What kind of indiscretion could it be? Should I allow her to keep that secret? Or should I go digging and break my promise? Will me not knowing affect her protection, should the media ever discover her?

Well, the good thing about that is if I’m having a hard time finding out about her past, so will they. But the bad thing is, what if they do find out and they take her by surprise?

I speed-dial Felicity. I know she’s in school and she hates me bothering her on the weekdays, but I need absolute discretion in this matter and she’s the only one I can trust.

It goes to voicemail, so I leave a message, hang up, and then access the picture the security team sent me from the Botanical Gardens.

Grace is so sweet in this image. And she is like a daisy surrounded by rows and rows of orchids. Because her beauty doesn’t need to be cultivated. She doesn’t need special conditions to thrive. She’s what people in the biz call a natural beauty. No makeup, no hair products, no fancy clothes required. Just her in whatever she throws on. Her straight honey-colored hair and her flawless peach skin.

But the tremble in her voice just now, when I asked her about her past and she retaliated by calling me Asher… that concerns me.

My phone buzzes in my hand and I feel relief when Felicity’s face appears on my screen. "I need you to dig up Grace Kinsella’s past."

"Oh, I totally forgot to tell you, V. I did, but all her juvenile records have been sealed. It’s very difficult to find those because they are expunged, and lots of places don’t have the juvenile records digitized after they are sealed."

"So you can’t do it?"

She laughs. "Please, I can do it. It’s just a big deal. How bad do you really want it? Because it will take a significant amount of time and planning. And probably bribes,” she adds.

"How long if you start now?"

"I dunno, weeks?"

"Start now. If it gets too difficult, let me know, but I think it’s very important that I know. And Felicity?"

"Yeah?"

"If someone knew about her sealed records—knew where to find them, for instance—how hard would they be to get?"

"Well, in LA, probably pretty hard. But in Colorado? Who knows how they run things out there. Could be really easy. Like maybe one person has complete access and there’s no paper trail when you go into the file room. Or it could be just as tight as here."

"OK." Yeah, that’s not good. "Please do this for me and make it a priority."

"No problem, V. I’m on it."

The line disconnects but I’m too deep in thought to bother putting my phone away, so I just stare out across the valley and suddenly wish I could fly back to Denver tonight. I speed-dial my office. "Janet, can I cancel my day tomorrow?"

I have to pull the phone away from my ear, that’s how abrupt her laugh is.

"Mr. Asher, you have a fundraising meeting with your father at eight AM, remember?"

I sigh. "Never mind." I pocket my phone and walk over to the glass wall that lines the terrace, resting my forearms on the thin ledge, as I ponder my feelings.

She’s fine. Nothing’s going to happen to her. I’m careful. I’ve been doing this for years and no one has ever gotten a speck of dirt on me. They won’t find her. I’ve only been to see her once.

Which means, even if my day was clear tomorrow, I can’t go. I need to keep the distance between us because if the media finds out about her, we have to call it quits.

That’s always been the rule, and even though I’ve never had to put it in practice, I will if necessary.

My phone buzzes again and I’m surprised to see Conner’s face lighting up my screen.

"Yeah," I say into the phone.

"So which one of you ass**les is spying on me?"

"Aw, f**k."

"Seriously, Vaughn? You need to spy—"

"It’s not me, it’s Felicity."

"That kid? Why the f**k is she digging through my shit?"

"Because she thinks you’re a douchebag and she wants to mess with you."

"Whatever. I’m not the one bringing a girl to meet Mom and Dad with a vibrator up her hole. And you know, it’s real interesting that Felicity is talking all this interest in me while she should be doing damage control for you. Did you forget that Sam invited Elite Lifestyles Magazine to the wedding so they could do a spread on her? Because they saw that whole brunch debacle."

"What? Sam never told me that. Since when does she do interviews?"

"Since her dickhead husband made her."

"I gotta go." I end the call and go back inside to make myself a drink. Holy shit, this day went all to hell. No wonder Sam was so upset the night of her wedding. If Tray wasn’t still back on Saint Thomas having a non-honeymoon for one, I’d kill that ass**le.

I pour four fingers of Scotch and sit down at the bar out by the pool. Something is very wrong. Something is very, very wrong. I can just feel it. It’s like a snake, slithering up behind me, just waiting for me to be complacent so it can strike.

I take a long swallow of my drink and then speed-dial Ray, my security coordinator. "I need you to double up on the Denver client and get a team to dig up information about the reporter who attended my sister’s wedding last weekend."

"On it, boss," Ray says.

"Check the Denver house for bugs and steal her phone."