Heartbreaker

by Joanne Rock

  “He texted Miles on our way over here.” Desmond took care of switching on the gas fireplace. “Wes climbed Trapper Peak this morning to follow April Stephens, and things must have gone well because now they’re in a cabin together somewhere on the mountain.”

  Gage swore at the same time Miles, Weston’s older brother, came into view at the end of the corridor. Phone in hand, Miles jabbed at the screen while he walked.

  “Wes can’t make it,” Miles announced, a hint of disdain in his voice. “He’s in love.”

  “You make it sound like a communicable disease.” Gage waved him into the room and allowed the door to shut behind them before he rearmed the lock.

  “The end result is the same,” Miles muttered, jamming his phone back into his jacket pocket. “Wes is quarantined for the day and can’t be with us.”

  Miles ran the Rivera Ranch on the California side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a huge spread that had once been a point of contention between the brothers. Because Weston and his father had been at loggerheads since Wes was a kid, Miles had been given responsibility for the whole thing. While that sucked for Wes, Gage always figured it hurt Miles more to bear that family responsibility alone when he could have had help. Gage knew how it felt to carry the weight of expectation that came with being an heir. He’d never wanted it.

  “That’s not a bad thing,” Desmond pointed out, already seated in one of four leather barrel chairs positioned around a cushioned ottoman. “We could use an in with April Stephens considering she was hired to track Alonzo’s money.”

  Miles stopped by the wet bar and helped himself to a glass of Gage’s bourbon before taking the chair across from Desmond. “If Weston has learned her secrets, though, he hasn’t shared them with me.”

  “She reports to Devon Salazar,” Gage reminded them, retrieving the bourbon decanter along with a couple of glasses and a tray. He set all of it down on the ottoman in the middle of the chairs. “We don’t have to ask Weston to betray her confidence when we can go straight to Alonzo’s son. We might not trust Devon, but he owes us the truth since he kicked off this whole investigation by turning to us for answers.”

  “So we wait?” Desmond asked, not hiding his discontent with the plan. “That doesn’t seem like a wise course of action when we have a tabloid reporter on-site actively trying to shake loose whatever she can about Alonzo.”

  The other men both looked expectantly at Gage.

  He took his time pouring his drink before settling into his chair, the scents of leather, oak and old books providing none of the usual comfort.

  “I’m taking care of that,” he assured them before he took a sip. “I spent all afternoon with her, keeping her distracted.”

  He’d distracted himself quite a bit along the way, too, his thoughts alternating between highlights from their past and how much he still wanted her. Recalling the bribe she’d accepted from his father had reminded him he couldn’t act on it.

  “Why not entice her to write something else?” Miles suggested, scowling into the flames of the gas fireplace. “A tabloid reporter must have more lucrative options for stories than Alonzo. There are enough celebrities still on-site—”

  Desmond snapped his fingers.

  “Introduce her to Chiara Campagna,” he suggested, sitting up straighter in his chair. “Give the tabloid reporter a behind-the-scenes opportunity with one of the world’s most sought-after personalities.”

  Miles scoffed. “Chiara Campagna is famous for nothing.”

  “There’s just one problem. I don’t know Chiara,” Gage reminded them, wondering if there was a chance Elena would consider it if he offered her access.

  “She was here last night for a reason.” Desmond pulled out his phone. “She’s good friends with Jonah’s wife, Astrid.”

  Jonah had married his college sweetheart, a Finnish supermodel, and the couple had bought a place on Lake Tahoe near Desmond’s casino resort. Jonah was the only one of the ranch’s owners to tie the knot so far, maintaining a reasonably normal life in spite of the tragedy that had marked their boarding school days. When their mutual friend Zach Eldridge had cliff-jumped to his death during a horseback riding trip, their lives had changed forever. Thanks to Gage’s powerful father, the story had been kept out of the papers so it wouldn’t reflect negatively on Zach’s surviving classmates, but it haunted them anyway. Gage had been particularly troubled; thanks to his father’s interference, Zach had never been properly mourned by the school. Gage’s father didn’t want the good Striker name associated with a death some viewed as a suicide.

