t been ransom? What if it had been to force David to do something? What if this had been the plan all along?

“What the hell is going on?” David had pulled on his pants, and despite the terrible circumstances, she still thought he looked hot. Even as he straightened his glasses, she couldn’t help but notice he hadn’t put on a shirt yet, and his chest looked good. 

And that was why they were here. They were here because she’d lost her head and made the mistake of not leaving when she’d known damn well they should have. They could have taken shelter somewhere else and then gotten off the island in the morning after the storm had passed. But no. She’d wanted one more night with him. She’d wanted to play with him one last time before she gave him up.

If she’d followed her instincts instead of her pussy, they might be on the mainland now. At the very least they would be huddled up somewhere and she wouldn’t have a gun to her head and utter impotent rage in her belly.

Mateo held the pistol to her head, and she was aware that she was dressed in nothing but a sheet wrapped around her body. She hadn’t had time to grab the semi she’d put in the nightstand drawer.

She should have slept with the sucker in her hand, but then it would have been hard to cuddle with David.

When had she become this girl?

There were five of them in the room, who knew how many outside. She could drop the sheet, kick back and take down Mateo, grab her gun, and kill the guy to her right.

But it left a lot of time for someone to get a shot off David’s way. She was hesitating, and she never did that.

“I can explain.” Eddie was the only one who didn’t have a pistol in his hand. His palms were up as though to show the room he wasn’t a threat. He didn’t have to be. He had four other threats on his side.

“I’d like to hear it,” David said, his voice colder than she’d ever heard.

She had to make sure he survived this. He cared about her. He was the kind of man who would try to sacrifice himself for a woman he cared about. He needed to be reminded that he was the client and she was the one protecting him.

“I need for you to find the treasure.” Eddie’s hands were shaking, and his eyes went from David back to her and the gun held to her head. And back to David. “You can do it. You found the baseball card. You can find the treasure. You know my father better than anyone. You’ve read all of his work and know how he thinks. I’ll give you anything you need.”

David’s head shook. “Your men have a gun on my girlfriend. I’m not giving you anything until you let her go.”

She had to give it to him. David was steady. He was strong for a guy who’d probably never been in this kind of situation before, but he was reacting exactly like she’d thought he would. “David, I’m not your girlfriend. I’m your bodyguard, and you should fire me after this. I know for damn sure Big Tag will.”

David’s eyes widened. “I thought we weren’t going to mention that part.”

Even from here she could feel his hurt at the cold statement she’d made, but she couldn’t take it back. They needed to know they couldn’t manipulate David this way. They also needed to understand that even if they killed her, someone would come looking for David. “I’m not telling them, David. I suspect they already know I’m not who I said I was. I’m reminding you. I’m not your girlfriend. I had fun with you, but I was already planning on how to avoid you from now on. So you need to make decisions based on what’s best for you, not to try to save a woman who was planning on leaving you anyway.”

God, it hurt to say the words because now she was pretty sure they weren’t true. She was fairly certain that had she played this properly, she would have gotten him off the island and back home, and then the bargaining would have started. She would have told herself that her time with him had been cut short and they should have had at least five more days together, so it was okay to go on a date and spend the night at his place. She would have convinced herself that it was perfectly fine to go to The Club with him because she should have had those nights of play with him. Once those nights were done, she would have given herself one or two more.

And then she simply would have accepted the fact that she was his and he was hers, and it was right this time. She needed David to soften her hard edges, and he needed her to pull him back into the real world from time to time.

If she hadn’t screwed everything up and gotten them in this terrible situation.

“Hey, it’s okay, baby. You wanted to leave and I convinced you to spend one more night.” David completely ignored the men with the guns. His eyes were on her. “I know you’re feeling guilty, and you might even be feeling stupid, but you’re not. You’re the smart one, and you can yell at me when you get us out of this, but don’t try to convince me you don’t care.”

“I don’t.” He had to be harder than this or he wouldn’t survive because she didn’t see why they kept her alive.

His face fell, but his eyes stayed on her. “It doesn’t matter how you feel about me. What matters is how I feel about you, and they know that. Honestly, it wouldn’t matter if I hated you. I would still do what they want. The fact that I’m in love with you only makes it more urgent.”

