Always Mine (The Barrington Billionaires, Book 1)

by Ruth Cardello

  “If you think you can draw better than I can, why don’t you come up here next?”

  Ian flexed his shoulders and rose to his feet. “Oh, I will. Wait, isn’t it the other team’s turn?”

  Asher said, “Doesn’t matter; we’ll probably get the point anyway.”

  Andrew threw a pillow at Asher, who caught it and threw it back.

  Sophie told them all to stop, but she was smiling when she said it. Dale looked over at Emily and nodded in approval. Emily turned to look up at Asher and saw a similar expression in his eyes. Emily spontaneously gave Asher a quick kiss then hugged him. She couldn’t remember ever feeling happier.

  Her phone rang, and she almost ignored it, but she saw it was from the caretaker of her museum so she said, “Excuse me. It’s Mr. Riggins. I’m sure this will be quick.” She stood, walked to the doorway of the living room, and answered the phone.

  Asher was on his feet and at her side the moment he heard her gasp.

  “Oh, my God. No. No.” She looked around the room frantically and her voice rose. “No.”

  She slumped against the wall and would have sunk to the floor if Asher hadn’t caught her.

  Asher took the phone from her. “What happened?”

  Mr. Riggins said, “The fire department is already here, but they’re not sure how much of the building will be left. It was already engulfed in flames when I went to check on it. I did everything I could.”

  “What are you talking about? What’s burning?”

  “The Harris Museum. The whole thing is ablaze. I checked in on it as I always do, but it was already too late.”

  “How did it happen?”

  “No one knows yet. The firemen say they have to get it under control before they can determine the source for sure. They keep asking me what I know, but I don’t know anything. It’s like I said, as soon as I saw the fire I called them.”

  Asher hung up the phone and tossed it on the table beside him, turning his attention to the woman he was partially supporting. He turned back to his family and said, “It’s Emily’s museum. It’s on fire.”

  Everyone was instantly on their feet and gathered around her, asking both Emily and Asher the same questions neither of them had answers to. Asher turned his attention to the woman in his arms who was shaking from the shock.

  She went to pull away from him. “I have to go.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Asher said instantly.

  Emily looked up at him and an expression of horror entered her eyes. “You didn’t have anything to do with this, did you? Swear to me you didn’t.”

  Asher’s head snapped back in surprise. “I didn’t do this.”

  Pale and shaking, Emily looked past him to his family. “I want to believe you. You have all been so good to me, but is this why? Was all of this some sick plan to get my land? You lure me away, have me relocate my pieces, then burn it so I have nothing to fight you over?”

  “You can’t believe that.” Sophie reached out to Emily, but Emily backed away from her.

  “I don’t know what to believe,” Emily said as tears poured down her cheeks. She pushed away from Asher. “Don’t touch me. I need to think.”

  Grant stepped forward. “Emily, no one here would ever hurt you.”

  Emily swayed on her feet and waved a finger at Grant. “Why did you encourage me to take out more insurance? Did you know this would happen?”

  Dale put his arm around Sophie. “She’s in shock. She doesn’t mean what she’s saying.”

  Kenzi looked from Emily’s distraught face to Asher’s and asked, “Did you do this, Asher? Could one of your people have done it?”

  Sophie covered her mouth as she gasped. “Asher, tell me there is no chance you could be involved. Even you wouldn’t go this far to get what you want, would you?”

  Asher opened his mouth to deny it, but he remembered what Ryan had said about Hearne. “I told my team we were pulling out of New Hampshire.”

  Andrew shook his head. “Did you tell them it was because you fell in love with Emily? I bet you didn’t.”

  Asher met his father’s eyes. “I didn’t tell them anything. I don’t explain myself to anyone. But I told them to look for another location.”

  Ian interceded. “Let’s not assume anything until we have the facts.”

  As he walked away, Lance said, “The facts look pretty damning.”

  Emily turned back to Asher. “Would anyone who works for you do this?”

  If Asher had been a liar, he would have lied then. “If they did, it wasn’t on my orders. I don’t condone arson.”

  Emily sank to her knees and started to sob. Asher tried to help her up, but she pushed him away. His family looked on helplessly, a mixture of sympathy for her and anger at him.

  Sophie walked up to Asher, tears in her eyes, and laid a hand on one side of his face. “If you did this, Asher, you went too far. You. Went. Too. Far.”

  Dale led her out of the room.

  Kenzi and his brothers continued to hover around Asher and Emily, as if ready to intervene if Emily needed it. It wasn’t Asher’s proudest moment. He went down on his knees beside Emily and gave her a tissue Kenzi had pushed into his hand. “Emily, I’ll get a plane readied. We can be there in a couple hours.”

  Emily took a deep breath and pushed herself to her feet. She blew her nose in the tissue and reached for her phone. “I can’t think. I need to get out of here.” She dialed a number then said, “Celeste, I’m hiring a car to take me back to Welchton. My museum is burning down.” She was quiet for a moment then said, “You don’t have to. I know you have work. Okay, if you’re sure.” She hung up and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I’ll send for my things later. I just need to grab my purse and call for a car.”

