“My agreement?” He pulled her arms down from his neck and stared at her as if he’d never seen her before. “What the hell did you do?”
Confused, Terri just blinked at him. “I told you. I talked to Simon and we agreed on an investment level. But Cooper, nothing’s set in stone until you approve it, too.”
“And I never will.” He lifted her off his lap, set her on her feet, then jumped out of his chair as if he couldn’t stay still a moment longer. “Why would you do that?”
Terri didn’t understand why he was so furious, but he definitely was. His eyes were flashing, his jaw was tight and he practically vibrated with outrage.
“He’s an investor,” she said. “I thought that was a good thing.”
“If it was, I’d have taken him up on his offer ten years ago when I lost my dad.” Jamming both hands through his hair, he shook his head. “Simon Baxter, the motel king. God. I can’t believe you went behind my back on this.”
“I didn’t go behind your back, Cooper.” Terri was stunned. He was looking at her as if she’d stabbed him through the heart. How had this all gone so wrong so quickly?
“That’s what it looks like from here,” he countered and walked away from her as if needing the distance. “I don’t want outside investors, Terri. Never have. Hell, I didn’t want you.”
Shock punched her and she watched him through eyes suddenly blurred by unexpected tears. She blinked frantically. Damned if she’d cry.
“This is my company, Terri,” he raged. “I’m the one who took it over from my dad and built it up into what it is now. And I did it without anyone’s help.”
“What about my father? What about Jacob?” she countered. “He was your partner. You weren’t all alone in this, Cooper.”
“Jacob came in and out, but he didn’t stick his nose into the running of the business. Which is more than I can say for you. The running of the company, the building it into what it is now? That was me. I did it my damn self.” He paused, jerked his head back and gave her a hard look. “Is this why you really came here?”
He started pacing in long, fast strides. “Have you been playing me all along? Setting me up for a takeover? You’re all innocence and sex, getting past my guard, easing me into a situation that you set up? How the hell much is Simon promising you to betray me?”
“Betray?” She took a step toward him and stopped. “I only did this as a surprise for you.”
He laughed shortly but there was no amusement in the sound. “Surprise? Well, congratulations. You pulled it off. I thought you didn’t play games.”
“Play games? I don’t.” How had it come to this? Why was she defending herself to a man who had already tried and convicted her? “Aren’t you the one who keeps telling me that there’s no BS with me? That I’m blunt? To the point?”
She didn’t know why he was so angry, but she hadn’t done anything to be ashamed of. She’d only talked to Simon with the best of intentions. “Now all of a sudden you think I’m scheming? Well, you’re wrong.”
He snorted. “Of course you’d say that.”
“Well yeah, because it’s true.” Terri shook her head and tried to figure out where she’d zigged when she should have zagged.
Maybe she should have talked to Cooper about the meeting first, but Dave had assured her this was something Cooper wanted. And when that thought settled in her mind, she began to wonder if it wasn’t someone else pulling the strings here. Was it Dave, leading her into this very confrontation for reasons of his own? She’d trusted him. Cooper trusted him.
“I don’t play games, Cooper. I don’t lie. And I wasn’t working against you. I was trying to do this for you.”
He snorted again. She was really getting tired of that sound.
She took a breath and tried again. “I’d never even heard of Simon Baxter until Dave told me he was here and wanted to meet.”
“Dave?” His head whipped up and his cold, cold eyes met hers.
“Yes,” she insisted. She had to make him understand that she never would have done anything to hurt him. “Dave told me that you’d be happy about this. That I could finally prove to you that I can be your partner. That’s the only reason I went to the meeting in the first place.”
Seconds ticked past quietly while he stared at her. Terri felt sick that it had come to this. She hated seeing the repulsed look in his eyes but couldn’t think of a way to get past it.
Finally, he spoke. “You expect me to believe that my oldest friend is the one who turned on me? Dave and I have worked together for more than ten years. You’ve been here a few weeks. I’m supposed to take your word over his?”
Her chest hurt. Her eyes stung. Her breath was like knives moving in and out of her lungs. She wouldn’t have believed it possible for everything in her life to turn so quickly to trash. But the look in Cooper’s eyes told the story. He didn’t believe her. He’d even said out loud that he hadn’t even wanted her there.
“So you’d rather believe it was me, is that it?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. I don’t care who you believe, Cooper,” she said, voice tight, but steady. She did care, of course. Desperately. But she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing how much his words had torn at her. “But if you think so little of me, after all we’ve shared, then I have to wonder if you’re the one who’s been playing me all this time.”
When he didn’t say anything, just kept looking at her with those icy-blue eyes, Terri sighed and felt her soul shrivel into a ball of pain. “You have, haven’t you?”
He shifted his gaze away from hers. “No.”
“Don’t lie to me,” she murmured, waiting for him to look at her again. “You kept waiting for me to fail. You wanted me to fail so I’d leave and you could have your precious company all to yourself again.”
“Terri...” He ground his teeth together and scowled tightly. But he didn’t deny a thing.
