by Lisa Childs
The man’s face flushed somewhat. “Well, I work for your family company. I’m the lawyer for Colton Connections.”
Jones’s stomach dropped, as dread settled heavily in the pit of it. He shrugged, trying to shrug off that horrible feeling. “Well, I don’t have anything to do with that business.”
“You should,” the man replied. “You’re clearly a good businessman. You should be running the company instead of your brother.”
Jones snorted again. “Yeah, right. My brother lives and breathes Colton Connections.” He’d been going to work with Pop and Uncle Alfie since he was a little kid. “Nobody knows it better or cares more about it.”
Now that Pop and Uncle Alfie were gone...
“Kylie Givens thinks she does,” the man remarked with a sneer. “She’s changed your brother.”
“For the better,” Jones acknowledged. And she was there for him now, when Heath needed someone most. Jones, on the other hand, was so alone.
But then he was used to that. He’d always been the odd man out in his family. The Lone Wolf.
He shrugged again, trying to cast off his self-pity this time. “I don’t get why you’re here.” Though it was clear the guy had an agenda.
His face flushed again, and it wasn’t from alcohol. He had yet to take a sip of his white wine. “I want to help you claim what’s rightfully yours.”
Jones snorted again. “The wills haven’t been read yet, but no matter what they say, that company is rightfully my mom and aunt’s with my brother running it.”
“Why?” the man asked. “Why should Heath run it and not you?”
Jones gestured at his busy bar. “Because I have my own place to run.”
“Proving that you can handle a business,” the man pursued. “You can handle Colton Connections.”
“I don’t know anything about it,” Jones said—because he’d never been interested.
“I do,” the man replied. “I can bring you up to speed. I can be your right hand.”
Jones chuckled now. “Like Kylie is Heath’s. You after her job or my brother’s?”
“I’m trying to do what’s right for Colton Connections,” the man replied. “I figured you would, too.”
“And I told you what’s right for it—my brother running it like he always has.” With Kylie at his side. Sure, Jones had flirted with her to needle Heath, but he could see they belonged together.
The man shook his head, his face twisting into a grimace of either disgust or pity. “I thought you would want to make it up to your father.”
Jones tensed. “What?”
“That you would finally want to honor him instead of just disappointing him over and over again.”
Jones curled his fingers into his palms, tempted to throw a fist across the bar. But he locked his arms at his sides. “Get the hell out of here,” he said through teeth gritted in fury.
The man pointed at his glass. “I haven’t touched my drink yet.”
“Don’t. Just leave. Now.”
“But I—”
“I reserve the right to refuse service, and I’m refusing service to you,” Jones said. “Get the hell out!”
A few other patrons glanced at him, their eyes widening in alarm. He forced a slight smile for their benefit. But it slipped away when he focused on the sleazy lawyer again. “Just get out of here.”
“I will,” the man finally agreed as he slid off the stool. “I’ll let you think about it. And I’m sure you’ll realize that you should get involved—for your sake but most especially for your dad’s sake.”
Jones shook his head. If the guy really did work for Colton Connections, he’d had even less of a relationship with his father than Jones had had.
Or he would have known that Heath was the chosen one, his father’s golden boy. Not that Jones was jealous.
Anymore...
He was just resigned. Because now Pop was gone, and Jones would never have the chance to prove himself. Even if he did what this guy wanted and forced his way into Colton Connections, his father wouldn’t know.
He was gone.
And Heath, like he had always followed Pop, had nearly followed him to the grave. His brother was in danger, and it was clear he had few—if any people—he could trust.
* * *
Despite not having an invitation, Heath got him and Kylie into the event in the ballroom of the swanky downtown hotel that Arvock Pharmaceuticals had rented to celebrate something.
What?
Pop and Uncle Alfie’s murders?
He hadn’t asked that yet, but he would—once he found the CEO. Or the CEO found him.
He’d used his Colton name at the door, something he rarely did unless he was trying to get into True without a reservation. He hadn’t realized how many other doors Colton might open, or more specifically Colton Connections.
“This was a bad idea,” Kylie murmured as she glanced around the crowded ballroom.
From the din of voices and the movement of waiters through the crowd, the conversation and the alcohol were flowing. “This was a great idea,” Heath insisted. “A great place to talk to them where their guards will be down.”
“You don’t even know who we’re supposed to talk to.”
“The CEO,” Heath said. He’d looked up the guy. Randall George. With his white hair and lined face, he looked nearly twice Heath’s age and experience. “And the VP.”
The VP wasn’t female, like Kylie, but another older male who was white. In the profile of the company that Heath had found, the entire board looked the same, so clearly Arvock struggled with inclusivity and diversity. While pretty women walked around the ballroom, they were probably either pharmaceutical reps or trophy wives of those older men.
Kylie glanced at those women and then at herself. “I knew it was a mistake for me to come here without a ball gown,” she said.