Did he understand nothing? “For a man with as many degrees as you have, you’re not very smart.”

“She’s right.” There was obviously a reason Luis didn’t have a gun to his head. The “grad student” was watching David with steely eyes. “You’re not as impressive as you seem on paper. You spend all your time with a bunch of mewling kids who drag you down.”

“Mewling? I assure you Kala Taggart doesn’t mewl, though she did threaten to take me down if I didn’t stop making her repeat assignments.” David’s voice was perfectly steady, as though he knew she needed him to be. “She’s the one who scares me. I’m fairly certain she’s on a path that will lead to a prison or the Agency.”

Who the hell was this man? She was the one panicking when she never did. She was cool under pressure. She’d taken plenty of fire and not even had her blood pressure go up. Yet now she could feel her heart in her throat, her eyes starting to water at the idea of losing him.

She needed to be stronger than this.

Or she just needed to not work with her boyfriend. She needed to stop pretending with this man. Stop pretending with herself.

“You could be someone important.” Luis paced the room like a caged tiger. “But you spend all your time worried about stupid shit. Your brother is the one dragging you down. I hate listening to you whine about him. You know what I did when my brother got in my way? I took him out because this world isn’t about the weak.”

“I take it your brother is the real Luis.” David shrugged into his shirt. “You probably look a lot like him. He was an academic, but you decided to go a different way?”

“The resemblance is uncanny. When I found out my brother was going to America, I studied up on the university he would be attending. I thought it was useless until I realized the connection between you and Montez’s son. You have a picture of you with Montez right there on your faculty page.”

“It was the one time I met the man,” David explained. “It was a big moment for me. There are also pictures of me with my family and my students.”

“Yeah, Montez was the only one I cared about,” Luis admitted. “So I studied up on what I would need to, and when it was time, I took my brother’s place.”

“Did you kill him?” David asked in an academic tone.

“No, I needed him to do the actual work and to coach me on what to say. I broke both his legs, and my friends have kept him and his girlfriend in a safe location,” Luis admitted. “As long as he complies, they both live.”

“By friends he means criminals,” she pointed out. “I take it you’re part of an established group. I am, too. Do you want to start a war with my group?”

Luis’s eyes rolled. “Yeah, I know all about David’s stepfamily, and I know he doesn’t have much to do with them besides playing tutor. He talks about how he doesn’t fit in.”

“That won’t stop my stepdad, and I assure you it won’t stop Ian Taggart,” David said flatly. “The minute I don’t show up or Tessa doesn’t call, he’ll move heaven and earth and the CIA to find me. Like I said to Tessa, it won’t matter that I’m standoffish. I’m a member of his family, and he will not let me go easily. She’s his employee. He won’t let her go either. If you want to start a war with a group of ex-Special Forces soldiers and a couple of former CIA operatives, this is the way to do it.”

Luis actually seemed to think about that. Had he truly not understood what he was going up against?

She could give him more to think about. “Don’t forget the Russians. Charlotte’s got ties to the Denisovitch Syndicate. If Dusan can help out his cousin and gain a foothold here in South America, he’ll do it.”

Mateo’s hand shifted slightly. “No queremos problemas con los rusos.”

“If you don’t want problems with them, then let her go,” David commanded.

But they couldn’t. This was an act of desperation on all sides.

“Maybe we should think about this,” Eddie offered. “You know we could all walk away, and nothing has to happen. I won’t go to the cops.”

“Why would you go to the cops? You’re the reason we’re here,” David said to the man who’d been his friend.

But he might be wrong about that. A few things slipped into place, and she figured out what was going on. Too late, but at least her powers of reasoning hadn’t completely died when her libido took over. “They have your son, right? That picture upstairs. It wasn’t you. It’s your kid.”

Eddie’s head fell forward. “I’m not married to his mother. I didn’t even know she was pregnant until a few months ago, but he’s mine, and I was going to try to work things out with her. He’s barely six weeks old and they have him and Camila. We named him after my father.”

“Fuck,” David said. “They want ransom? Pay it.”

Eddie shook his head. “They want the treasure. You think I haven’t tried to reason with them? I offered them everything I had.”

“You offered two million American dollars,” Luis shot back. “The treasure is worth ten times that. Twenty.”

“If it even exists,” she pointed out.

