He ignored her and turned the page of his menu.
“So he’s not your biggest fan, I take it?”
“You don’t have to be a master judge of character to not like me. I took care of his father’s dirty work.” Colin set the menu down. “I’m the walking, talking embodiment of all of his daddy issues, okay?”
As though on cue, a shadow fell over their table. The first thing Jean noticed was the shiny silver belt buckle right at eye level. Her gaze traveled up the pressed and spotless white buttoned-up shirt, the suit jacket that probably cost more than she wanted to think about, and she finally met the gaze of the man who was going to determine whether this crazy scheme of Colin’s was going to work.
After a few moments of surprise, her manners came back to her and she snapped up and held out her hand. “Hi. I’m Jean Hill. Nice to meet you.”
Colin rose a bit slower than she did but tilted his head toward Robert in greeting. “Hello.”
Robert studied Jean for a few long seconds before he extended his hand. It seemed strange to meet a supposed brother by shaking hands, but Grandma had never taught her the accepted behavior for these types of situations.
“Jean?” Robert still held her hand in his firm grip. “Seems like an old-fashioned name for someone so young.”
“It was my grandmother’s name.” Jean pulled her hand from his. “I think my mom was trying to get brownie points from her when I was born since she needed somewhere to stay.” Damn it, she shouldn’t have mentioned her mother’s hard times already. It would seem as if she were asking for a handout or something. Which she kind of was. She looked over to Colin and he gave her a quick smile, and she wondered whether Colin trying to be nice was comforting or worrisome.
She motioned to the chair at the end of the table, facing the windows on the opposite side. “Have a seat. We just got here so we haven’t looked over the menu yet.”
Robert hesitated for a moment, but then pulled the chair out and took a seat, his back still stiff and tense. She wondered whether that was normal for him or whether he was as uncomfortable as she was. Except he didn’t really look uncomfortable. Maybe annoyed that he was being inconvenienced?
“So, Carter, want to tell me how you managed to find our long-lost sister?”
“You know I had access to parts of Walter’s life that no one else did. I just turned over the right stones and there was Jean. Could be worse.”
“Excuse me?” Jean glared at Colin.
The corner of his mouth ticked up. “It’s a compliment. You could’ve been a stripper or something.”
She snorted. “I wish. You have any idea the tips those girls make? Knowing my dancing skills, I’d fall and break my ankle the first day. Too many days of wearing tennis shoes. Stripper heels and me don’t go together.”
Colin smiled brightly at her, and Robert stared at her as though she was from another planet. Yep. There, she’d gone and opened her big mouth.
“What is it you do, Jean?” Robert settled into his seat a bit and took a sip of his water.
“I’m a waitress at this little diner right off the interstate.”
“Jean lives in a small town in Arkansas. Her grandmother left her an old trailer and every penny she makes goes into upkeep.”
Jean waved a finger at Colin. “My grandmother left me a very nice trailer. Even nice homes need maintenance,” she clarified.
“She worked in bookkeeping for a bit. But the company went under and she couldn’t afford to go to school, so she works whatever she can get to keep a roof over her head.”
“It’s not like that!” she said to Colin before she turned to look at Robert directly. “It’s really not like that. I just do what I need to do. And waitressing isn’t that bad. I get free meals and I don’t need a membership to a gym, so it has added benefits.”
Robert nodded as his expression softened a bit more. “So where have your parents been through all of this?”
“Well, my mother has always been...” she searched for a good word, “distracted by her own things. So Grandma mostly raised me. And I was always told that my dad was a good-for-nothing drug addict and I never really asked many questions.” It wasn’t a huge stretch to think of Katherine being with someone like that.
“So do you think you’re my sister?” asked Robert point-blank.
Jean coughed as she took a drink of water and some of it went down the wrong pipe. She held a hand to her mouth and cleared her throat. Let Colin do the lying.... “Um...excuse me.” She cleared her throat again. “I never thought I had any relatives like you, but Colin found me and seems convinced that we’re related. And he pointed out the physical resemblance. I told him I wouldn’t be opposed to a DNA test.” There. That was mostly the truth.
And there was a decent amount of resemblance between her and Robert. She’d seen it in pictures, but seeing him in front of her was shocking. She was shorter than him by a foot, and he was probably ten years older than her. But his eyes and even the cheekbones just looked like...her. No wonder Colin had been so insistent that she be the one to pull off this little scam.
“That all sounds completely reasonable,” said Robert. She could tell he still didn’t know what to make of her, and she couldn’t say she blamed him.
