“Did you hear me? They’re gone. All of them. Nobody knows where.”
Serena switched the phone over to her other ear, reaching for the glass in the cupboard overhead. “I heard you, Dad. This is a good thing, remember? Stop looking a gift horse in the mouth.”
“I’m not. I know I should count myself lucky, but it’s just…” He took a deep breath. “There’s talk. And after some of the things you were asking me about Jim—”
“I already explained that.” She had. As soon as she’d gotten back to Dallas. But her father seemed reluctant to believe her, even now, nearly a week after the entire Ruby Red incident. “You’re not talking to Jim again, are you? Because that’s how you got into that mess in the first place.”
“No, no, I’ve learned my lesson.”
But as he prattled on, Serena didn’t believe a word he
