Love Is Patient and A Heart's Refuge (13 page)

Her anger washed over him, surprising in its intensity. His mother was usually all softness and gentleness. He listened.

“Your father needs you to confront him and tell him that enough is enough. If you want to be in charge, then tell him that. If you do, you will give Alex and Ted an easy out. Like I said, in their own way they have pride, as well.” Stephanie brushed a hand over her forehead, as if brushing away her anger. “You’re the only one I can talk to right now, Dylan. Ted has his own problems, and your father has his own secrets….” Her voice faltered and as quickly as the movement of clouds across the sun, her anger faded away. “I don’t know what’s going on anymore. I only know that since that accountant Gabe was fired things have gone all haywire in this house. Right now you and Lisa and the twins are the only people in this house who don’t have any secrets.”

But Lisa did have her own secrets.

“I want this family whole again, Dylan. I want things the way they’re supposed to be in a family that confesses to love the Lord.”

“And I’m supposed to be the one to do it, Mom?” Dylan asked quietly. “What if I don’t even know myself about my relationship with the Lord?”

“God never forgets you, Dylan. He never lets go. You have been a child of God since you were born and I cling to that promise every day.” Stephanie caught his hand and held it between her own. “Every day your
father and I pray for you and for all our children. We have prayed that you would find a relationship with God.”

The words gave him comfort. Strength.

He turned his mother’s hand over, tracing the raised veins in the backs of her hands as he used to as a child. “I haven’t prayed for a while, Mom. I don’t know how to start.”

“Do you want to?” Stephanie’s voice was a soft whisper, as if she hardly dared voice her request too loud.

Dylan nodded.

“Okay. You start with something simple and I’ll pray it for you. We’ll keep going like that.”

Dylan bent his head, pushing aside the voices that had lured him away all these years. The voices that told him God was for women and weak men. The thoughts that fooled him into thinking that he could be strong on his own.

With his mother beside him, he dug down to the bedrock of his faith. To the God he had known as a child.

“Dear Lord,” he prayed, “I don’t know where to start. I only know that I want to know You more.”

Stephanie responded, adding her own prayer. And as her voice lilted through familiar cadences, her sincerity pouring through in the touch of her hands on his, in the feeling in her voice, Dylan felt his unraveling ends slowly becoming whole.

And he let God into his life again.

Lisa sat at her computer desk, her mind a storm of thoughts and emotions.

Since her epiphany in this very same place this morning, she couldn’t find a place in her mind that brought her serenity.

She knew only the truth would. But the truth was a double-edged sword. It would bring her peace, but it would also sever any hopes of a continuing relationship with Dylan.

She turned back to the crumpled invoice lying beside her computer. Dylan didn’t want to look anymore, but she couldn’t quit. Though she loved Dylan, she had made a promise to herself to help her brother. And she had to go through with that. No matter what the cost.

She had pulled the invoice out of the file and was looking at it again, sensing that it held more than just a hiding place for the memo.

She booted up her computer and punched in the date of the invoice. A list of other invoices came up, but not this one. Why had Dara not entered it?

An invoice with the same date for the same company came up. But for a different amount.

She frowned at the invoice, wondering what she was supposed to be seeing. She realized she had taken the wrong piece of paper to Gabe’s. Instead of the memo, she should have taken this invoice.

“I didn’t think I’d find you in here anymore.”

Dylan’s voice swept over Lisa’s swirling thoughts, bringing love and helpless yearning in its wake.

She turned to him. How could she not?

He rested his hip against her desk, bringing him close enough that she could smell his aftershave. He had
tidied up since she’d seen him last. “You seemed a little upset this morning. Are you okay now?”

His deep voice, coupled with his concern, rekindled her emotions. Created a faint hope she hardly dared nurture.

She looked away, quashing her feelings. “I’m okay.” Which was a lie. She knew that no matter what happened to her in the future, she would not walk away without scars from this time spent with Dylan.

“Okay enough to come have breakfast with us?”

“There’s a few things I want to finish up yet.” Besides, she had spent too much time with his family already and she felt a need to get her relationship with Dylan back to where it should be. Back to where it was safe. If that could even happen.