Jean took a deep breath. “I don’t really know what I need to do,” she said honestly. “This probably was as much of a surprise to me as it was to you.”
Robert laughed bitterly. “Oh, I wasn’t surprised to learn I had a sister at all. It was just like Walter to leave kids all over the country.”
Seemed to line up with what Colin had said about the man. “So you and he had a strained relationship?”
“Walter and everyone had a strained relationship. I’m surprised Colin is helping to track you down.” Robert looked at Colin over the table. “I assumed you’d be gone the second the old man croaked.”
Colin didn’t seem affected by the assumption. “I knew Walter better than most. I figured he had Jean so well hidden that no one would find her without me.”
“Why leave a huge inheritance to someone no one can find? What’s the point?” asked Jean.
Colin and Robert exchanged a quick look. “I don’t think anyone knows why he did the things he did,” said Colin.
Robert snorted. “I know why. There are two things Walter loved more than himself. Money and chaos. Anything he could do to make money or cause chaos would make him happy. And you are chaos, Jean.”
She shuffled in her seat. “So he didn’t leave me money out of a sense of loyalty or...regret?”
“I don’t know what you were expecting to come here to, but you’re not going to find any sort of family here.”
The waitress chose that moment to come up, smile on her face. “Are you ready to order?”
Jean glanced down at the table, still speechless after Robert’s blunt assessment of his family.
“I don’t think that’s going to be necessary.” Robert set his menu down. “I’m not going to be staying here much longer.”
The waitress looked confused but still managed to keep her smile in place. “Okaaay. I’ll check on you two in a few minutes.”
Robert finished off the rest of his water and set the empty glass on the table. “I have a lab ready to do testing on you today, Jean. I’ll send Colin the time and address. We should know by tomorrow if you are who you say you are.”
Jean tried to hide her surprise. “Tomorrow? I thought paternity testing took weeks.”
“It doesn’t take weeks for me.” He stood and pushed his chair away from the table, looking at Colin. “I trust you two aren’t bullshitting me.”
Jean tried her best to keep a level expression, but Colin didn’t look slightly intimidated. “I know better than to bullshit a bullshitter.”
Robert nodded and buttoned up his suit jacket.
“Umm...did you want my phone number to keep in touch?”
“I’m sure that if anything comes of this DNA test, I’ll find some way to
keep in contact. It was nice meeting you, Jean.” With that, he turned and walked away without another word.
Jean looked between him and Colin. “What the hell was that?”
“You aren’t still upset about Robert, are you?” Colin brought Jean her soda from the concession stand next to the Statue of Liberty.
“I told you I wasn’t upset!” she snapped as she took the drink from him and twisted off the cap.
“And I told you that you couldn’t lie.” She’d tried to appear unaffected after Robert had all but blown them off, but he could tell it had affected her. All the more reason for her to not know the truth about her relationship with Robert. If she felt this way about her fake brother, how would she react if she knew she really was related to the ass?
“Whatever,” she muttered as she put the cap back on her drink. “I think the last ferries are leaving soon. Where are you taking me now?”
“I’m not your tour guide.”
“No, but you are my host. And, since I’ve never been here before, I’m kind of reliant on you. So what are we doing? Renting a movie and staying in? I assume there are still places to rent movies in New York.”
Colin could already imagine sitting alone with Jean in his darkened apartment. The only seating he had was one couch. Yep. There were hundreds of ways that could go wrong. Or right. But she hadn’t mentioned the previous night at all, so he had to assume she either had no memory of what happened or she was happy to pretend nothing happened.
Either way, it was best to stay far away from his place.
“We’re not renting a movie. Just tell me what you want to do and I’ll be your damn tour guide.”
“There’s only one thing I can think of but you’re not going to like it.”
Fuck. He had a feeling she was right. “What?”
Jean bit her bottom lip and looked over to the water and back. “I do like to go dancing. The city has to have some nice clubs, right?”
“Nice dance clubs? Clubs where the music is so loud you can’t hear anyone talk so even the dumbest of dumb asses can pick up a girl?”
Jean smiled. “You have the most eloquent way of describing things. Yes, those sorts of clubs.”
“Why?” He could think of thousands of other places he’d rather be, up to and including acts involving physical pain.
