more fun than either of them had had in a long time.
Without pausing, Loretta threaded her fingers through her short gray hair. She’d stopped dyeing it when she’d turned fifty. Instead of thinking she was older because of the gray, people thought she was younger. Hell if she could figure out that one, but she was good with it.
Julius uncrossed his legs and put both feet flat on her floor. “What do you know about Samantha Bennett?”
Loretta stopped dead in her tracks. “Samantha Bennett? Why do you ask?”
He shrugged, all innocence. “I overheard you on the phone with Dylan.”
Of course. That made sense. Julius might not even have been eavesdropping, although she wouldn’t put it past him. But she’d shrieked. Samantha Bennett was the last name she’d expected to hear Dylan utter. She hadn’t uttered it herself in the two years since his father’s death.
“You have to fire her, Duncan. You have no choice.”
“I know, I know.”
Loretta composed herself. She hadn’t told Dylan all or even a lot of what she knew about Samantha. She needed time to get her bearings. She’d promised to call him later tonight or in the morning. He’d been intrigued but patient, obviously sensing that he’d stepped into another emotional minefield that involved his late father.
Samantha Bennett.
Of all the people from Duncan’s past to turn up, why her?
“You can tell me what’s going on,” Julius said. “I won’t tell Dylan.”
“I’m not keeping secrets. I’m just...” She reined in her irritation. She wasn’t one to be at a loss for words. “I need to think.”
“She’s a treasure hunter? This Samantha Bennett?”
Loretta gave a reluctant nod. “She specializes in pirates and privateers who roamed the East Coast and Caribbean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.”
“Jack Sparrow.”
“Real pirates, Julius. Blackbeard, William Kidd, ‘Black Sam’ Bellamy. That ilk.”
“Cool.”
“It’s not cool. Samantha lied to Duncan about herself, and he fired her.”
“She lied? About what? And what does this have to do with you?”
Although Loretta hadn’t known Julius that long and had told him little about her past with the McCaffreys, he was adept at picking up on clues. “I wasn’t Duncan’s attorney if that’s what you’re asking. I work for Dylan. I never worked for Duncan.”
“I get that. Did you tell Duncan this Samantha lied and suggest he fire her?”
“I didn’t give him legal advice of any kind.”
“Not what I’m asking, Loretta.”
She knew it wasn’t. “Duncan discovered Samantha had sneaked into Knights Bridge between his visits. She didn’t tell him. Then she showed up in his office in Los Angeles. He hired her on the spot to work on his Portugal project. Once he found out she’d neglected to tell him some important details about herself, he couldn’t take the chance that she was spying on him.”
“Spying on him? To what end?”
“To get information she could use for herself.”
“Do an end run around him you mean? Get to some lost treasure before he did?”
“Possibly. Or just ruin his reputation.”
“Why would she want to do that?”
“I’m not saying she did.” Loretta stood by the open patio door and let the breeze hit her. She was hot. It was all this emotion. She turned back to Julius. “I’m saying Duncan couldn’t take that risk once he knew she hadn’t told him the truth about herself.”
Julius stretched out his legs and leaned back against the comfortable couch. He didn’t look emotional at all. “People lie all the time. Doesn’t always mean they’re up to anything underhanded.”
“Knights Bridge was too important to Duncan. I didn’t understand why at the time, but it wasn’t a part of his work as a treasure hunter. That Samantha inserted herself there and then lied about it was too much for him to ignore.”
Julius nodded. “I get that, too.”
“Then what don’t you get?”
“Why you’re pacing. Dylan’s a big boy. He can handle this woman if she’s up to something in Sleepy Hollow.”
Loretta plopped onto a chair across from him. She worked at her house—she had an office in a front room, with views of the street. She liked to see who was pulling into her driveway, and it allowed her to keep her living area separate. This room was home, where she relaxed and enjoyed looking out at her pool and the Pacific. Both were glistening now, with roses and bougainvillea along the pool fence adding splashes of bright red. She’d moved here before she’d known anything about ice hockey—before she’d met a driven young hockey player named Dylan McCaffrey. She’d worked with him throughout his years with the National Hockey League and then when he’d joined forces with Noah Kendrick and his high-tech entertainment company, NAK, Inc.
Dylan hadn’t heeded all her advice, but he’d done fine for himself. He was like a son to her. Noah was, too.
And now both of them had fallen in love with women from little Knights Bridge.
Loretta leaned forward, elbows on her knees, hands clasped. She had to calm down. “There’s more. Samantha painted herself as a quiet researcher. Duncan hired her and took her under his wing.”
“I gather she isn’t a quiet researcher,” Julius said.
“She’s Harry Bennett’s granddaughter.”
Julius was silent a moment. “Ah. She’s not just any Bennett.”
“Her father is underwater explorer and salvage expert Malcolm Bennett. Her mother is Francesca Bennett, a prominent marine archaeologist, and her uncle is Caleb Bennett, a maritime historian and adventurer.”
“Didn’t Harry die in Antarctica?”
Loretta shook her head. “He survived a tough expedition fifty years ago and died three years ago at home in his bed at the ripe old age of ninety-six.”
“Duncan didn’t make the connection between his Bennett and the Bennetts?”
“He did not.”
“You’d think having a Bennett on his team would be an asset.”
“Maybe it would have been, but Samantha didn’t tell him—and he didn’t ask.”
“He didn’t check her out before he hired her? Why not?”
“He
