Page 27 of Grayson’s Challenge

“Oh my God,” Faye suddenly said, “David and Zach! Have you spoken to them?”

Damn! She’d forgotten about her brothers. “I’ll call them right now.”

“Tell them to fly directly to San Francisco,” Faye demanded. “I need them here, so I don’t have to worry about them too.”

“I’ll take care of it, Mom,” Monique promised.

“Excuse me,” Orlando interrupted, “everything is ready for the transport to the Woodford residence. We’re leaving now.”

Monique helped her mother up and walked toward the hallway with her, while Grayson assisted Delilah.

“Monique, which one is your bag?” Grayson asked.

“The blue one, why?”

“’Cause you’re riding with me.”

12

Grayson placed Monique’s travel bag in the trunk of his car, and got in on the driver’s side. Monique was already sitting on the passenger seat, her cell phone glued to her ear.

“Call me,” she said in an urgent tone and disconnected the call.

Grayson started the engine. “Did you reach your brothers?”

“No. It goes straight to voicemail. I was afraid that would happen. David and Zach went to a remote cabin in Switzerland, and were expecting a winter storm. It’s probably knocked out the cell towers.”

“We’ll keep trying.” Grayson merged into traffic.

There was a pause that stretched for almost a minute. Now was the time to talk in private, but he had no idea how to start the conversation. It turned out that he didn’t have to.

“Did you know what our fathers were trying to do?” Monique asked, her voice clipped.

“No. I found out at the Scanguards New Year’s Eve party. Guess you figured it out earlier, since you didn’t even show up to the party.”

She huffed. “Would you have shown up, if you’d found out earlier?”

He decided not to answer that loaded question. Instead, he said, “You must have had a really bad opinion of me. According to Cain you said that you wouldn’t date me if I was the last man on earth and the survival of our species depended on us.” Did she still think that? Or had what had happened between them changed her opinion of him?

She shrugged and looked out the window. “Like you had a better opinion of me, or why else did you flee the party you were in charge of well before midnight?”

“Fair point.” He cleared his throat. “So, uhm, since you got to know me without knowing my name, and we got on really well, can I assume that your opinion of me has improved?”

Monique grunted rather unladylike. “Don’t assume anything. For all I know, you set up our chance meeting.” She made air quotes around the word chance.

“Why the fuck would I do that?” He cast her a sideways look. “How would I even have known where to find you? Maybe it’s the other way around. Or why would you show up at my watering hole? Everybody at Scanguards knows that the Black Velvet is where I go several times a week. And of all the bars in San Francisco, you walk into the Black Velvet. If that’s not an odd coincidence, then I don’t know what is.”

“David recommended the place.”

“Your brother?”

“Yes, he said he went there two years ago when he visited San Francisco.”

Grayson sighed, realizing what had happened. “Did he also tell you who took him there?”

“No.”

“I did. I introduced him to that place. He knew it was my local hangout. He knew that sooner or later you would run into me there.”