once upon a romance 09 - hoodwinked by a wolfe

by leclair, laurie

  Shivering now, she clung to the blanket wrapped around her shoulders and took the glass.

  “Down it!” He did just that and refilled his.

  “That bad?”

  “Yep.”

  “You have been seeing someone,” she guessed. “It’s serious. Is this the friend breakup coming?” Dread filled her.

  “I didn’t lie about that. There’s no current waiting in the wings.” His grim voice almost seemed as if he wished it were the case.

  Rach picked up the shot glass, took a shaky breath, and then bolted it down. She winced at the bitter taste and nearly choked as fire lit up the back of her throat. It took seconds to travel and drop into her belly. “Wow!”

  Logan leaned his elbows on his knees and combed his fingers through his hair. “Your grandmother—”

  There was a commotion at the door, raised voices and banging rent the air, cutting him off.

  “Rico?” She rushed to the door with Logan on her heels. As she swung the door open, she asked, “He’s not gay, all right?”

  “Rachael Elizabeth, whatever are you talking about?” Grammy asked, clutching an overnight bag.

  Chapter 15

  “Who’s not gay?” the Duchess asked and then pointed to Arnie. “Him?”

  She blinked a few times. “Grammy? You’re here.” Within seconds, she threw her arms around her grandmother, hugging her tight. It felt so good to touch her again after all these months.

  “There, there, dear. I’m here.” She patted Rach on the back and then held her at arm’s length. “Beautiful as ever.” Her eyes teared up. “I’ve…been such a fool.”

  “The cruise?” Logan asked, getting a quick hug and peck on the cheek from his grandmother. “The security detail?”

  “A bust. A virus spread through the entire ship. Coming out of both ends. Oh, not us. Thank goodness. But she got it. B-A-D!” The Duchess rambled on, smoothing a hand down her khaki slacks. “Turned the ship about and we didn’t even get to do the hokey pokey once.”

  Arnie laughed. “Good one. Mr. Wolfe, I can take these in for you.”

  “Sure thing. Just in the hall. We can figure out rooms later.” He sighed, stepping back for the enthusiastic young man as he hefted four suitcases and bounced over the threshold. “I take it you’re both staying.”

  “Where else do we have to go?” His grandmother shrugged. “My house is stuffed to the gills with her stuff.” She pointed a thumb at the Dame. “And hers is a sight for sore eyes.”

  Grammy’s chin wobbled, the dignified air she usually kept tight control over no longer held together. Her silvery hair, normally styled perfectly, curled slightly. Even her clothes were less formal, although she did still wear a skirt. “I made a mess of things, dear. I hope you can forgive me.”

  The woman never got emotional. Not for decades now. Worry spiraled in her middle. “No need to be concerned. You can go on another vacation soon.”

  “You don’t understand.”

  “Ladies, let’s take this inside.” Logan ushered them in and handed Arnie a tip. The young man gave him a jaunty salute and dashed off.

  Rach dragged her feet and waited for Logan to catch up to her. She hesitated at the living room, watching the women plop down on the sofa, making themselves at home. “You didn’t know?”

  “I’m just as surprised as you are about this.”

  “The four of us? In one condo?”

  “You got another plan, Rach? There’s twin beds in your room. They can stay there and you can bunk in mine.”

  “You two? Sleeping together?” Her grandmother pressed a hand to her chest.

  “I’ll take the sofa in here.” He dodged.

  But the thought of them snuggling in bed together sent all sorts of wicked visuals through her head. “His favorite place to bed down lately. Are you sure the panties weren’t your current’s?”

  “Whose panties are we talking about? And why are we discussing this in mixed company?” Grammy asked, fanning herself.

  “Are you flashing again?” Duchess dug for something in her oversized straw tote and handed it to her friend. “Here, use this.”

  “Ah, a fan.” She snapped it open and began swinging it back and forth. “You always know what to bring along, don’t you?”