“Don’t you have the feeling we’re missing something?” she asked, pushing aside her feelings. “Something that’s right under our noses?”

Dylan waggled his hand, as if considering. “I don’t know. Not that it matters. I told Ted we’d back off, and Dad doesn’t seem to be too involved.”

“If your father wasn’t, why would he ask you to come here?” Lisa fought down her panic. Dylan had to keep going. If they didn’t find out the truth, she was afraid of what would happen to her brother. “Ted is the one asking you to quit, not your father.”

Dylan shrugged. “I wish I knew what he wanted. I need to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with him before we go.”

“You don’t have much time,” Lisa said quietly, her concern shifting from her brother to Dylan. She got the
feeling that Alex cared about the problems in the company, but that he also had his own agenda in dealing with them.

The sharp ring of the phone made Lisa jump. Dylan ignored it.

“Shouldn’t you get that?” she said.

He shook his head as he ran his finger lightly over her cheek in an intimate gesture that made Lisa quiver inside.

Dylan smiled a crooked smile. “My mother thinks I should talk to my dad, as well. Are you two in cahoots?”

“No. But I like your parents. A lot.”

“And she likes you. A lot.” He grew still, his eyes holding hers.

He’s going to kiss me, Lisa thought, her heart skipping in her chest. I want him to.

I can’t let him.

“Dylan, Dara’s on the phone for you.” Amber stuck her head in the study. “Says she has something important to tell you.”

Dylan blew out his breath and glanced back at his sister. “Thanks, Amber. I’ll take it in here.” He reached behind him and caught the phone off his desk, but didn’t move from Lisa’s side.

Lisa moved to get up, to give him privacy, but he gently laid his hand on her shoulder, forestalling her. As if negating Ted’s comment about Dara and Dylan. Reassuring her he had nothing to hide.

“So, Dara. What can I do for you?” Dylan smiled down at Lisa, his fingers lingering on her shoulder. His smile held, then faded.

“I’m glad to hear that, Dara,” Dylan said. He nodded as if listening to more that she had to say, then slowly pulled his hand away from Lisa, frowning. “How did you manage to do that?…No, I hadn’t heard anything about it…Are you sure that’s where the money came from?…Of course I’ll tell Dad…. Ted already knows…. Well, I guess that ties it all up. Thanks, Dara. This makes things a lot easier for everybody. Congratulations.” Dylan pressed a button ending the phone call, then turned to Lisa. “Dara managed to get into Gabe’s computer. She found the money that’s been missing. So that officially ends our part of the job.”

Lisa stared at Dylan as his words slowly found their way to her mind. She tried to grab hold of them. Make them make sense. “So where’s the money? How did she manage to find it? Is she sure it’s his?”

“She said she found it in an account he’d set up under a numbered company.” Dylan pushed himself away from her desk. “That makes the next step that much easier. We’ll have to be pressing charges against that accountant now.”

“What do you mean press charges?”

“If the missing money is in his account, he’s guilty.” Dylan frowned at her. “This isn’t a problem, Lisa. This is a good thing. Now we can finally put this all behind us.” He caught her by the hand and pulled her to her feet. “Now we can focus on the really important things,” he said with a grin.

Lisa couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t think. Her mind was a whirl of thoughts and confusion. She had seen Gabe just a few days ago. He hadn’t said anything about
money. He wasn’t living as if he had any extra. Where could it have come from?

It was as if her heart had frozen, sending ice through her arteries.

Was Gabe guilty after all?

Dylan gave Lisa’s hands a little shake, as if trying to catch her attention. “Why so glum? It’s over. No more digging into files. No more listening to evasions. We’ve only got one more day here. Let’s spend it doing something fun.”

Fun? Lisa tried to gather her thoughts. Tried to put them in some kind of order. Gabe was innocent. She knew it. She had to believe it.

“How did Dara manage to find the money now?” she asked, refusing to give up on her brother so quickly. “According to your father it’s been missing for a while now. How come she didn’t find it any sooner?”

“Dara said it took her a while to hack in to Gabe’s computer. She found evidence of a numbered company and a bank account in that name. The money was in that bank account.”

