Wish Her Well by Meg Silver Read Free Book Online

lingered in the shower too long. By the time she got out, she had to hustle into a short skirt, tank, vest and sandals. She hurried across the resort to the parking lot, and into the security offices.
    The officer on duty stood up and called her ma’am. She returned a polite, if slightly bewildered greeting, and was contemplating asking why they were so formal and polite when Josh came through the lobby doors.
    He was not alone. Behind him loomed Wade Fraser.
    She wanted to shoot Josh a scolding look for the lack of warning, but didn’t dare take her attention away from Wade long enough. He did not look pleased while he took a small orange plastic envelope from his pocket. From it, he took out a security badge bearing her picture.
    “What’s this?” Amanda asked.
    “Your temporary ID. We need to take you down into the Accord offices for privacy, and you can’t go down there without a badge.”
    The men gave each other cross looks, and she could tell that Josh was not entirely on board with their plan. He looked tired and worried and stressed out, and their silent exchange revealed frustration battling urgency and resolve.
    Something was wrong. Had Wade gotten into another scrape with Thomas? Or maybe there was news about Nicole?
    Stricken by worry, she followed quietly as the men led her back to the main lobby, down a hallway past Jerod’s office, and through an unmarked door where stairs led down. She didn’t need to be told that the stairs would bring them to the security tunnels, though she’d had no idea the underground network stretched this far. The section they entered wasn’t abandoned like the corridors beneath the quad. This square complex was well lit, and the concrete floor and walls had been polished to a high shine.
    They headed into one of the offices: Wade’s, given the way he claimed the seat behind the desk. Josh waved her into another chair before taking the last for himself.
    Wade kicked things off. “We’ve been thinking about what Thomas did, the way he dug into Andrew West. Can you explain why Thomas has spent so much time preparing for war without telling anyone else?”
    She blinked at him. “How should I know?”
    Wade made no attempt to hide the way he scanned her features, nor his blatant skepticism. He allowed the moment to stretch out well beyond the point of discomfort.
    Josh snapped first. “It’s okay, Amanda. Maybe you can help us with this one. Why is Jerod Hughes suddenly all moony-eyed over Ridley? Did Thomas put him up to it?”
    Put him up to it? Maybe Josh and Wade had reason to find the situation dubious, but she still did not understand why they were asking her about Thomas’s actions. And the longer she watched Josh, reading the signs of guilt and distress in his body language, she knew he hated putting her in a tattletale position even worse than she hated to be there.
    She chose her words very carefully. “Thomas hasn’t said a word about Jerod or Ridley.”
    Wade examined her for a long moment before speaking again. “Okay, then tell me what you know about this.”
    He went into a pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Amanda had plenty of time to build up a generous amount of foreboding before he’d unfolded it and pressed it flat upon his blotter.
    Having spent so much time in the scheduling and business offices, she had no trouble recognizing the paper’s contents. The page was a printout from the scheduling software showing a list of exceptions where a booking had been rescheduled or modified somehow.
    Four exceptions were listed: each of the bookings with her mystery client.
    She looked up at Wade. Why was he looking at these? Surely he knew by now the bookings were part of Steph’s disastrous sting operation. “What do you want to know?”
    “It’s my understanding that these bookings were fraudulent. I need to know who showed up for these appointments.”
    Uh oh. What was she supposed to do, here? Once again, Thomas’s request to back him