“It exists,” Luis replied. “And we’ve always known David Hawthorne would be the one to find it. According to my brother, Professor Hawthorne is the expert. No one else has been able to even come close, but he’ll find it, and then we won’t ever have to worry about money again. We’ll crush our enemies and live like kings.”

“Or he won’t be able to find it and you’ll have to kill us all, and you’re right back to getting your ass hunted down by my boss.” She steadied her breathing. She needed to think about this. They might keep her alive in order to give David a reason to work. They had a couple of days before Big Tag would wonder where they were. He knew about the communications issues here on the island, and that would throw him off. Could David keep them on the hook for a couple of days?

“I have your itinerary,” Luis replied. “You’re not expected back until late Sunday. That gives us plenty of time to deal with the problem. I also have your phone, and I’ll get someone into the village to make sure you send out a message saying you’re fine. The question is will the professor do what we need him to do or should I start killing people? I don’t really need Eddie or his kid at this point.”

David’s hands came up. “I’ll do it. Don’t kill anyone, and that includes Eddie’s family. There’s no reason to. I’ll find it for you and then you can let us all go.”

That wasn’t the way this would work, but Luis needed to believe that they thought they would survive. This was a standoff of sorts. They needed to buy time. She had to think that most of the staff was in on this. Perhaps not the maids, but the rest of the group would have been brought in or taken care of. She would need to assess her situation and find a way to get David out of here. She didn’t care about Eddie. Oh, he was doing it for his girlfriend and his son, but he could have found a way to let them know. He could have sent a message of some kind and then David would have brought in the troops. If the bastard had shown an ounce of faith in his friend, they wouldn’t be in this situation.

David was her only priority.

“I want her with me at all times.” David seemed to think that he could negotiate with them. He was naïve. Or maybe a better way to look at it was optimism.

It wouldn’t work.

They didn’t seem to know about the gun in the nightstand. They’d taken her phone, but they hadn’t even looked in the nightstand. At least she knew where one weapon was.

“I don’t think so,” Luis replied. “I think you’ll work faster if we keep you apart. You seem to lose your focus around her, Professor. Mateo, tie the bitch up and then we’ll escort Professor Hawthorne to the library. I want him to give me a starting point by this evening.”

David shook his head. “That’s not enough time.”

“It better be or your pretty princess here is going to lose a finger. And she’ll lose another one every four hours after that until she runs out and I need to find other body parts you’re more fond of. Do I make myself clear?” Luis had a savage expression on his face, and Tessa had no doubt she could lose a couple of digits if this guy had his way.

David’s stare had gone stony, all of his emotions shutting down. “I get it. I perform or she gets hurt. We should go to the library, and I’ll need Eddie with me. I have questions for him.”

Eddie nodded. “Anything you need, man.”

David looked her way. “Tessa…”

“I’ll be fine.” She would be especially fine if they only left Mateo to watch over her. She was almost certain that despite her bodyguard credentials, he would see her as weak.

“I swear to god if anyone hurts her, I’ll make sure you never find the treasure,” David vowed. “I’ll send you on a wild-goose chase that will end in my family as the ones hunting you. Do I make myself clear, whatever the fuck your name is?”

Luis punched him right in the face. “You don’t talk to me that way.”

It took everything she had not to start fighting.

David merely spat out the blood in his mouth. “I mean it. I find out one of your men laid a hand on her and I’ll go down fighting, and you won’t see a dime.”

How could that man ever doubt that he was the end goal? That he was the man a smart woman would love and never regret giving her heart to?

Stupid tears threatened to fall, and she had to suck it up because he was being her hero.

“Mateo, tie the whore up and make sure she doesn’t cause trouble. And don’t touch a hair on her pretty head or the professor will get mad,” Luis said with a huff. “And be careful in case she really is what she says she is. We know she works for his uncle, but she looks like a secretary to me.”

“I think I can handle her,” Mateo replied. “She’s just a woman.”

Ah, misogyny, her old friend.

“Tessa,” David began.

“Just do what you need to do, Professor.” She used the title she gave him when they were playing. The one she would call him if she was ever brave enough to go to The Club with him. If she was brave enough to let herself love him.

He nodded, and they led him out.