“I don’t know, Dylan,” Lisa said, pulling her hands away from his, needing the distance to focus on what she had to say. “I don’t have a good feeling about this. Seems to me that finding this money is too convenient. Why didn’t she find it sooner? Why didn’t Dara let us come and work in the office? There are just too many questions.”

“What do you care, Lisa? All that’s come of this is more work for yourself.”

“I knew this was going to be a working holiday,” Lisa said, struggling to find the right words to explain herself
without looking guilty. “And I’m still your secretary.” She lifted her hands in a gesture of surrender. “I just have the feeling that Dara is hiding something.”

Dylan shrugged. “What?”

Lisa drew in a long, slow breath, willing her racing heart to slow down. Much depended on how she handled this.

She held up the invoice that had been lying beside her computer. “Do you remember this? You found it stuck to the outside of a file.”

Dylan nodded, his smile fading away.

Lisa swallowed a knot of nervous tension. She had put herself in this position, after all. “There was a memo tucked inside the invoice that I didn’t think much of.” She pulled it out from under the invoice and handed it to Dylan. “Until I read it.”

He angled her a puzzled frown as he took it. Then he read it himself.

“What in the world…?” He looked over the paper at Lisa, his eyes now a stormy gray. “Why didn’t you think it was important?”

“And this invoice doesn’t show up anywhere,” Lisa continued, forced by her own misconduct to avoid answering his question. Deflect and distract. “I have been checking and double-checking, but it hasn’t been entered in any place I can find.”

Dylan didn’t reply right away, as if still waiting for an answer. Then he took the invoice from her and glanced at it.

“This is for Dara’s father’s company.” He laid it down again. “We didn’t get those files.”

“Why not? Dara told us she gave us everything that had been handled in the past year.” Lisa finally dared to meet his gaze. “This invoice is only three months old. Two months before the accountant was fired.” Lisa could not say his name, afraid that even mentioning Gabe would shout out her guilt.

Dylan took another look at the invoice, then at the memo.

“Do you think these two are connected?”

“I didn’t give the invoice much consideration until this morning.” Until the idea that you might be quitting made me desperate to do something. Anything. Including directing your annoyance toward me. “I think it’s pertinent.”

Lisa kept her eyes on the computer screen in front of her and hit a key to deactivate the screen saver. And waited.

Dylan tapped his fingers against his thigh as if trying to make up his mind. “Part of me wants to laugh off what you’re saying. I want to be finished with all of this.” He angled her a puzzled glance. “Yet this memo and this invoice make me think twice, even with Dara finding the money.” He slapped his hands against his legs as if making up his mind. “We’ll go to the office today and see if we can get into Gabe’s computer. Then we can look for ourselves.”

The tension in Lisa’s shoulders ebbed. She had bought Gabe a little more time and another opportunity.

At what cost?

“I’ll just run upstairs and change. I’ll meet you at the car.” She needed the paper with Gabe’s password on it.
She doubted Dara would give it to her. And if she had a chance, she had to risk one more call to Gabe.

Before Dylan could say anything Lisa turned and left.

Once in her room, Lisa pulled out the pants she had been wearing when she had visited Gabe last and shoved her hands into each of the pockets. Nothing.

Dylan is waiting. Hurry.

She opened her purse and riffled through it. Still nothing.

With trembling hands she grabbed her cell phone and punched Gabe’s number in. No answer. Relax, relax, she told herself, and tried again. Still no answer.

She glanced around her room agitation building. Where could she have put it? She tried the pants again, then the shirt she had been wearing. As she threw it on the bed in disgust, a piece of paper fluttered to the carpet. Lisa pounced on it.

Thank You, Lord,
she breathed, aware of the irony of her prayer as she glanced at Gabe’s password.

I hope this works, she thought, remembering to change her clothes. She ran a quick brush through her hair and left it hanging to her shoulders. A quick glance in the mirror of the bathroom revealed pallid features dominated by wide oval eyes.
Help me through this, Lord, and I’ll tell Dylan the truth. I will.

On her way downstairs she ducked into the office, grabbed an empty computer disk and slipped it into her purse, just in case she needed a copy of whatever she might find. Continuing out the door, she went to the car where Dylan was waiting.