“I’m glad you had that experience.”
“I guess we all have to grow up at some point.” He cocked his head and smiled. “So when do we go back to Long Island to visit Mrs. Renee?”
“What?”
“She seems like the best link to everything, right?”
“After that call, I’m not sure she wants to see me again.”
“Who cares what she wants?” He shrugged. “You want answers, right? Answers don’t wait for convenient times.”
“I guess.” Beep beep. I grabbed my phone and saw a text from Jakob.
Where are you?
What do you want?
To see you. To kiss you.
I put my phone facedown on the table and turned back to Blake. “Sorry about that.”
“Let me guess, that was Jakob, also known as Mattias Bradley?”
“You do catch on quickly.” I nodded my head admiringly. “How did you know?”
“You looked happy when you looked at the screen.” He licked his lips. “So obviously that means you like him, but don’t want to like him.”
“How can I like him in these circumstances?” I sighed. “Rosie thinks I’m crazy.”
“Eh.” He made a face, and I knew what he was thinking: Don’t listen to that jealous bitch. Blake had never cared for Rosie.
“She thinks that I should trust David more than Jakob and see if I can talk to him to get some more answers.”
“And what do you think?” Blake leaned back, his serious face set off by his tight, black curls. I stared at him, handsome and nerdy, and wondered why I’d never given him a chance romantically. He was the sort of guy I should have been with. I would feel safe with him. The problem was, I’d never had that chemistry with Blake.
“I think David is less trustworthy than Jakob.” I made a face. “Though, I don’t really know why.”
“That’s the problem. We don’t have many concrete facts, do we?” Blake pulled out a pen and paper from his notepad. “Let’s note down the facts that we do have.”
“Primary research.” I grinned.
“Nothing better, right?” He wrote facts in bold letters at the top of the page. “We know for a fact that your father died. We know for a fact that he used to work at Bradley Inc., we know for a fact that your mother died in a car crash, we don’t know if that was an accident or not, we know that there were people that benefited from your mother’s death, but we do not have an exhaustive list of those people.”
“Well, we know Jeremiah Bradley was the number one beneficiary,” I burst out.
“No, we don’t know that for a fact.” He shook his head. “Distance your emotions from the facts, Bianca. Don’t forget you’re a historian first.”
“This is my family, Blake.”
He gave me a sympathetic glance and continued, “We know for a fact that David and Jakob are brothers. We know for a fact that Larry Renee was your father’s lawyer and also a lawyer for Bradley Inc. We know for a fact that you were kidnapped. We know for a fact that a third man, named Steve, was on the island with you and Jakob. We know for a fact that Steve and Larry have disappeared. What else do we know for a fact?”
“We know that Jakob is Mattias. And we know that he kidnapped me for revenge, and we know that he wanted to stop me from preventing the merger from going through.”
“Actually, no. Emotions don’t make good facts. And neither do assumptions. There is no substantiated proof that makes any of these things fact.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned. “He all but told me that he kidnapped me for revenge.”
“Yes, and he also told you that he and David were in on it together, yet they both seem to hate each other. And then there is the matter of Steve. What happened to him and why did he turn rogue? These are questions we must think about before we can even claim to know the answers as fact.”
“You’re not helping, Blake.” I shook my head.
“Let’s think of all the reasons why David and Jakob would want to kidnap you and then fall out.”
“Maybe David got mad because Jakob released me earlier than he was supposed to.”
“Perhaps.” Blake nodded. “That would make sense on a very base level.”
“Are you calling me stupid?”
“No.” He grinned and leaned forward. “I’m saying that this is a much more complex subject.”
Beep beep.
Forget the kisses then. Can I see you?
No.
Please?
No.
Where are you?
Don’t you already know?
No.
I’m with a friend. A male friend. I knew as soon as I wrote the words that I was being catty, but I couldn’t stop myself.
I see. Good-bye.
“Sorry about that. It was Jakob again.”
“He really wants to see you.” Blake looked thoughtful.
“He just wants to get some.” My face reddened as I realized what I’d said. “Or maybe wants to tell me some more lies.”
“Maybe he likes you as well.” Blake scribbled something on his pad. “That could be a major clue.”
“What could be a clue?”