  Alonzo Salazar had been their class adviser at the time and had helped them weather the aftermath. For Gage, that had meant Alonzo convincing him to stay in school when he’d been determined to quit to spite his dad.

  “How does that help us?” Miles asked while Desmond kept typing away.

  “Jonah told me Chiara plans to spend a few days with Astrid after leaving Mesa Falls. Gage can take the reporter to Jonah’s place in Tahoe for a couple of days so Astrid can introduce her to Chiara. It’s win-win. This will get the reporter off ranch property and hand her a story that will net her a bigger payout. With any luck, she’ll go back to LA afterward and forget all about us.” Desmond spelled out his plan without ever glancing up from his phone. He obviously wasn’t concerned that the last thing Gage needed was to spend more time in close proximity to his ex.

  “I need to be here,” he insisted, figuring that was an argument his friends could appreciate. “We decided I’m the new point man on-site now that Weston’s distracted. I can’t just take off the day after I dig into the new role.”

  “Managing a persistent reporter is more important than being at Mesa Falls,” Miles countered, draining his drink and setting the glass on the tray. “I can stay until you get back.”

  Desmond swung to look at Miles at the same time Gage did, mirroring his surprise.

  “What about Rivera Ranch?” Gage asked, knowing he wasn’t getting out of this assignment if Miles was ready to abandon his own spread for the sake of managing Mesa Falls for a few days.

  “I hire good people so I don’t have to be there every second.” He shot to his feet, looking uncomfortable with the topic and ready to change it. “Are we sure Astrid will share her pseudocelebrity friend long enough to give Elena an interview?”

  Gage hid an amused smile at Miles’s obvious distaste for the new breed of fame. He hadn’t been a believer either, until Elena had personally demonstrated the power of social media influence. He understood the sway people like her—and, on a bigger scale, Chiara Campagna—could have in the court of public opinion.

  Desmond held up his phone. “Astrid already said it’s no problem. Chiara is going to visit their new baby, so Gage, you can meet her, too.”

  “There’s a baby.” Gage hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but he’d forgotten all about the fact that Jonah was a new father. “Has anyone else seen it?”

  “It is a her,” Desmond clarified. “Her name is Katja, and Jonah is over the moon about her. You should have gone to see them already.”

  “What have you got against babies?” Miles asked, looking slightly more cheerful now that Gage was in the hot seat.

  “Nothing.” He rose to his feet and finished his bourbon. “It’s just one more thing Zach will never have. And I know we try not to talk about him or about how much what happened sucks, but there’s something about these life milestones that brings it back, you know?”

  Neither of them answered because of course they knew. The ticking of the grandfather clock seemed to increase in volume, filling the room.

  When the silence stretched out, Gage set his glass on the fireplace mantel. “It’s a good plan to distract Elena,” he said finally, hoping he could convince her. “I’ll touch base with Astrid before we go, but as soon as she confirms Chiara will grant an interview, I’ll call for a pilo
t.”

  Desmond nodded. “You’re welcome to stay at the casino if you’d rather not stay at Jonah’s. I’ll make sure there’s a suite available.”

  “Thank you.” Gage suspected he’d need that kind of distance. For him, Jonah’s happiness as a father would be a vivid reminder of the life and opportunities Zach would never have. “I appreciate that.”

  Of course, staying in a suite with Elena would present problems of another kind. But he’d gladly face the fireworks he felt whenever she was around rather than think about all the ways he’d failed his old friend.

  * * *

  Chiara Campagna sat in her makeup chair, getting ready for tonight’s appearance at a Hollywood premiere and reflecting on her upcoming trip. She’d just returned from Montana and now looked forward to the time in Lake Tahoe to see her friend Astrid. Chiara could count on one hand the people who had elevated her social media status to the precarious heights it had reached two years ago, and former supermodel Astrid Norlander was one of them.