“Congratulations. I never saw it. Didn’t even consider you were just biding your time before buying me out. It must have been really frustrating for you when I succeeded.”
“Damn it, Terri—”
“Don’t curse at me, either.” She took a breath, squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. Her gaze burned into his as she said, “I didn’t fail, Cooper. You did.”
She turned to leave but stopped when he spoke again.
“Got another meeting?” Cooper taunted.
“No.” She looked back at him, the man she loved. The man who didn’t trust her. Didn’t want her. “I just don’t want to be here anymore.”
Ten
In her suite, Terri gave in to the tumult inside and allowed the first tears to fall. She couldn’t believe what had happened. Why had Dave done that to her? Why would he deliberately set her up? Had Cooper’s reaction been an act? Had he and Dave done this together?
“No,” she muttered. “He wasn’t acting. He was surprised. Furious.”
She dropped her black bag on the long, slim dining table and only then noticed a brown envelope with her name typed efficiently on the front. She swiped tears out of her eyes, picked up the envelope and tore it open. With her luck it would be an eviction notice signed by Cooper himself.
Sniffing, she sat down at the dining table and pulled the papers free. First, there was a typewritten letter from Mr. Seaton, Jacob Evans’s lawyer. The man who’d come to see her in Ogden and started all of this.
Ms. Ferguson, as per your late father’s wishes, this letter from him is delivered three weeks following his death.
A letter. From the father she would never know. Terri was almost afraid to read it. With everything else going on right now, could she take one more buffeting? But even as she considered ignoring it, she unfolded the letter and read...
My dear Terri,
Though I’ve not be
en a part of your life, I have kept a fatherly, if distant, eye on you all these years. Your parents were good people and I am grateful to them for loving you the way I couldn’t.
But I want you to know that your mother and I were very young and very much in love. She became pregnant and we made plans to run away together after your birth. But I lost my love the night you were born. She died and you lived. I knew that alone, I couldn’t give you the life you deserved, so I allowed your adoption. It was the hardest thing I have ever done.
Terri’s eyes filled with tears that spilled over and ran, unheeded, down her cheeks.
I want you to know that you were loved even before you were born.
And though you rightly loved your parents, I hope that sometimes, you might spare a thought for the parents who loved you and let you go.
Be happy, Terri.
Your father,
Jacob Evans.
Terri’s tears blurred the page as she carefully folded it again. Too many emotions in one night, she thought as her throat closed up with a wave of sympathy, regret and loss rising up to settle in the center of her chest.
“It’s too much,” she whispered. “All of it. I feel like I can’t breathe.” She looked around the lavish suite—four thousand square feet of emptiness—and felt as barren as the room in which she sat. She needed comfort. So she stood up, walked to the closest phone and dialed room service.
“Hi,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound as pitiful as she felt. “I need you to send up the biggest hot fudge sundae we have. And a slice of chocolate cake. Twenty minutes? That’s great. Thank you.”
While she waited, she opened a bottle of white wine, poured herself a glass and muttered, “Wine and chocolate. Perfect.”
Jacob Evans had loved her. She’d never know him.
Terri loved Cooper Hayes. She’d never have him.
Her heart was torn, her insides felt as if they’d been sliced to ribbons and the flush of success she’d been feeling only hours ago had completely dissipated.
“He hadn’t wanted me to succeed. That’s why he kept looking surprised at everything I did.” Shaking her head, she sat down at the dining table, dug into her purse and pulled out her cell phone. “I need a friend. A real friend.” And there was only one person who came to mind.
Texting her, she wrote:
Can you take some sick days starting tomorrow? I need the cavalry.
Sure. What’s wrong? What happened?
What do you need?
Terri grinned. God, it was good to have someone you could count on no matter what.
I’ll tell all when you get here. Buying you a ticket, will email it to you.
Okay, bazillionaire, I’ll let you.
Terri laughed and it sounded broken, even to her.
Thanks, Jan.
Just tell me who you want me to slap.
See you tomorrow.
Flipping open the laptop on the table, Terri hurriedly checked into Jan’s favorite airline’s site, bought a ticket for first thing in the morning, then emailed it to her.
Then she sat back, took another sip of wine and swallowed past the knot of emotion lodged in her throat. Terri felt lost. It was as if everything she’d believed since coming here had all been a lie. Had she ever really had a shot at this? Or had it all been a play acted out by really convincing actors?
A knock on the door sounded and she opened it to room service. The young guy carried a tray holding a gigantic sundae and the biggest slice of chocolate cake she’d ever seen.
“Anything else, Ms. Ferguson?”
“No,” she said, handing him a ten dollar tip. “That’s it, Rory. Thank you.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She winced, but laughed as she locked the door. Funny, now being called ma’am was the least of her problems.
* * *
By morning Cooper was ready to kick some ass.
All night long he’d been awake, thinking about the confrontation with Terri. What he’d said to her. What Terri had said back. The look on her face when he’d accused her of betraying him. He couldn’t forget it. The pain in her eyes. The way her mouth had dropped open in complete shock. She’d folded her arms over her middle as if in a futile attempt to shield herself from more verbal attacks. He’d done that to her.
