“I have my reasons.”
“I can just imagine what they are,” Ann said bitterly.
“You don’t have the first idea,” he replied flatly, his eyes narrow and hard.
“Go home, Heath. I need a lot of cash and even if you had it, I wouldn’t take it from you.”
“Why, Princess? Is my money tainted?”
His use of his former nickname for her hurt more than she would have believed possible.
“Your money is nonexistent,” she said bitingly, feeling the need to hurt him back. “You were very pretty, Heath, but very poor. That’s why my father objected to you, remember?”
“Your father objected to the fact that my old man was a drunk and my mother the friendliest woman in town, not to mention that less than desirable Seminole blood flowing through my veins. But that didn’t matter to you when we were between the sheets, did it, Princess?”
“Let’s not do this to each other, Heath,” Ann whispered, swallowing hard. He had hardly been with her a minute and already they were drawing blood.
“Why not? Is it too late to tell the truth?”
“It’s too late for everything.”
“But not too late to write a check. You’ve been out of touch, Annie, I’m not the same lowlife you left behind in Hispaniola when you skipped town.”
Ann heard the flinty edge in his voice, saw the steel gleam in his eyes. “Must we play this game? I know you hate me, Heath, so exactly what are you doing here?” she asked wearily.
“I’m here to save your bacon, Annie. Isn’t that what one old friend should do for another?”
“We were never friends.”
“We were much more than that,” he said in a low tone, holding her gaze.
Ann looked away from him. “Do you have seven million dollars?” she asked in a scoffing tone.
“Yes.”
She looked back at him in amazement. He was completely serious.
“Find that hard to believe, do you, rich girl?” he said sarcastically. “Oh, excuse me, I guess that term doesn’t apply to you anymore, does it?”
“There’s no point to this exercise, Heath. You’ve obviously come to torture me but you will have to get in line. My brother and all of his creditors are way ahead of you.”
“Don’t you want to hear my generous offer?”
“No.”
“You don’t think I mean it, do you? Well I do, and I have the money.”
“How did you get it?”
“Ah, so you are curious. Do you think I stole it?”
Ann didn’t answer.
“That would be in line with the Talbot opinion of me, wouldn’t it?” he said nastily. “Though it seems your brother is more into larceny than I am these days.”
That was a low and calculated blow, and Ann bit her lip, still saying nothing.
He stared hard at her, then seemed to relent, looking down pensively and then up again at her face.
“You recall I was always good around boats. Anyway, after you left me at the altar, so to speak, I joined the navy. While working for Uncle Sam I invented a new type of sealing valve that prevents water from getting into a boat’s motor, and I later sold the patent to a private company for several million dollars.”
Ann listened, astonished that she had never heard about this upward turn in his fortunes.
“I invested the money in Bimini Boat Works, and built it into a multi-outlet facility with marinas all over the Keys and mainland Florida.”
“You’re Bimini Boat Works?” Ann said incredulously. She had seen the company’s billboards and advertisements everywhere since she returned to Florida.
“I take it nobody told you,” he replied flatly, reading her stunned expression.
“I don’t think anybody knew. My mother’s been dead for five years and my brother Tim hasn’t been in Florida much since my father passed away. He ran ScriptSoft from Massachusetts.”
“Ran it into the ground, you mean. And you haven’t exactly been in touch, have you?” he said with a thin smile. “Couldn’t wait to scrape Hispaniola from the soles of your shoes, Princess?”
“That isn’t fair, Heath. I didn’t want to see anybody. My memories of Port Lisbon were...very painful.”
“Oh, not as painful as mine, lady,” he said softly, watching her face. “Not as painful as mine, I was the one who got dumped, remember?”
“You don’t know what happened, Heath. You never heard the full story,” Ann protested.
“Oh, I’m sure you’ve got some lovely explanation all worked out, something classy and reasonable to satisfy your delicate conscience. You wouldn’t want to think of yourself as a woman who would lead a man on to the brink of distraction and then ditch him for a better deal, would you? You could never live with that.” He leaned against Caldwell’s desk, folding his arms and crossing his legs at the ankle in a characteristic posture.
“You won’t believe anything I say, so why should I try? You just want to enjoy my downfall and your corresponding triumph.”
“Quite a reversal of fortunes, isn’t it, Princess?” Heath said softly, a dangerous light in his eyes that Ann recalled very well. He had looked like that when her father had threatened to separate them, all those years ago.
“I can see that you’re savoring every second of it.”
“Tell me Annie,” he said tauntingly, “would you have called me up for a loan if you’d known I was flush?”
“Go to hell,” Ann said.
“Ah, that’s my girl. I don’t know what you’ve been doing while your brother was pissing away your company but it obviously hasn’t killed your spirit entirely.”
“So that’s why you’re here?” she said dully. “To witness my humiliation?”
“Partly.”
“Well, you’ve done so. Now you can go.”
“But I’m not finished yet. Don’t you want to hear my generous offer?”
“No.”
“I see. It’s okay with you if your dissolute brother remains behind bars? I can get him out, you know. I can get him out and hire the best lawyers to defend him. They’ll help him to plead reduced capacity because of his gambling addiction. He might not spend a minute more in jail.”