  Logan stood in front of them as Rach sunk down on the arm of the chair. “Time out.” He shook his head and looked at her, rolling his eyes. “And you all wonder why I live in New York.” He waved a hand. “Far, far away from the drama that is these two.”

  Her friend was back, giving her that subtle wink and half grin. The hidden messages were theirs to share and joke about. The Grans were theirs, however embarrassing and annoying they could be at times. Her heart tugged.

  “Duchess and Dame, I’ll find some better quarters for you to stay in tomorrow—”

  “I want to stay with Rachael Elizabeth,” Grammy said, reaching out and grabbing her hand. “We need to catch up.”

  The strong grip took Rach by surprise. “Of course. But I’m working.”

  “It’s done then.” Her grandmother’s hand fell away as she turned to Logan. “You said you’d do it while I was gone.”

  “We discussed this.”

  Rach gazed from her grandmother and back to Logan. He clenched his jaw and the muscle along it jumped.

  “You forced my hand.”

  Silence exploded and wedged its way between and through them.

  “Decoder needed,” Rach whispered hoarsely, capturing his stare.

  “I did what needed to be done.”

  Grammy snapped the fan closed. “My business—”

  “Really? Do you want to go there?” Duchess asked, clearly annoyed. She shoved herself up, making a noise in the back of her throat. “I, for one, am sick of hearing you complain, Dame.”

  “Complain?”

  “That’s all you’ve done. Well, before I got some liquor in you.” She reached down and grabbed the bottle. “I’ll take this, thank you very much.” Blowing her grandson a kiss, the spunky, petite lady made her way into the kitchen. Sounds of cupboards opening and closing came to them.

  Her breath stayed trapped in her chest. “I think one or both of you need to explain a few things.”

  “It’s hers to say.” Logan turned away and walked to the window. His back, proud and ramrod straight, spoke volumes.

  Ripples of fear washed over her. Was this the lie he was going to tell her? Or was this something else entirely? Did she have more to worry about?

  Grammy’s soft sobs jolted Rach, bringing her up short. Going to her, she sat down on the sofa and held her close. “Just tell me.”

  “It’s gone. All of it.”

  From the files she’d discovered in her grandmother’s desk, Rach knew Darling Enterprises was no more or would be no more, sooner rather than later. “It’s all right. We’ll manage fine. I have RED still—”

  “Thanks to my genius grandson,” Duchess said, coming back with two shot glasses. She plunked them down on the coffee table and filled them up with the liquor. “Suck it up, Dame.”

  “How can he come in and just take over?”

  “Life sucks, or haven’t you realized that yet? You screwed up.”

  Exasperated at all the double talk, Rach gently set her grandmother back and got up and came around the coffee table. “Enough! Logan, tell me what’s going on.”

  He turned then, catching her gaze. “I’ve already told you I lied. You’re going to believe me now?”

  “Out of the three of you? I trust you the most.” It tumbled out of her, shocking them all. Yes, he’d been the one she’d turned to in every crisis in her life. He’d never let her down before. Would he now?

  His steps were slow and measured. Stopping a few feet in front of her, he nodded to her grandmother. “She’ll have to agree.”

  “Oh, for the love of God. Do it!” Grammy cried.

  “She didn’t call me months back.”

  “Huh?” Rach frowned.

  “
Claire did.”

  “Why? And why you? I was here. She could have come to me.”

  He blew out a breath and captured her gaze. “Apparently, Claire did. You brushed her off.”

  Frowning, Rach searched in her memory bank for a conversation with the treasured assistant. She shrugged. “I don’t remember…”

  “The salesman? Older gentlemen? Silver hair?” Grammy interjected with sarcasm.

  “Oh, him. He’s such a flirt. Wait, she did say something.” Her voice stuck. Or was it guilt at dismissing Claire’s worries? “Divorced and desperate, that’s what she said.”

  “And penniless. Child support for all those kids he left behind.” Again Grammy jumped in.

  “What is he—sixty or something?”

  “Fertile, too. I think there’s eight.” The Duchess belted back her shot. “Dame, take a drink now. It might wake you up or numb you. Either way, it’s a good thing.”