He wished she was wearing one, too, not so that she fit in but because he selfishly wanted to see her looking all glamorous and gorgeous. But hell, she looked the best in nothing at all. He couldn’t wait to get her back to the penthouse and undo all the buttons down the front of her black dress. “You’re the most beautiful woman here,” he assured her.
She snorted. “You’re a liar.”
Having been called that before, he flinched and defended himself. “To me you are,” he insisted.
Her lips parted on a slight gasp of surprise at his sincerity. He wanted to lean down and kiss her—deeply, passionately.
“Mr. Colton.”
Startled, he spun toward the intruder. And the man had intruded on what could have been a moment.
Randall George held out his hand. “I’m surprised but nevertheless pleased that you joined us this evening.”
The man wasn’t alone. His VP and another younger, broader man stood behind him. Did he have a bodyguard? Or was that his hired muscle? The person who did his dirty work.
Like murder...
Heath tensed and slid his arm protectively around Kylie’s small waist. Even these guys probably weren’t ruthless enough to try anything in a room full of witnesses, but Heath wasn’t taking any chances.
At least any more chances with Kylie’s safety.
He should have tied her to the bed and locked her in the penthouse. But if he’d tied her to the bed, he wouldn’t have been able to leave her.
She extended her hand toward the white-haired CEO. “I’m Kylie Givens,” she introduced herself.
The man nodded. “Yes, the vice president of Colton Connections.” He introduced his VP then but not the other man, the man who had a curious bulge beneath his ill-fitting tuxedo. A gun?
“You seem much more aware of Colton Connections than we’ve been of you,” Heath observed.
“Unfortunately you’ve been in the news recently,” George reminded him. “My co
ndolences on your loss. Your father and uncle were brilliant men.”
Heath nodded. “Yes, they were. And they were taken far too soon.”
“Is that what brings you here, Mr. Colton? Are you looking to sell your business?” The man all but rubbed his hands together in glee.
Heath shook his head. “But if I was, would you be interested?”
“Of course.”
“Why?” he asked with genuine curiosity. “We’re not a drug company.”
“No. But you hold several patents for medical equipment. One, currently pending, is of particular interest to us.”
“I bet it is,” Heath said. “How did you learn about it? Do we have our former legal counsel, Mr. Morrison, to thank for that?”
George chuckled. “Former?” He glanced at the man he hadn’t introduced. “Did you hear that?”
The man nodded. “Noted.”
“So Tyler Morrison has been spying for you?” Kylie asked.
George shrugged. “I am not sure how he came about the information he gave us.”
“Gave?” Kylie asked, her soft voice full of doubt.
George chuckled. “You must know Tyler well then.”
“So you paid him?”
“He asked for money, of course,” George replied.
“Of course,” Heath said, wondering what else their former employee might have done for money.
Murder?
He glanced again at the man in the suit. Arvock wouldn’t have needed Morrison to do their dirty work; they clearly had their own resources for that.
“Did he offer you anything else?” Kylie asked.
“Like what?” George asked, as if he expected Kylie to sell out Colton Connections right in front of Heath.
Heath chuckled. The man did not know Kylie and the depths of her loyalty.
“Like an address...” She glanced toward the man in the suit, probably surmising the same thing Heath had. That if dirty work had been done, this man had done it. Had he trashed her place?
He was hardly going to admit it, and he didn’t betray, with so much as a flicker of an eyelid, any reaction to her comment. Neither did the CEO or VP.
Randall George shook his head and turned back toward Heath. “So if you’re not selling Colton Connections, what are you doing here?” he asked.
“Just trying to find out how far a company might go to protect their profits.”
George tensed. “Are you accusing Arvock of illegal practices? If you are, you need to be careful. Our legal counsel is much better than your former one.”
Pride stinging, Heath pointed out, “Morrison was just one of a few lawyers we have on staff.”
“Let’s hope the other ones are better then,” George replied. “Because you may run into some difficulties with procuring that patent as well as other difficulties...”
Heath tightened his arm around Kylie’s waist. “Are you threatening us?”
“Not at all,” George replied with a little smirk. “I don’t need to threaten you. I may not even need to deal with you once those wills are read.”
Heath narrowed his eyes, wondering what the guy knew or thought he knew. “If I were you, I wouldn’t put much stake in the accuracy of any of the information you bought from Morrison,” he advised the man.
The guy’s face paled to nearly the same color of his white hair.
Kylie must have noticed, too, because she chuckled. “He’s our former employee for a reason.”
George glanced at the unidentified man again, sending him some kind of silent message. To get rid of Tyler Morrison? Or to get rid of them?
“Well,” George said. “This has been an enlightening conversation, but I need to return to my duties as host. And you two really shouldn’t stay. Wouldn’t want you to overhear anything proprietary.” After dismissing them, he and his VP turned and walked away.
But the other man remained. “I will see you out,” he told them, his deep voice brooking no argument.
“So where were you Thursday night?” Heath asked him for his alibi for the murders.