  Asher stood in front of her. “I’m going with you.”

  She shook her head. “No, you’re not.”

  Kenzi stepped closer. “I can go with you, Emily.”

  Emily shook her head and tears spilled down her cheeks again. “This may be a horrible thing to say, but if any of you had anything to do with this, I could never forgive you. I could never even look at you again.”

  Emily rushed out of the room and up the stairs to get her purse, leaving Asher to face his siblings. “As far as I know, I didn’t do this.”

  Kenzi made a sound of disgust. “As far as you know? How can you not know?”

  Andrew came to stand beside Kenzi. “I see it even in the Marines. When you instill the idea that winning at any cost is the goal, then there will always be those who will do anything not to fail.”

  Ian took his place beside Asher. “What are you going to do?”

  Asher watched Emily rush down the stairs and out the front door of his parents’ home. He could have, but he didn’t chase her. “I’m going to find out who is responsible.”

  Ian asked, “What happens if you are?”

  Asher shook his head. For the first time in his life he really had no idea what he would do. There was a good chance the blame lay at his door. He was angrier with himself than with anyone who stood in judgment of him.

  Fuck.

  Chapter Sixteen

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  Early the next morning Emily stood on the porch of the guest house and stared at what was left of her grandfather’s house. No matter how long she looked at the charred remains and the safety tape the firefighters had encircled them with, she couldn’t believe it.

  Two firefighters and the fire marshal were still there, sifting through the debris for the cause of the fire. She’d been told she’d need to wait to approach the area herself; they would tell her if anything had survived the fire. It was easy to see that not much would have. The entire building had collapsed in on itself.

  By the time Emily had arrived last night, firefighters were dousing certain areas with additional water, but most of the fire was out. They said it had been fully developed by the time they’d arrived on the scene.

  She’d heard one of the firefighters say,
“It’s a shame the sprinkler system wasn’t functioning. It might have saved the building.”

  Emily covered her face with her hands as she remembered the comment. She’d had the system installed and a preliminary inspection done, but it was turned off, pending one final modification. She’d been saving up the money to pay to have it completed. When she thought about the money she’d put into renovating the interior, she felt like crying again. If I had finished the sprinkler system first and put the renovations off, I wouldn’t have lost everything.

  A pain was ripping through her that sought someone or something to blame. Emily had spent half the night before hating herself and the other half hating Asher and his family.

  The whole scenario was too convenient to not have been orchestrated. When she’d set off to Boston to threaten Asher, she’d never thought it could possibly come to this. He’d told her again and again that winning was what mattered to him and how he would go about it. “When I want something, I assess what is standing between me and what I want, then I remove the obstacle.” He’d also said he didn’t care about her land. Well, he’d certainly shown how much he meant that.

  The pain of his betrayal cut so deeply it drained Emily of the anger from the night before and left her feeling hollow. Was any of it real? Was I ever more than an obstacle to him?

  Emily felt a coat being wrapped around her shoulders and lowered her hands. Steam wafted upward from the cup of hot coffee Celeste held out to her. Emily accepted it automatically. “Thank you.”

  “How long have you been out here?” Celeste asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Your phone has been ringing all morning.”

  Emily put the cup down on the porch railing and returned her gaze to where the firefighters were working. “I don’t care.”

  Celeste took a sip of her coffee. “Brrr. It’s cold out here. Why don’t we go inside?”

  “I’m fine.”

  After a long moment, Celeste said, “This has to be hell for you, but there are things you need to do today. I contacted your insurance company. They’re sending out an investigator. They’re going to ask you some tough questions, Emily, and we might want to talk about what your answers should be.”

  “I don’t have any answers. I don’t have anything anymore.”

  Celeste placed her coffee beside Emily’s and turned her friend to face her. “Stop it. You need to snap out of this. I called one of my friends who works in insurance, and she thinks a situation like this will spark a full investigation of everything from your finances to your association with the Barrington family. They’ll be looking for fraud and the possibility of bringing criminal charges against someone. Is there anything I need to know?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Did you move money? Pay anyone in cash? Anything that would make you look guilty?”

  “Guilty? How could you think I would burn my grandfather’s house down?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I think, it matters how it will look to the investigator and, possibly, to the police. Let’s face it—you’re the last unsold house. Maybe you thought your museum was worth more than B&H was offering. Maybe you paid someone to burn it down so you could get the insurance money and then more money for your land.”

  “That’s insane. My mother’s artwork was in there.”

  “Some pieces, yes, but you moved most of them to Boston for the exhibit. Did you do that because you knew this place would burn?”

  Emily searched her friend’s face. “You know I’d never do that.”

  Celeste gave her a little shake. “Yes, I know that, but what are you going to say when the investigator asks you these questions? You have to be prepared.”

  “He’s going to want to know why I took out more insurance.” Emily closed her eyes and covered them with one hand.

  “Holy shit, Em.”

  Emily opened her eyes and turned her gaze back to the remnants of her museum. “I have nothing to hide. I didn’t do anything wrong. Grant Barrington is a financial wizard. He offered to help me organize my resources. He’s the one who suggested I increase my coverage.”

