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I turn the planner toward myself without taking it from beneath her hand.

“Yesterday, we knew Connor suspected false invoices,” I tell her. “Today, Linda’s files show that he connected the loans to money leaving this company, and Rick approved three of them.”

“That doesn’t prove Rick knew the documents were false,” she says, repeating the caution Connor would have used.

“No, but it gives us a direction. Drew’s investigator can follow the address without alerting the bank.”

“While I wait here with a guard outside my door.” She closes the planner and rubs her thumb across its worn cover. “Connor is out there with whoever frightened him enough to leave Bellucci’s.”

I place my hand over hers, then consider whether the comfort is welcome. Her fingers become still beneath my palm, and the contact sends heat along my arm. “We’ll find him, Cassie.”

She looks down at our hands. “You can’t promise that.”

“I can promise that I will use every person and resource I have until we do.”

Her blue eyes lift to mine, stripped of the defense she uses when I stand too close. “Why does this matter so much to you? Connor brought you a business problem, but you’re treating his disappearance as if he belongs to you.”

The honest answer is dangerous. Connor sought my help and vanished after leaving me, while Cassie matters for reasons I can no longer dismiss.

“He came to me because he believed this company was being used,” I say. “I let him leave before I understood the danger. I won’t repeat that mistake with you.”

The conference room door opens before either of us speaks again. Drew enters with a tablet in one hand and rain across the shoulders of his jacket.

“The SUV returned,” Drew says. He places the tablet on the table and brings up a camera image from the lower service road. “It appeared at eleven forty-six this morning, remained outside the south boundary for six minutes, and left before the nearest patrol reached it.”

The dark SUV sits behind wet fir trees, angled toward the vineyard.

“It looks like the vehicle registered to Alder Crest,” Reid says, enlarging the image.

“The body style and color match,” Drew confirms. “Mud covers the plate, and the driver stayed beyond the camera’s clearest range, so I can’t confirm it’s the same SUV.”

Cassie pulls her hand away and studies the screen. “Could that be the car we heard leaving the bookstore?”

“The bookstore camera caught only part of the man’s sleeve,” Drew answers. “Harris saw a dark car leave the next street, but he couldn’t tell whether the man got into it. We can’t connect it to this SUV.”

“But the SUV has been near your lower gate more than once,” Birdie says. Her coffee sits forgotten beside Reid’s laptop. “Whoever owns it is watching the vineyard.”

“Yes,” I answer, rising from my chair. “Increase the perimeter team with two men at the main gate, two at the lower gate, and patrols along every service road and outer block. Close the west access and require identification for all deliveries.”

Drew nods as he enters the orders into his phone. “I’ll place another officer near the guesthouse and have the night team inspect the exterior lights and motion sensors before dusk.”

I straighten and turn to Drew. “Review every camera from the past seven days for that vehicle, including roads beyond our property.”

Cassie bites her lower lip as she looks at me. “You said we would be safer here.”

“You are.” I place both hands on the table and meet her concern without softening the truth. “The difference is that anyone approaching you here must pass my gates, my cameras, and armed men who know they’re coming.”

“That was supposed to reassure me?”

“It was supposed to be accurate.”

Her mouth tightens, but she doesn’t continue the argument about the guesthouse security.

Reid closes the laptop as Birdie reaches for Cassie’s hand.

Tessa enters without knocking, carrying a cream envelope between two fingers. Her dark hair is pulled into a smooth knot, and she wears a crimson jacket over a black blouse.

“This was in Saturday’s business mail,” she says. “It was placed with the event correspondence and overlooked until I cleared the reception desk.”