Once again the guy betrayed nothing, his expression as grim and unreadable as it had been from the moment he’d walked up with his employers. But his hand moved, closer to that bulge beneath his jacket.
Kylie tugged at Heath’s arm. “We really should leave,” she told him.
“Listen to the lady,” the man advised him. “She’s as smart as she is beautiful...”
Heath nearly chuckled at how quickly the guy had gone from stoic to charming—for her. “She is,” Heath agreed.
“So it would be a damn shame if she got hurt,” the guy continued. “Because of you...”
Heath flinched. The guy obviously knew more than he was willing to admit. “Are you threatening us?”
He shook his head. “Just offering you some badly needed advice.” But he was focused on Kylie now. “Be careful.”
She shivered.
Knowing that he wasn’t going to get any kind of confession from the man, Heath guided Kylie away from him and toward the door to the hotel lobby. The guy followed them, though, very closely, so closely that Heath felt a prickling between his shoulder blades.
Kylie had been right. He shouldn’t have come here, and he damn well shouldn’t have let her come with him. Because he had no doubt that he’d put them both in danger.
* * *
Kylie shivered again when they exited out of the hotel lobby onto the street. While the day had been almost unseasonably warm for February, night had fallen and brought back the chill of late winter.
Or maybe it was just that meeting that had chilled her. Had the man been giving her unsolicited advice or had he been threatening her?
“I’m sorry,” Heath said. “I should have listened to you.”
“You should always listen to me,” she replied with a smile.
He chuckled—just as she’d wanted him to. “You’re a smart-ass.”
“I like how he said it better,” she admonished Heath. “That I’m as smart as I am beautiful.”
His grin slipped away as he stared down at her. “You are...”
“Liar,” she teased.
But he flinched again, as he had last time.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m just joking, like you.” Because he couldn’t possibly be serious.
But he certainly looked serious. He slid his fingertips along her jaw. “I know you felt self-conscious in there, without a formal gown, but you were every bit as glamorous as those other women.”
Something gripped her heart, squeezing it, and she gasped. She could not be falling for him. She couldn’t. If she did, she was just going to wind up getting hurt, like the man had warned her. She needed to be careful. She drew in a breath of cold air and forced a smile.
“You don’t have to sweet-talk me into going home with you,” she said. “I already am.”
“And I am suddenly in a very big hurry to get back there,” Heath told her. His arm still around her waist, he guided her down the street toward the lot where he’d parked his mother’s vehicle.
Was he in a hurry because of the thinly veiled threat they’d just received? Or because he wanted to make love with her again?
Or because he felt the same sensation she did, that they were being watched?
She would have thought it was the man who’d just threatened them, but she’d had the feeling even before meeting him. Not that he couldn’t have followed them there.
Arvock might have hired him to tail them and threaten them and...
Kill them?
Was he the one who’d shot at them the day before?
The one who’d tried running them down?
She hastened her step to keep up with Heath and because she was suddenly anxious. Anxious to get back to the safety of the penthouse.
&n
bsp; The lot was just ahead on the other side of a busy intersection. They stopped at the corner, waiting for the Don’t Walk to change to Walk. But even after it changed, Heath held her back from starting across the street. He looked both ways twice before stepping out.
But even then, he’d missed the vehicle. Of course it must have had its lights off. Until now, until they flashed on with the high beams blinding them. Along with the lights, the engine revved. Then the tires squealed as it pulled away from the curb and headed straight toward them.
This was clearly not someone going too fast. The driver had been waiting for them and seemed intent on not missing this time.
Chapter 21
Anger coursed through Joe, but he wasn’t sure to whom it was directed. Heath Colton and Kylie Givens. Or himself for wasting his time being suspicious of them.
“You two have to stop playing Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew,” he advised them. “You’re going to get yourselves killed.”
“Then that would lower your number of suspects,” Colton quipped back at him as the three of them rode the elevator to the man’s penthouse apartment.
“No. It would just increase them,” he corrected the guy. “Clearly you two make enemies much easier than your dad and uncle ever did.”
Colton flinched then. “You’re right. Everybody loved Pop and Uncle Alfie.”
Especially him. The guy didn’t need to say it; it was written in the anguish on his face. Parker sighed in resignation.
“I know you loved them,” he acknowledged.
“Too much to have ever been involved in their murders,” Kylie Givens added.
Joe nodded. “I realize that now—just as I hope the two of you realize how much danger you’re in.”
They’d nearly been run down in the street—would have been had Heath Colton not managed to pull Kylie back onto the sidewalk and out of harm’s way. The vehicle had jumped the curb, though, and nearly struck them anyway.
Joe had watched it all on the security footage of a nearby business. Unfortunately, the footage hadn’t caught a license plate number, but that had been because the vehicle hadn’t had one. Someone had removed the plate before trying to run them down. So clearly it had been no accident but a premeditated attempt on their lives.
