believe him, it didnât ring true.
âSilkâ¦I mean, Tonyâ¦may I ask you a personal question?â
He stifled a sigh as he steered the car around a sharp bend in the road. She didnât trust him. Heâd seen it in her eyes. He understood it, but he was still surprised that it hurt his feelings.
âYes, of course.â
âJudging by your appearance, youâve become a very successful man. What do you do for a living?â
He arched an eyebrow. âItâs legal, I assure you.â
Sarah blushed. âThatâs not what Iââ
Tony laughed. âEase upâ¦I was just teasing. I own a nightclub in Chicagoâ¦actually two, although the second one is about a month away from the grand opening. The first one is called Silk.â
Sarah looked at him fully then, judging the very cosmopolitan man against the boy sheâd known. She knew firsthand that it cost a lot of money to start a business, especially one like that. She was still paying off the loan sheâd taken for the renovations on her own restaurant. Silkâs family had been poorâfrom time to time almost homeless. She thought of the million dollars her father had been accused of stealing and then looked at Silk De Marco anew. Could he have done something like that? Possibly. But the more pertinent question was, would he?
âHow old were you when my father disappeared?â
âSixteen,â Tony said. âIâd just finished my junior year in high school.â
âToo young,â she murmured, more to herself than to him. She couldnât see a kid pulling off a million-dollar bank heist, then being smart enough to pick a scapegoat and make him disappear in order to point suspicion in another direction.
âToo young for what?â Tony asked.
Sarah blushed. She hadnât realized sheâd spoken.
âNothing,â she said. âI was just thinking aloud.â
Tony frowned as he turned off the main road and took a narrow one-lane road that led to his lakefront home. What could she possibly be�
Then it hit him, and the shaft of anger that came with that understanding was quick and hard. He slammed on the brakes and then turned to her. Startled by his behavior, Sarahâs first instinct was to reach for the door, but Tony grabbed her by the shoulder before she could bolt.
âMy uncle Salvatore loaned me more than half my start-up money, then co-signed my first loan. I paid him back within two years of Silkâs opening. I didnât steal the million dollars, and I didnât kill your father.â
The anger in his voice made her flinch, but she wouldnât apologize for what sheâd thought. Until she knew the truth about what had happened to her father, she trusted no one.
âI was ten years old when my world fell apart. Within three months of my fatherâs disappearance, Iâd become an orphan. If it hadnât been for Aunt Lorett, I would have become a ward of the state, and there wasnât one person in the entire town of Marmet who would have been sorry it happened. Iâm not going to apologize for what I asked you. You were the first one I questioned, but you wonât be the last. I didnât come here just to claim my fatherâs bones. Iâm not leaving until I find the person who killed him.â
The determination on her face was matched by the fury in her eyes. Sarah Whitman had grown up, all right. She was no longer the helpless, innocent kid heâd last seen crying at her motherâs grave. But what she was proposing was not only foolish, it was dangerous.
âYou canât be serious,â he said.
âJust watch me,â she muttered.
âWhat do you do for a living?â
âWhatâs that have to do with anything?â
âJust answer me,â he said.
âI own and run my own restaurant.â
He sighed. âWhat makes you think you can do something the police