  Chiara scrolled through her social media feeds while her makeup artist added jewels along her temple to match her sequined dress. She was looking for mentions of Elena Rollins, the woman Astrid had texted her about, asking Chiara if she’d meet her. Chiara recognized the woman’s face; if she remembered correctly, she was a beauty influencer who’d let her profile go quiet during a brief marriage to a well-known cooking show host. A mistake Chiara didn’t plan to make; she would never give up her job for the sake of supporting someone else’s. She’d come a long way from her hopes of a career as a mixed-media artist, leaving behind her dream of large-scale collage installations and working with found objects to create beauty. But at least she had discovered another way to use her creative skills, honing an online presence.

  “Can you tilt your chin up?” the makeup artist asked, changing his brush for a wedge-shaped sponge. “I’m going to highlight the cheekbones a little more.”

  Chiara tapped off her phone screen and obediently moved her head right and left. She was already planning her time in Tahoe. She would bill it as a girls’ retreat weekend and maybe invite a couple of others to fill out the photos she would post. She’d bring lots of outdoor gear and do some things outside. Work-wise, she’d be fine.

  But Astrid had mentioned that Gage Striker would be there with Elena, putting two of the Mesa Falls Ranch owners in her path again. And while Chiara adored Astrid, she had a long-standing grievance with the men of Mesa Falls. They’d all been friends with Zach Eldridge, a boy she’d loved and lost when she was fifteen and he was sixteen. She thought she might be one of the few people in the world who knew that Zach had been on a horseback riding trip with those friends when he died. Gage Striker’s powerful father had taken pains to cover up his son’s connection to the death but Chiara had still managed to find out the truth.

  Chiara would never forget how she’d snuck onto the Dowdon campus to find out what had really happened to Zach, a friend who’d loved art as passionately as she did. She’d confronted Gage and Miles separately, asking them for the truth, and they’d both given her canned responses that sounded rehearsed. She’d cried. Begged. Completely embarrassed herself for love of Zach, desperate to understand what had really gone wrong that terrible week.

  She knew Zach had been upset about something. He hadn’t been himself at the last school art show, a coed event between her all-girls institution and Dowdon.

  Yet when she’d seen Zach’s friends at Gage’s house, neither of them appeared to recognize her as Kara Marsh, the girl she’d been before she adopted her social media persona. Perhaps that was just as well, as it meant they wouldn’t be on their guard around her. Because with Alonzo Salazar in the news since Christmastime, and his connection to his former students becoming a point of public interest, Chiara sensed that answers about what really happened to Zach were finally simmering close to the surface. She owed it to her friend to make sure his story was told at last, no matter whom it might hurt.

  Six

  Elena needed a reprieve from all the feelings stirred up by being with Gage. But when she sat down to her laptop to work the evening after they’d toured the ranch together, her inbox exploded with bad news.

  Emails from the bank, emails from creditors, emails from her work popped up one after another. As she scrolled through them all at the massive desk in her sitting room, she realized that her financial situation had turned dire. The woman who was subletting her apartment had given Elena a bad check, and that had made one of Elena’s checks for her utilities bounce, too. The news seemed no better on the work front with two tabloid outlets both asking her when she’d have a story on Alonzo. She felt confident that her angle could warrant a bidding war for the piece, but since she had zero to offer them yet, she had no hope for seeing her next paycheck anytime soon.

  Worse, her subscriber and follower numbers had taken another downturn, meaning her social media channels were going to be less attractive outlets for advertisers. And while she didn’t object to returning to the business world and the kind of job she used to have with one of Gage’s companies, she also knew that her value as an employee had gone down, too. What good was a social media expert without the following to back her up?