Shaking his head, he dismissed her response as irrelevant. He couldn’t worry about her hurt feelings when the rug had just been pulled out from beneath his feet.
Terri turning on him was one thing. Hell, until her he’d never really known a woman he could learn to trust. But to know that it was Dave—his best friend—the one man he had always trusted over all others, who was behind it all, was too much to swallow.
Naturally, he hadn’t taken Terri’s word for a damn thing. He’d told himself that she was covering up, trying to make herself appear innocent while tossing Dave to the dogs. So Cooper had done the only thing he could to try to get to the truth. He’d called Simon Baxter. Just remembering that brief conversation ripped him open again.
Maybe he should have believed Terri. She’d always been nothing but honest with him. He’d held himself back from her to protect himself and in doing so had really screwed everything up. But who could blame him for not wanting to admit that it was his oldest friend who had betrayed him.
“Simon,” he’d said, clenching the phone to his ear while he stalked up and down the balcony at his end of the owner’s floor. He avoided even looking at the French doors to Terri’s suite. “I hear you had an investment meeting tonight with my new partner.”
Keep it friendly, open. Get him to spill what he knew.
“I did,” Simon confirmed jovially. “That’s a smart young woman you’ve got there, Hayes. She drives a tough bargain. Yes, you’re a lucky man.”
“Yeah. Sure I am.” He felt as lucky as a man climbing the steps to his own gallows, but that was beside the point at the moment. “Terri tells me it was really Dave who got the ball rolling this time around.”
In the background, Cooper heard the click of a lighter and knew the older man was lighting up one of his beloved cigars. Celebrating what he thought was a coup?
“That’s right,” Simon said. “Ol’ Dave has been assuring me for a year now that you’d come around eventually. See the sense in us joining forces.”
Cooper’s heart sank even as his fury roared into life. It was a struggle to keep his voice steady. “Is that so?”
“Well, hell, you know that boy is really ambitious—got yourself a live wire there, Hayes. But he’s loyal to you. Got your best interests at heart. He sees that the two of us merging would be good for both our houses.”
Sure. Because a five-star hotel company merging with a roadside motel outfit couldn’t be anything but great. What the hell had Dave been thinking? A year? A year, he’d been working on this behind Cooper’s back? What the hell else had he been up to?
Cooper had gotten what he needed, so he wrapped it up.
“Well, Simon, I hate to disappoint you again,” he said tightly. “But my company’s going to stay privately held. No outside investments. No mergers.”
“Well, here now, that’s not what Dave’s been feeding me for a damn year. It’s not what that girl had to say last night, either!” Outrage colored the older man’s voice but he had nothing on how Cooper was feeling.
“Dave doesn’t have the power to make deals, Simon. You know that. As for Terri,” he muttered, rubbing one hand across his forehead as if to ease the ache pounding there. A cold wind slapped at him and it felt as if the universe itself was trying to push him around. “She’s new here and doesn’t understand.” Though apparently, she’d understood Dave in a way Cooper hadn’t. What was he supposed to make of that?
“Dave said this was all for you. That you’d okayed it.”
“He lied.” God, those words tasted bi
tter. But damn if he didn’t have to swallow them. His friend had betrayed him. Tried to sell him out. Working deals and using Terri to do it.
“Now, see here,” Simon blustered.
“We’re done, Simon,” Cooper said and hung up. It took all his control not to throw his damn cell phone against the wall just to watch it shatter.
Terri has been telling the truth. But did that change anything, really? She was still the partner he hadn’t wanted. She’d done some good work in the last couple of weeks, had come up with some fresh ideas that were already panning out. But she still didn’t belong, did she? Even as he thought it, he told himself that of course she did. She’d proven herself there to him. To all of them.
And he’d never wanted a damn partner, so why should he be expected to just welcome her with open arms? If she stayed, they’d get drawn deeper and deeper into what had already grown into something far more than temporary. Was he ready for that? Hell, was he even capable of it?
Shoving the memory of that phone call and the long, lonely, miserable night that followed to the back of his mind, Cooper stood up when Dave knocked, then walked into the room with all of his usual, casual flair.
“Come on in.”
Grinning, Dave said, “You wanted to see me?”
“Yeah.” Cooper came around his desk, perched on the edge of it and watched his friend come closer. More than ten years they’d worked together, played together, had each other’s backs—or so Cooper had thought. Now he had to wonder if Dave had been working against him all along. How much of their relationship had been a lie right from the beginning?
“Terri told me she met with Simon Baxter last night.”
Wincing, Dave shrugged. “Yeah, she told me she wanted to meet him. I didn’t want to introduce them, Cooper.” He lifted both hands in a helpless shrug. “But she is a partner here so I didn’t feel I could refuse.”
Clearly, Dave was going to ride this horse right into the ground. Nodding, Cooper said, “Plus, it would have been hard to refuse when you’re the one who set it all up to begin with.”
Tempt Me in Vegas Page 14