  Rach swallowed hard, realizing it was time she stepped up to the plate. Turning fully to him, she said, “No more keeping things from me, Logan. Talk to me like you would your friend.”

  “Oh, Rach, you don’t know how many times I wanted to tell you, ask for your help, even get your advice. She legally bound me to keep quiet.”

  “About what? Tell me.”

  “This guy. Randall. He preyed on her, used all the right words, and said all the right things.”

  Realization sunk in. “She fell for him.” Images of her popping in her grandmother’s office and finding him there too many times rushed back. It’s just business, they’d say. “He’d helped find a less expensive factory in another state.”

  “Bogus. He created fake businesses, broke contracts, and funneled money to his own accounts.”

  “But Grammy is smart and wise.” How could she have been duped?

  “Until her heart got involved. Love does strange things to people, or have you forgotten?”

  Her heart lurched. They’d both been warned and stayed away. He still was. Her, not so much. Dang it!

  “And because he’s done it before. To other women. Once Claire alerted me, I checked him out.”

  Behind her, her grandmother cried softly, tearing at her heart. “It was too late.” Her eyes burned.

  “Twenty years of doing things right and he came in and found all her weak spots. His helpfulness turned to taking over. Soon he made unscrupulous deals in your grandmother’s name and Darling Enterprise’s, which she is still liable for. Her accounts dwindled. He chipped away and began running it into the ground.”

  “I was scared. Everything I had built was falling apart. I needed time to get it back and set things right. Until I could turn it around… I was so blind. How could I let you and everyone else think of me as such a fool? I began to cover up, create a second set of books.” She moaned as if in pain.

  “He set up Claire, making me think it was her. I should have believed her when she came to me. The last straw for her, thank goodness,” the Duchess said. “That’s when the poor woman contacted Logan.”

  “I had no idea.” Rach shook. “None of you told me, clued me in?”

  “There’s more.” His voice, filled with dread, yanked her back.

  Focusing on him, she saw emotions chase across his eyes, dark and turbulent.

  “This is the part where I lied.”

  A block of ice sat on her chest. “Go…on.”

  “RED was lost, stolen away. I couldn’t let that happen. Not to you.”

  She frowned. “The contract with King’s?” Her throat closed up. She loved working there and she loved the people. Would that be taken away, too?

  “I found him. And his offshore hidden accounts stuffed with your grandmother’s and Darling Enterprises’s money. It’s amazing what a little muscle will do to someone. In exchange for not having him brought up on charges and arrested or worse, he signed over RED, especially when…”

  “Whatever it is, you have to finish, dear,” Duchess coaxed him.

  He took a deep breath and exhaled. “The Wolfe family were silent part owners, and the Duchess and I have unknowingly been for years.”

  “What?” Rach let out a strained chuckle. It came out as a puff of air. “Don’t be silly. Grammy started the business from the ground up—”

  “Seed money in the beginning. Then, later, with a mighty hefty loan from Logan’s grandfather. I…I couldn’t make a go of it.” She sniffed. “I had all I could do. I begged. He relented, thanks to the Duchess here. Only, he wanted a percentage.”

  On shaky legs, Rach stepped back, feeling the edge of the coffee table behind her. She sat down gingerly. “Logan, you knew? All this time.”

  “Not until the night we found the ledgers in your grandmother’s safe.”

  “Oh, dear, you found them,” Duchess said. “I ripped the pages from your grandfather’s ledgers right after he died and gave them to Dame. His lawyer wanted everything. A list of creditors. I couldn’t let him see them. It would have been her downfall. I have no idea where the contract went.”

  “I burned it. I’m so ashamed. I didn’t want you to find out, Rachael Elizabeth. I didn’t want you to realize what a failure I am.” Grammy’s words were like hammers to her chest.

  A lump formed and nearly choked her. She blocked out her grandmother now, wondering how she could have done that to her and Logan. “The document you had. You got Grammy to sign over RED to me, free and clear.”