  “Okay, that’s good. When the investigator asks, have him speak to Grant.”

  “I can’t. I told you I ran out of there last night, but I didn’t tell you what I said to them before I left. I accused them of being responsible for this.”

  Celeste gasped. “I can’t say the thought hasn’t crossed my mind, but I don’t know if I would have said it to them.”

  Without turning to her friend, Emily clenched her hands at her sides and asked, “You always say you have a better read of people than I do. Did they do this to me?”

  Celeste cringed. “I don’t know, Em. They seemed to genuinely like you. What did Asher say?”

  “He said he doesn’t condone arson, but he didn’t say his company was innocent. I don’t know if I would have believed him even if he had.”

  “I’m calling a lawyer for you. You need someone who knows what to do.”

  Emily shook her head sadly. “I know you’re right, Celeste, and normally I’d be scared, but I’m numb—just numb. I feel like I’ve lost my family all over again.”

  Celeste put an arm around Emily and hugged her. “You have me, Em. You’re not alone. We’ll figure this out.”

  Emily wiped away her tears. She felt badly that Celeste was being pulled into her problems. Although Emily was grateful, all she really wanted to do was dig a hole somewhere and hide from the world. She forced a brave smile solely for the benefit of her friend. “Don’t think you have to stay. I know this is a critical time for your agency.”

  Celeste pulled her coat tighter around her. “It is, but the perk of being the boss is I can take time off when I need to. If this happened to me, you’d be with me. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Asher loosened his tie, kicked off his shoes, and sank into the couch of his finally quiet office. Day two of hunting for answers and he didn’t feel closer to the truth. He checked his phone, but neither his call nor his text to Emily had been answered. Not that he could blame her; even he was beginning to think he was to blame.

  Over the past forty-eight hours, he’d held meeting after meeting and questioned countless employees on the side; what he’d discovered made him sick. His plow-through-any-obstacle philosophy didn’t look as pretty on the front lines. His people were too smart to break the law, but they stretched it, used it to their advantage, and essentially forced people to accept an offer.

  Would any of them have gone as far as arson?

  His most trusted team was in Trundaie. His personal assistant, Ryan, had been helpful in organizing the interviews, but he’d looked nervous when Asher had questioned him about the museum. He’d admitted to receiving a threatening call from the construction company B&H had preliminarily contacted to build the new facility. Had the deal been finalized it would have been a financial windfall for them.

  If they were responsible, Asher hadn’t been able to find evidence of it.

  Asher hadn’t been back to his parents’ house since the night Emily had left. He couldn’t face his family anymore than he could face Emily. He needed to know if the fire was his fault, and if it was, he needed to make it right.

  A New Hampshire news station had reported on the fire and the story had gone national. Emily’s innocence or guilt was being debated at water coolers and on talk shows. Those who thought she was guilty cited desperation and greed as her motivation. Either way, the Welchton police had named Emily Harris as a person of interest, despite the initial report that stated an electrical fire as the cause.

  Asher closed his eyes even though he knew he would never sleep. He wanted to call Celeste again, but he didn’t. He’d spoken to her twice in the past two days. The first time had been all about getting Emily to speak to him and when that failed, finding out from Celeste about how Emily was doing. The second time he spoke to Celeste he convinced her to let him help Emily any way he could. He called in favor
s to make sure Emily was represented pro bono by the best lawyer in New England.

  Emily might not want his protection, but she had it. He had people watching her home to make sure it wasn’t vandalized and watching her to make sure she was safe. Media attention had a way of leading crazies to a person’s door.

  His phone rang. Ian. “What do you want?”

  “Are you sleeping in your office again?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “We’re all worried about you.”

  “That’s not the impression I got the other night.”

  Ian made a frustrated sound. “Mom isn’t handling this well. Emily refuses to take calls from any of us. Mom wants us to fly up there and—I don’t actually know what we would do. Camp in her yard? Drag her back here? We closed Emily’s exhibit. I’m trying to convince Mom to call off next week’s auction. People are already pulling out, and it’s only getting worse. Get your ass over here and help me with damage control.”

  Asher stood and went to look out his office window. “I need to know if I’m responsible. If one of my people did this, I need to make it right. No matter what happens to me.”

  “You need to be really careful with this situation. It has national attention. You could put our family and your company in jeopardy.”

  Asher punched the wall beside him with the side of his fist. “I love her, Ian. It took me long enough to realize it, but I did. I don’t want to be the reason she lost her museum. I want to be the man she hoped I was.”

  Asher thought of his father and the scandal that had ended his career. He finally understood the choice his father had made; he understood there had been no choice at all. Nothing mattered more to his father than his mother’s happiness, just as nothing mattered more to Asher than Emily’s. How much would he risk for her? Everything if he had to.

  “Have you found evidence proving it wasn’t an electrical fire?”

  “No.”

  “Then it was probably just a spark. No one’s fault.”

  “I can’t sleep, Ian. I can’t eat. I need to know the truth.”