She was left with Mateo and one other bulky man she’d seen walking around the gardens with a shovel he probably used for non-gardening activities. Like burying the bodies of his victims. She should have taken one look at the staff and forced David back on the boat, but no. She hadn’t wanted to upset the sexy professor man who she was going to share a bed with.

Big Tag would kill her. She didn’t need Mateo to do it. Big Tag would do all kinds of things to her entrails because he liked to talk about them a lot. The only thing he liked to talk about more was not thinking with one’s genitals. And he’d said flat out that a pussy could be as dumb as a dick. He was not sexist when it came to doling out lectures on how horniness could get an operative killed.

Mateo didn’t move as his friend handed her a robe.

At least they weren’t leaving her completely naked. She’d gotten caught without her panties, and she would never, ever hear the end of it.

Of course if she died, her coworkers would likely overlook her mistakes. They would certainly be noted in a file somewhere, and she would become a cautionary tale for newbie recruits, but she wouldn’t have to listen to them ragging on her.

She shrugged into the robe and then let the sheet fall to the floor. There were only two of them now, but Mateo had that gun way too close to her head. He would get a shot off, and even if she managed to avoid the bullet, it would alert everyone else, and David would be in the crossfire. She had no idea who was right outside.

“Put your hands together,” Mateo ordered as his friend produced a set of zip ties.

Seriously? They were letting her keep her hands in front of her? She loved misogyny so much. Tessa put her wrists together, allowing them to zip-tie her hands. They were tight, but she could work with it.

“Sit down. Stay quiet and let the professor do his work. If you give me trouble I’ve got something that will make you easy to deal with,” Mateo promised.

She could bet what that was, and she didn’t want a nice dose of either some kind of sedative or heroin. “Like I said, I’m not his girlfriend. I just want to get out of this alive.”

To that end she sat down on the chair they offered and found her ankles tied to the legs. Again, not a problem. The chair wasn’t even nailed to the floor, so she could ease those suckers off.

These were not professional kidnappers. She would bet they were used to shoving some screaming victim into a room and not letting them out until they had the cash.

She was going to be a revelation for them because she would also bet that they would get bored real fast, and once their minds started to wander, she could get to the nightstand and get her gun.

“If you want to stay alive, you’ll be a good girl,” Mateo chided. “I know you think you’re some kind of badass, but I don’t buy it. Americans hire women to please their media. A woman shouldn’t be a bodyguard. You were doing what you did best last night. Stick to fucking from here on out. Maybe get yourself a real man so you don’t end up here again.”

Oh, she could fuck him up hard, but she knew how to play this game. “I’ll be good.”

She sat and waited for the right time.

* * * *

David forced himself to walk away from the bedroom he’d shared with Tessa. He couldn’t force himself to stop thinking about her.

He’d gotten so close to her. So fucking close, and even if they survived this, he worried she wouldn’t forgive herself for not pushing him to leave the night before. She’d known something was wrong. He should have listened to her, but he’d wanted time. Time with her. Time to convince her he was worth taking a chance on.

Now all he wanted was for her to make it out of this alive and whole.

“They won’t hurt her.” Eddie walked beside him, their captors at their backs.

“Sure they won’t.” He couldn’t believe this was happening. He’d known this man for years, trusted him. Tessa was right. He was naïve, and it might cost him everything he’d ever wanted. He’d thought he wanted tenure and a great career, but now he knew it would all be hollow if he didn’t have her to share it with.

“Camila is unharmed, and they’ve had her for three weeks,” Eddie explained.

“So they came to you then? Because Luis has been with me for a semester and a half.” They’d been planning this for a long time.

“And they’ve been infiltrating my house for just as long,” Eddie replied, his voice tense.

Well, good he was fucking tense because he was also the reason they were in this situation in the first place. David shoved his way through the library door. “Did it occur to you to maybe shoot me an email. ‘Hey, David, got a situation down here and need your help. Why don’t you bring the troops in?’”

“Because my son’s life is at stake. You can’t understand what it means,” Eddie shot back.

“I can certainly understand what it means to love someone.” He wasn’t letting him off easily. Eddie had plenty of time when he could have given David a heads-up. “You didn’t even tell me you had a kid.”

“I didn’t know I wanted one until I met him.” Eddie moved into the library.