“What do you want?”
“I’ll get to that.”
“Tell me now.”
“All in good time. I can also save ScriptSoft, buy the majority interest and open up the cash flow to pump up the stock price. The ScriptSoft scandal would vanish from the papers, and the board of directors would get happy. They might even drop the charges against your brother, who knows? It’s possible the SEC could go easy on him if the company shows recovery, what do you think?”
“What do you want, Heath?” Ann said again, tightly, barely able to speak.
“I want you to marry me.”
Ann stood abruptly and tried to push past him. He grabbed her arm and held her in a viselike grip.
“Let me go.”
He didn’t move. “I can remember a time when my touch was not so repulsive to you,” he said silkily.
“I said, let me go, or I’ll scream for Caldwell,” Ann vowed, struggling silently as his fingers dug into her wrist.
“Do you think I would care?” he said. “After waiting all this time to see you in this position, do you think I would actually give a damn?”
Ann yanked hard and he released her abruptly at the same time so that she stumbled. He watched, refusing to aid her, as she grabbed a plant stand and righted herself. She paused breathlessly for several seconds before saying, “I don’t know what position you imagine I am in, Heath, but I’m certainly not desperate enough to marry you and fulfill your most elaborate revenge fantasies. I know you would love to make me dependent on you and force me to pay every day of my life for what you think I did to you.”
“What I know you did to me, Princess,” he said softly. “And regardless of my possible motives, do you have any choice but to accept my offer?”
“I always h
ave a choice,” Ann said proudly.
“Really? Do you know what will happen to your brother if he remains in prison? As I recall, he looks a lot like you. The cons really love to get their hands on those blond and beautiful types. It’s their favorite kind of fresh meat.”
Ann looked sick.
“You were quite close to Tim when you were kids, weren’t you? I seem to remember that you were very fond of him.”
“Shut up,” she said.
“If s a shame he was so weak, isn’t it? Maybe it was because your daddy gave him everything, including his company. When you have to earn every dime yourself, you’re not likely to throw it away at the gambling tables. Timmy got quite a reputation as an easy mark, did you know that?”
“And you just sat around waiting for this to happen, waiting to spring your trap, didn’t you?” Ann said bitterly.
“I certainly kept track of the situation.”
“How did you know I was here?”
“I had a detective follow you from the airport.”
She stared at him. “You knew I was flying in today?”
“I’ve been tracking your movements for some time. I knew you would have to come back here sooner or later to deal with this debacle—I’ve been reading all the stock reports and stories about it in the papers. I also knew that Harold Caldwell was the bankruptcy lawyer, so the rest was easy.”
“Caldwell doesn’t know what you’re proposing, does he?” Ann asked, shocked.
“He only knows that I’ve made an offer of help.”
“But not the condition attached?”
“No.”
“I thought not. He’s far too honorable a person to go along with such a scheme.”
“Unlike dishonorable Bodine, the scum of the earth, whose motives are base but whose money is green.”
“This discussion is over, Heath. I’m leaving.”
“Don’t be so hasty, Princess. You won’t get a better offer any time soon.”
“Nothing on this earth would induce me to marry you, Heath, so get out of my way.”
He didn’t budge, merely reached for his wallet and produced a card, which he extended to her.
“Call me when you change your mind,” he said.
She ignored his proffered hand and stared at him, waiting for him to let her pass.
“You’ll need the number,” he said warningly.
“I won’t need it. Now if you don’t move this instant I’ll pick up the phone and call the police.”
He grinned. “I own the police. The Talbots don’t run Port Lisbon anymore. I do.”
She picked up a silver letter opener from Caldwell’s desk and held it out in front of her, blade first.
Heath laughed. “Are you going to stab me with that thing, Annie?”
“If necessary,” she replied grimly.
He took an elaborate sidestep and bowed, letting her pass to the door of the office.
“I’ll wait to hear from you,” he called after her as she went through it.
“You’ll have to wait a long time,” Ann replied. She kept on moving.
“Miss Talbot, are you leaving? Mr. Caldwell wanted to see you again,” the secretary said as Ann rushed past her.
“Tell him I’ll call him later,” Ann muttered, and bolted for the hall. Once there she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes, waiting for her heartbeat to return to normal.
Ann felt that she could barely make it to her car and she knew that she was incapable of driving. When she was steady enough to walk, she went down to the lobby of the building and called a cab to take her to her lunch meeting with Amy Horton at the Lime Island Inn. She really wanted to skip it, but she knew Amy would be waiting and she wasn’t rude enough to disappoint an old friend. When the cab arrived, she sank into the back seat with relief, grateful that she didn’t have to do anything but sit until she reached her destination.
Heath watched from a window of Caldwell’s building as Ann climbed into a taxi and sped away. He knew that she had driven herself to the meeting with the lawyer and he took a grim satisfaction in the fact that she was now too upset to drive.
Good. She would be a lot more upset by the time he got through with her.
His handsome face was set in stone as he turned away.
* * * *
Amy’s welcoming smile faded as she rose from her seat in the inn’s restaurant and caught sight of Ann’s face. She came around the table hastily and took both of Ann’s hands in hers.