  “I did twist her arm—figuratively, that is.” He let that hang in the air for a second.

  “How? Why?” Maybe with what little they had left, she could have done something and saved some part of Darling Enterprises for her grandmother.

  “You want the sugar-coated or friend version?”

  “Straight from the hip.” She braced herself.

  “I extracted that SOB from RED. He was shaking and sweating bullets by the time I was done with him. It went back to your grandmother who, in turn, at my insistence, signed it over to you before the vultures could get a piece of it.”

  “A few years ago, I used your trust fund money just before you turned twenty-one and would get control. A loophole I used to my advantage.” Grammy sucked in a shaky breath. “I appeased myself with allowing you to create RED with some of the funds. The rest kept Darling Enterprises going for a time. Until…he came along.”

  Appeased herself? Like in a small, dismissive gesture? That rocked Rach. Her grandmother never thought she’d make anything out of it. Now, it seemed, RED was the only viable piece of the crumbling company. How ironic!

  “So there was a trust fund,” Logan said, running a hand through his hair.

  Sitting there, listening to Grammy’s confessions, left her stunned. But shock reverberated through her at the knowledge her best friend had purposely kept this from her, especially in the days since she’d returned from Italy. He’d been the only she could count on. “You were supposed to be my friend,” she whispered. They never kept any secrets from one another.

  Anguish chased across his features and left his eyes hollow and bleak. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  “You did.” She’d trusted him! She’d put all her faith in him.

  “The house is gone.” Her grandmother wailed. “I’m selling it to satisfy the lawsuits.”

  “It’s not a remodel. Not exactly, dear,” Duchess said. “A refresh before the sale.”

  The wind sailed out of her and in its place an emptiness sat, hard and cold. Her home. Lost. Gazing up at Logan, she couldn’t whisk away the overwhelming sense of betrayal.

  “I couldn’t let you fall, too, Rach. The media…they would have ripped you to shreds. RED would have suffered and died a quick, hard death. And you? You would have been dragged through the mud and your name ruined.”

  His voice, rough and scratchy, tore at her. “That makes everything you did all right?” A false sense of honor?

  “You were an innocent bystander. This is your new beginning. Your last chance to stand on your own. You can’
t count on anyone but yourself in this life. Haven’t we figured that out early on? The people we care about leave or disappoint us.”

  “Not us.” She shook. “We don’t let one another down.” Until now.

  “Everyone has an agenda. Including me.”

  Her gasp caught and stuck as he gave her one, last lingering look and then left.

  He didn’t care about her. Not like that. Not love. He’d used her to get her to wake up to her life. Why? So she could end up disillusioned like him?

  The sound of the penthouse door closing behind him echoed in her lonely heart.

  Chapter 16

  Logan’s cell phone blared. The number on the screen didn’t ring a bell.

  “Just hang up,” he muttered, taking the corner fast and tight in his sleek, black Jaguar.

  It stopped. Then buzzed again and again.

  “Oh, for—” Slowing down and twisting the wheel, he found an empty spot on the side of the street and braked to a halt. He grabbed for the still ringing phone, pressed the button, and held it to his ear. “What do you want?”

  “Logan Wolfe?”

  “Who is this and how did you get my private number?”

  “Direct. To the point. I hope you’ll be the same way when I ask you questions for the newspaper article I’m writing about the demise of Darling Enterprises…”

  He took the phone away from his ear and sucked in a sharp breath. It happened a little too fast for his taste. Only three more days until Saturday night’s ball and Rach would have been safely tucked in the folds of King’s and their family.

  The male voice called him. “Are you still there? Mr. Wolfe?”

  Drawing it back to his ear, Logan barked out questions and only when satisfied with the answers, said, “I’ll give you an exclusive if you keep it from hitting until Sunday morning.”

  The story would break eventually. But now, it would be on his terms.

  It was the least he could do for his best friend.

  His last gift to her.

  ***

  Numbness invaded her bones as she slogged through the tedious stitching on her new buttery soft leather satchel design.