Guarding the Socialite by Kimberly Van Meter Page B

answered, distressed. “She’s the one who noticed that it didn’t have any postage and cautioned me against opening it without you here.”
    â€œSmart woman,” he said. “Where is she now?”
    Emma swallowed a sour lump of something, likely fear, and after a glance at her watch, answered, “At the school, picking up Bella. She has a counseling appointment.”
    â€œI’ll send a uniform to make sure that Chick is okay,” he said, and Emma’s eyes widened in alarm. He calmed her fears quickly. “Just as a precaution. We don’t know what we’re dealing with at this point, so we’re going to act as if it’s the worst-case scenario.”
    Emma nodded and gave him the addresses of both the school and the counselor’s office. “Maybe this is just someone’s idea of a really bad joke,” she offered weakly. Lord, she hated how scared she sounded but even if her voice hadn’t betrayed her, the tremor in her hands surely would have. She shook them out and blew a short breath, demandingsome kind of inner strength show itself before she collapsed in an embarrassing fit of tears. “I have to warn the girls,” she said, grasping onto something she knew. The safety of her boarders was her biggest concern. “They need to know what’s going on.”
    â€œThey will, but let’s wait until we get some tests run on the letter first.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause we don’t know anything about the sender. It could be someone in your own house.”
    She balked. “That’s absurd.”
    â€œI appreciate your loyalty but until we rule everyone in this house out as a suspect, I’m going to have to ask that you refrain from sharing any information we might find.” At her gathering frown, he added with sincerity, “I want to rule out the boarders as quickly as you. I’ll make it my top priority.”
    â€œIn other words, ‘you don’t have a choice but to follow my instructions,’” she said, chafing at his dictate. She wasn’t accustomed to following someone else’s lead, particularly when it came to her girls. “I understand you’re following protocol or something of that nature but I know my boarders and there isn’t one person in this house who’d do such a careless, cruel thing to me.”
    His jaw tensed. “You want to believe that everyone in this house is innocent—and so do I—but I’m not that naive. Sometimes the person we least suspect is the one plotting to put the knife in our back.”
    â€œPerhaps in your world, Agent McIntyre, but not here. We have a special relationship that is not only built on trust but sustained by it.”
    â€œYeah, well, I’m not willing to take the chance so we’ll do things my way because it’s my investigation.”
    Her temper spiked but she quelled the fire before it gotthe best of her. She believed he was off base suspecting any of her boarders, but until he figured that out on his own it would be a waste of breath on her part so she let it go, for the moment. “Fine,” she conceded, but added a concession of her own. “I want to be there when you speak to them, particularly Bella. I won’t compromise on this.”
    â€œI understand and that’s agreeable. Gather them up. While the forensics team is collecting evidence, dusting for prints and whatnot, you and I will talk with the women together. I’ll know whether or not they’re lying.”
    â€œIs that so?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œAnd how is that?”
    â€œI’m trained as an interrogator. Facial cues, body language, voice inflections—combined they speak louder than words.”
    â€œAre you ever wrong?” she asked.
    â€œRarely.”
    A human lie detector. Emma suppressed a delicate shiver at the thought. She wasn’t sure whether she found that arousing or