“Annie, my God, what happened? You look like death. Did you have an accident?”
“In a way. I just saw Heath.”
Amy’s expression changed again as she pulled out a chair for her friend and then sat herself. Amy was impeccably turned out, as usual, her crisp linen suit and ruffled blouse complemented by the gold jewelry and Italian leather pumps she wore. But Amy’s mind was not on her appearance at the moment. Ann was white as boiled rice and seemed to be in shock.
“You knew about him, didn’t you?” Ann said to her.
“Knew what?”
“Amy, come on. Don’t play dumb.”
“You mean, that he became Mr. Megabucks and now owns half of Port Lisbon? Yes, I knew.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
Amy stared at her. “Ann, for years you burst into tears at the mere mention of his name. Everyone who knew your past history with him learned to avoid the subject completely. And then with all this recent trouble about your brother and ScriptSoft, I was hardly going to regale you with tales of Heath’s good fortune while your family’s company was going down the tubes.”
Ann looked across the table at her boarding school roommate, whom she had known since they were both fourteen. Amy came from nearby Key Largo and had been living for the past few years in Miami, where she was a fashion buyer for a chain of retail stores. She had been Ann’s closest confidante during that summer Ann had fallen in love with Heath, spending many nights covering for her friend while Ann sneaked out to tryst with her forbidden lover. Amy knew the whole story, and it had created an enduring bond between the two women that held them still. Although Ann met Amy infrequently, they spoke often by phone and each time they saw one another it was as if their last meeting had been only hours earlier.
Amy knew what a devastating blow seeing Heath must have been to her friend. Ann had never gotten over his loss. To see him now after so many years, when he was prospering and she was staggering from the blow of her brother’s disgrace, had to be humiliating.
Amy put her hand over Ann’s on the table.
“I’m so sorry,” Amy said quietly. “Was it awful?”
“You can’t imagine.”
“How does he look? Gorgeous, I suppose.”
“Yes.”
“I’ve seen his pictures in the Miami papers. If you hadn’t been off in Europe researching your books for God knows how long you’d know that he’s become quite the big man locally.”
“I live in New York, Amy. Even when I’m home I don’t get much news from Florida.”
“Well, he’s been living it up, donating money everywhere, attending charity balls, shaking hands and writing checks. I guess you can’t blame him, to come from Hispaniola and wind up one of the wealthiest men in the state is quite an achievement. And all by the age of thirty. Where did you see him, anyway?”
“In Caldwell’s office.”
“What was he doing there?”
“He came to make me an offer.”
Amy paused with her water glass halfway to her lips. “An offer?” she echoed.
“He said he would bail Timmy out of jail and pay off ScriptSoft’s debts if I would marry him.”
Amy put the glass down, staring at Ann. A waiter appeared at her elbow and said, “Can I get you ladies anything to drink?”
“I’ll take a double Scotch on the rocks,” Amy said rapidly, sitting back in her chair.
“Mineral water,” Ann said.
“At least have a drink,” Amy sai
d when the waiter left. “I need one and I wasn’t even there.”
Ann shook her head.
“What did you say to him?” Amy asked.
“I told him no, of course. Did you think I said yes?”
“Well, Annie, you do need the help, and you were desperately in love with him once upon a time. Not to mention that the man is beautiful and sexy and rich as Midas.”
“And plotting my destruction even as we speak.”
“What does that mean?”
“Why do you think he wants to marry me, Amy?”
Amy was silent.
“Can’t you guess? You remember him, right? Did he ever strike you as the forgiving type?”
“No,” Amy admitted.
“He wants revenge. He wants to have me in his house, legally bound to him, so he can torture me every day and make my life a purgatory. Got the picture now?”
“He said that to you?”
“Of course he didn’t say that. One look at his face and I knew it. In Timmy’s downfall he imagines he has the perfect vehicle to pay me back for what I did to him eleven years ago.”
“What he thinks you did to him.”
Ann shrugged.
“Well, didn’t you tell him what actually happened?”
“I tried, but he wouldn’t listen. He made up his mind when he was nineteen and nothing has changed it since. He was so prepared for the rich bitch to turn on him that when it happened there was only one possible explanation—the princess was unable to abandon the royal Talbot existence for a real life as his wife. I could present him with affidavits from archangels that tell a different story and they wouldn’t mean a thing. He hates me, and he’s been feeding that hatred for over a decade. In fact, I think it fueled his ambition, spurred on the desire to show me and the rest of the world that the half-breed kid from Hispaniola could make good.”
Amy accepted her drink from the waiter and took a large sip from it as the waiter asked, “Will you ladies be having lunch?”
Amy nodded. “I’ll have a Caesar salad with braised chicken and an iced tea. Ann?”
“Nothing for me,” Ann said, and the waiter walked away.
“Please don’t go on a hunger strike, that certainly won’t help matters,” Amy said sternly.
Ann looked across at her friend, who was always watching her weight and maintained her figure at great cost with starvation diets and gym fees, wishing she could summon up Amy’s lusty appetite. If the slightest thing went wrong in Ann’s life she couldn’t eat.
Marriage In Name Only Page 2
