This whole poking her head in to ask about lunch was another sign that something was off. First of all, the receptionist always put in the lunch order for the office. Secondly, he’d ordered the same thing every day for the past four years. Turkey sandwich on rye, no cheese, extra pickles, light mayonnaise…

His heart gave a heavy thud. She wouldn’t.

“I said ‘good boy,’” he said, emphasizing the words. “Good. Boy.”

Eva’s eyes lit up with so much excitement that he knew his suspicions were correct.

“And about the lunch order,” she added in the same voice her kids used whenever they were up to no good. “Tell me what your usual is, again? Isra’s busy with the appointment book and asked me to put today’s call in, but I can’t for the life of me remember what you like on your sandwich.”

“I like mayonnaise,” he said with painstaking care. “Lots and lots of mayonnaise.”

“Oh dear.” A giggle escaped before Eva could stop it. She slapped a hand over her mouth. The sound had the effect of startling Jujubee, who was already showing signs of being nervous at his continued presence in the exam room.

Spencer could only shake his head in wonder. It was exactly as he’d told Lawson. Eva had all the stealth of a militarized wombat. He passed the leash to her with one hand and held the other out in command.

“Give it to me.”

Although Eva had been caught tape-recorder-handed, she showed no signs of remorse. “Sorry, Spencer. I can’t.”

“You can and you will. Where is it?”

“You don’t want to know. I suspected something like this would happen and took precautions.” She dropped her voice to a theatrical whisper and added, “It’s in my pants.”

“Eva, you traitor. How could you?”

She giggled again. She also showed no sign of reaching into whatever mysterious part of her body where she’d hidden her phone, which wasn’t a good sign. “I was just trying to help my new friend,” she said. “You’d have done it if you’d been there, too. She begged. She pleaded. She offered to watch my kids for a weekend.”

That last one caused him to start. “She what?”

“I know, right?” With a cluck of her tongue, Eva shook her head and added, “I think you should just man up and face the truth. You’re going to have to let Wheezy in the show. Anyone willing to go that far to get what she wants is an unstoppable force. For all we know, Ruby has a backup plan in case this doesn’t work. Her next step is probably to have your house bugged to get a recording—and you know Caleb would go along with it. He’d think it was hilarious.”