  Staring into the flames blazing inside the sleek stone fireplace, Elena’s head throbbed with the new layers of stress. It all served to remind her she should have been more aggressive in her divorce. Taking the high road had not only left her with less access to the marital assets, but being parted from her physical things also robbed her of a surface level of comfort.

  A soft rap on the door startled her from the regrets that tormented her and served no purpose.

  “Yes?” She swiped a hand across her eyes and blinked. She needed to pull herself together. She couldn’t change the past...with her ex or with Gage.

  “It’s Gage.” His deep voice slid straight past her defenses, conjuring up old confidences and quiet conversations. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  Closing her laptop, she exhaled hard before shoving to her feet.

  “Sure,” she called, hoping to keep her tone light. Breezy. Like her world wasn’t collapsing in on itself. “Come on in.”

  The door opened and Gage stepped inside, pulling all her focus to his broad shoulders in a steel-gray dress shirt. The fabric skimmed taut muscles, tapering down to the hem, which was untucked from his black trousers. With the sleeves rolled to the middle of his forearms, dark webs of tattoos were left exposed. It took her a moment to drag her gaze from them up to his face. His brown eyes roamed over her; he was studying her as thoroughly as she’d studied him.

  Awareness flared to life again, the response more immediate each time she saw him. She stood in front of the big desk, keeping several feet between her and Gage. She wore a long cashmere cardigan over a pink silk T-shirt and matching lounge pants, but she wouldn’t have minded a few more layers when her body responded so thoroughly to this man.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you.” His attention lingered on her face as he moved deeper into the room. “Is everything all right?”

  “Absolutely,” she lied, unwilling to show vulnerability, especially to this man. “Just going over some of my research on Alonzo.”

  She played the card most certain to get him to back off.

  “In that case, I won’t keep you for long.” He paused near the fireplace, folded his arms and tilted a shoulder against the dark stone wall. “But I thought I’d mention a potential professional opportunity for you.”

  Frowning, she couldn’t guess what that meant.

  “I’m sure you’re not here to offer me a job.” She pivoted to face him, but stayed by the desk, knowing it was wisest not to stand too close to him when he looked good enough to taste and she was feeling adrift.

  “No.” His smile seemed more wary than amused. “But I have business to take care of with Jonah Norlander, one of the other ranch owners
who is married to—”

  “The whole planet knows he married Astrid Koskinen, the former supermodel.” Elena’s curiosity spiked, and she was grateful for the distraction from the sex appeal of the hot investment banker standing in front of her. “They just had their first child together.”

  “Correct.” Gage nodded. “And apparently Astrid has a close friendship with Chiara Campagna.”

  “She does.” Elena had been studying the new landscape of beauty and fashion influencers in her quest to recharge her social media presence, and was fully aware of the currency Chiara commanded right now. “I would have tried to speak to her last night, but she had left the party by the time you and I finished our talk. She’s already back in LA, and I saw on her feed she’s attending a Hollywood premiere tonight.”

  Gage’s dark eyebrows lifted, and he straightened from where he’d been leaning against the fireplace. “In that case, maybe you’ll be interested in what I have to offer. Chiara is going to be in Tahoe visiting with Astrid this week at the same time I’ll be working with Jonah. If you go as my guest, you’d have an opportunity to interview Chiara.”

  His offer stunned her, and quite frankly, couldn’t have come at a better time. But the thrill of what that could mean for her was quickly tempered by suspicion.

  “How do you know she’d let me interview her?”

  Gage shrugged, the gray cotton of his shirt hugging tighter along one shoulder. “You’re a convincing woman, and you’ll be meeting Chiara in the home of a friend she trusts. Why wouldn’t she give you an interview?”

  “Her time is worth a fortune, that’s why. She won’t just give it away to someone like me, unless...” Her suspicion grew stronger as she recalled how little Gage followed fashion and beauty. It didn’t add up that he would tout this meeting as a professional opportunity for her unless he had a very specific reason. “She’s doing a personal favor for the Mesa Falls Ranch owners.”