Rock thought his mother might be behind this, but I didn’t even know his mother. She couldn’t possibly know Rock and I were together. We’d kept it pretty hush hush. Though if Roy and Reid knew…

Still, it didn’t make any sense.

Every lawyer instinct in me told me his mother wasn’t behind this. Of course, I’d never met the woman, and according to Rock, she was no saint.

My father had once cautioned me never to get involved with a man who had a bad relationship with his mother. “The way he treats his mother is an indication of how he’ll treat you,” he’d said on more than one occasion.

Boy, had I not heeded that advice.

Rock seemed to dislike his mother nearly as much as he disliked his father.

And there had been times in the few days since I’d met him that Rock had treated me less than nicely.

Oh, God…

“First thing we do is check with your doorman,” he said. “He’ll know when you came in and when you left. My father was killed during the night, so if you got home from work and then didn’t leave until morning, and the doorman knows that, you’re in the clear.”

“Someone could pay the doorman off.”

“I’ll pay more.”

“Damn it, I don’t want anyone paying anyone! This is crazy! I’m not guilty of anything.”

“I know, baby. I know. I’m going to make my mother or whoever it turns out to be pay for this.”

“Rock, I’ve been thinking. Why would your mother want to frame me?”

“Why does Connie Wolfe do anything? She’s a nut job.”

“She’s your mother. She created you. She can’t be all bad.”

He shook his head, chuckling. “She’s a mercenary, Lacey. She married my father for the money, lay in his bed for the money, and then, when he divorced her, she made sure she got plenty of his money for her troubles.”

“Does she even know about me? About you and me, I mean?”

“I don’t know.”

“If she doesn’t know about us, why would she have any interest in framing me?”

“She’s not trying to frame you, Lace. She’s trying to fuck with me.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Because it’s what she does. If it made any sense, she wouldn’t be Connie Wolfe.”

I sighed. “Maybe we should fly home. This is a mess. I feel so out of control here. And now with your gun gone…”

“I’ll take you home if it’s what you truly want, but I promised you the ride of your life. You’ll love it.”

I kissed his lips. “All right. Let’s take that ride. I’d love to get my mind off of all of this.”