Luis had two men with him, both with guns, of course. “The lady is a friend of a friend, and that was how I found out about the connection.”

“How do you know she’s not in on this?” David asked Eddie.

“Does it matter?” Eddie said with a shrug. “He’s still my son. There was a test, and I believe it. Even if she’s in on it, he’s still my boy, and I want him. She might not kill him, but she could disappear with him. I can’t risk it.”

But he could risk David’s life, and more importantly, Tessa’s. “Did they plan to pick me up at the airport?”

“That was a rival group,” Luis answered. “Someone in my organization has been talking, but I’ll handle it.”

“You do understand this is one of the stupidest plans in the history of…do I dare call it organized crime?” He was flabbergasted at the entire idea that they expected him to find a treasure that had eluded everyone else who’d looked for it. And in the matter of a few days. “We don’t even know if the treasure exists.”

“It better or you’re going to be in trouble, Professor.” Luis’s eyes had narrowed. “I need that money. I owe some people, and the time is coming when I can’t make payments anymore. I can give them the treasure or I can give them you. The men I’m dealing with won’t treat you with the same respect.”

He couldn’t tell there was any respect at all. “I meant what I said about Tessa. If she’s hurt in any way, I won’t do a damn thing for you. It doesn’t matter what you do to me. You don’t touch her.”

“That’s a lot to risk for a woman who doesn’t care for you,” Luis replied.

He didn’t think she’d meant all of what she’d said. Oh, he could absolutely see her walking away, but she did care about him. That was precisely why she would walk. If she didn’t feel something for him, she would likely offer him a D/s relationship that would be all about sex and kept to their respective clubs. And he would take it on the off chance she might change her mind about him.

Because he was mad crazy in love with her.

“I need a map of the grounds.” He wasn’t discussing his love life with his kidnapper. And it was also good to know that more than one group wanted to kidnap him. At least it was all for his own skills and not his family connections. That was a plus. Of course his skills would mean nothing if he couldn’t translate them into some kind of crazy treasure that probably didn’t exist.

“I think we should go into the jungle,” Luis insisted.

And waste the time he had? He wasn’t about to be farther from Tessa than he already was. There was also the fact that he didn’t think the treasure was out in the jungle. “We’ve gone over this. If there’s twenty million dollars out there, it’s in a big fucking box, man. Even if it was cash, the container would have to be large and insulated to protect what’s inside. The jungle is wet and muddy, and after a couple of years there would be erosion around it. That would make it easier to find. Am I making sense to you?”

“I agree with David.” Eddie wouldn’t actually look at him. “There’s no way my father hauled a large box into the jungle in the last year of his life.”

David didn’t want to think about it. “Then it’s somewhere here on the grounds, and I need a map of them. I would also like any blueprints of planning materials you can find for the house and the grounds. There’s a guesthouse as well.”

Luis got in his space. “I’m not your errand boy.”

“Good, then you’ll give me the freedom to go where I need and get the items I need without interference.” He wasn’t about to back down. All he could think about was Tessa and the fact that she needed him.

He could practically feel Luis’s rage, but the man took a step back. “I’ll find them for you. But know that you’re on thin ice with me. Vos vigilás.”

He stalked away, and they were left with the henchmen.

“I don’t think those two speak English if you want to talk,” Eddie said under his breath. “I’m sorry.”

“I know you are, but this isn’t some prank that went wrong.” Eddie was always sorry about something. “This is our lives and Tessa’s, and I’m not even sure there is a treasure to be found.”

David walked over to the big table where yesterday he’d made the decision not to pursue some elusive treasure. If he’d listened to Tessa, they wouldn’t be in this situation, and she had to be thinking that, too. Could she ever forgive him?

“When he was dying, my dad told me he left something for me.” Eddie glanced at their captors. “He said he’d finally figured out what was important, and he hoped I did, too. I thought it was some political ideal. God knows I’d gotten enough of those lectures over the years. I’m worried we’re going to find a book or some bullshit.”

A new book by Montez would be a true treasure, but only to a historian or political theorist. “How well do you know the grounds?”

Eddie sighed. “You think he hid something here? It’s a big place. I know the main house pretty well.”

