“Ten percent?” Seth scoffed. “Dude, you’ll get nothing without me.”

“I don’t need you that badly. I know she’s in town. I’ll just keep looking until I find her.”

“How do you know she’s in town?”

“I have it on good authority.”

Who the hell was giving this guy his information? “What if she’s leaving soon?” Seth asked.

He laughed. “She’s not.”

“How do you know?”

“She’s house-sitting for some rich dude while he spends the holidays abroad, and she’s taking care of his parrot. Am I getting warm yet?”

Seth felt his stomach tense. “She was, but now she’s going home to spend Christmas with her family.”

“Sure she is,” he scoffed. “Who is this?”

Seth wanted to say he was someone who would never let Kouretas get what he wanted. But that would only give away the fact that he was now scared for Tia—and if Ray smelled blood in the water, he’d keep circling until he did get what he wanted. “Someone who knows where Tia is and who’s willing to make a deal.”

“You won’t give me your name?”

“You don’t need my name. And if you don’t want the information I have, I’ll just go to someone else who’ll pay more.”

Seth sensed a change in attitude. “Don’t do that,” Ray said. “I’ll go twenty-five percent. But that’s the best I can do. There’s already someone else in the deal.”

“Then, have whoever led you this far take you the rest of the way,” Seth said and hung up.

Who could’ve told Ray where Tia was? She didn’t seem to be communicating with anyone. But he wasn’t with her all that often. Maybe he didn’t really know. This proved there had to be at least one person who knew she was in Silver Springs—and that person didn’t seem to be very trustworthy.

With a sigh, Seth went to his bedroom, where he could peer out at the guesthouse. He could still see a glimmer of light around the windows. He was once again tempted to walk over and warn Tia. But there was no reason this couldn’t wait until morning. Why make the night any longer or harder?

He sent her a text message, just to touch base. You okay?

Although he checked his phone periodically as he worked over the next several hours, he never received a response.

It was dawn when he was finally exhausted enough to sleep. Before dropping into bed, however, he looked out the window and saw that her lights were still on and couldn’t help wondering what she was doing.

“Breakfast is ready!”

Tia dragged herself out of the depths of sleep. Someone was banging on her door. Again.

“Tia?”

Seth. Of course. What was this—Groundhog Day?