By pretty well, David assumed he meant Eddie knew the common areas and likely nothing at all about the parts of the estate the servants spent time in. The truth of the matter was David hadn’t spent much time out of the library, dining area, or the bedroom he’d shared with Tessa. He hadn’t gotten a real feel for the place because his head had been stuck in a book. “You don’t know if there’s a safe anywhere?”

“Sure. There’s a safe in the master suite, but I’ve certainly looked through that. There’s a gun safe in the garage, but there’s only guns and ammo in it, and I scarcely think we’ll be able to get to it.” Eddie frowned. “I also don’t actually know that code since I’ve never had to fight off a wild animal here.”

“You’ll know better next time.” If they survived. “Have you ever heard anyone talk about hiding places? Were there other kids around when you were younger?”

“I wasn’t that friendly unless they were pretty girls,” Eddie admitted. “You know I’m an asshole. Trust me. I’m feeling every minute of it. Maybe if I hadn’t been such an ass, Camila wouldn’t have had to talk to her friends about us. She could have been with me, and I could have taken care of her.”

He couldn’t think about what Eddie should have done. He had to figure a way out of this.

What was Tessa going through? God, not knowing was an actual ache in his gut.

Was there any way to get a message out to his stepfather? He hoped Eddie was right and their captors wouldn’t understand what he was about to ask. He picked up a notebook and opened it, his eyes staring as he lowered his voice. “Are the phone lines really down?”

“They cut them all last week when Luis showed up,” Eddie said under his breath. “They blamed a storm, but I know it was them, and they control the radio. They’ve been slowly getting rid of the important people in the household and replacing them with their own. It’s my fault because I left it all up to the manager who hired Mateo, so he’s in on it.”

Eddie was going to be absolutely no help. David would be surprised if he knew where the radio was much less how to use it. “Is there anyone on the staff that you trust?”

Eddie shrugged. “A couple of the maids. I don’t know about Marta. I hired her myself a few months ago. She’s worked for me before. I know she’s here now. I think Mateo gave the maids the day off, and I’m sure he’ll come up with something for tomorrow.”

Luis would count on them keeping silent around anyone who came in. After all, they had Tessa and Eddie’s kid, so it wasn’t like he would go screaming to one of the young women who mopped the floors and changed the bedding.

Though he might be able to slip a note. That could work. He could potentially slip one of the maids a note to let her know to contact his stepdad.

He had no doubt that if he actually found the treasure—if there was one—he would be dead shortly after, and so would Tessa and Eddie. They wouldn’t simply let them all go.

There was a knock on the door, and it came open. Marta stepped inside, a big tray in her hand. She glanced over and seemed to take note of the men with guns. If she gave a damn, she didn’t show it. The woman who ran the kitchens brought the tray over.

“I was told to bring you coffee and some breakfast, Mr. Montez.” Marta’s English was good. “You should do what they tell you.”

“Of course.” David wasn’t about to argue with anyone. There was zero point.

“I hired you myself. I’m really shocked that you’re with them.” Eddie wasn’t taking the same view of their situation.

She shrugged. “With them. With you. What is the difference? I don’t care as long as I get paid. I don’t argue with men who have guns. Do you want the coffee or not? It’s not poisoned. They didn’t pay me to do that.”

The woman was dour but steady. And they wouldn’t want to poison him. Not yet. “We’ll serve ourselves.”

Eddie was shaking his head. “I trusted you.”

“You barely talked to me beyond telling me how to cook your steak,” she replied in that flat way of hers. “Where is the American girl? Did they kill her?”

“Vos regresás a la cocina,” one of the men with the guns said.

She didn’t flinch at being told to get back to the kitchen, merely sighed as though she was used to the treatment.

“They’re keeping her in our bedroom,” David said. “Could you make sure she gets some water and something to eat?”

Marta shrugged. “If they tell me to. If not, she can starve for all I care. I’ll come back for the tray, but don’t expect me to play the maid. Clean up after yourselves since they won’t be back until Monday.”

She walked away, and David realized there would be no note to sneak. He was well and truly trapped.

“What should we do?” Eddie asked.

David bit back a groan because unfortunately the “we” part was fitting. “We grab a cup of coffee and then I do what I do best.”

“And what is that?” Eddie reached for the pot.

“Study.”

He had to hope he could study his way out of this.