“Because I have this magical thing called free time that I never have at home. And you saw Ron’s Bar back home. I can’t exactly dance with a lot of guys back there. I know everyone. Come on. I’ve done every single thing you asked. I sat through that stupid non-breakfast with Robert. I had my cheek swabbed in a DNA test that may or may not get me arrested. So now I want you to take me dancing.” He clenched his jaw and she continued, “I mean, take me to a place where there’s dancing.”
He chuckled at her embarrassment right as his phone rang. Shit, it was Smith. He needed to take this away from Jean, but there was no way she’d give him privacy for this call. But he knew a surefire way to get her to leave him alone for a few minutes. “I don’t dance.”
“I wasn’t asking you to dance.”
“Just saying, if this is a roundabout way of trying to hit on me, it’s not going to work. You are the one who kissed me. Twice.”
She stared at him in shocked silence for a second before her face turned beet red and she turned to race to the ferry to go back to Manhattan. Colin smiled as he answered the phone. He was going to pay for that later probably, but it was cute to see her angry.
“Carter here.”
“Hey,” said Smith on the other end of the phone. “I made some progress on looking into Tony Marsh.”
“What did you find? Did you figure out who hired him?”
“I’m still looking into it, but I’ve confirmed that someone did hire him.”
Colin rubbed at his temples. No shit someone hired him. He didn’t need a computer hacker to tell him that. “When can we find out who?”
“Someone sophisticated enough to set up an electronic trail that will take me a few days to follow. This guy got a deposit of fifteen grand into his account yesterday and it wasn’t a simple one bank to another bank. This was bounced around and hidden and made so no one would be able to track it.”
“But you’re not just anyone.”
“And you’re lucky you have me. I’m looking into it, but it’s going to take a day at least. Maybe more.”
“You need to put a rush on this,” said Colin. By now, Jean had reached the ferry back to the island and was looking around for him. He needed to cut this short.
Smith sputtered on the other end. “What the hell part of it will take a day at least doesn’t sound like a fucking rush to you?”
Damn. He forgot how touchy Smith could be. “Okay, okay. I appreciate it. Keep me updated and let me know if you need anything on my end.”
“Will do. You know how to get a hold of me if you want to rush me some more.”
“I said I get it,” he bit out. “But there is one more thing I might need from you.”
“What’s that?”
Jean finally found Colin through the crowd and motioned him to catch up to her before the ferry left.
“I need you to find me some good club recommendations for the city.”
“You have one hour.” Colin led Jean into the club.
“We don’t have to do this, you know.” Jean stopped in the doorway. She could hear the pounding music from inside and just imagined how much Colin was going to hate the next few hours.
“I thought this was what you wanted.”
“Well, yes. But what I want more is for you to be honest with me.”
His expression immediately hardened. “Honest about what?”
“About the sneaky phone calls. The guy last night. I know you think that the Farrells are after me. I don’t know why you can’t just admit it.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I didn’t want you worrying about it.”
“I almost died. Worrying happened. Now tell me what that phone call was about.”
“And if we don’t go inside, what exactly did you want to do? Go back to my apartment? Be alone with me?” He inched closer. “All night?”
Heat crept into her face and farther down... “You’re doing that thing where you try to distract me by making me uncomfortable.”
The corner of his mouth hooked up. “I’m doing the thing where I distract you by making you want me.”
Nope. She wasn’t doing this. Dancing it was. Jean walked inside the club, not sure what to expect. It was a weeknight, but there was still a line out the door. For some reason, Colin and she were on “the list” so they could go in without waiting. Whoever Colin knew, they obviously had connections.
But he’d worked with Walter Farrell for ten years. He was bound to have a few connections after all that time.
All sorts of people crowded the bar and the dance floor. Some women were in short skirts and barely there tops, while others were in dresses made for swishing around the dance floor. Though this wasn’t the kind of place that had room for salsa or ballroom dancing. This was body-crushing, hip-grinding music.
This was good. This was exactly the kind of place she’d always wanted to go to. Someplace she didn’t know anybody and could just dance as long as she felt like. Well, she knew Colin, but she was going to try to pretend he wasn’t there.
Fat chance of that happening. It was almost impossible to ignore the man. He was just so...big. He’d traded the Henley for his normal black t-shirt and still wore the cargo pants, so he wasn’t even trying to fit in. But it wasn’t as if anyone would call him out for being different. Especially not with the way his biceps stretched out the sleeves of his shirt.
No. Colin was the kind of guy who went where he wanted when he wanted and didn’t give a damn about things like dress codes.
Jean had taken more care with her appearance when they’d stopped back at Colin’s apartment. She’d kept her hair down so it bounced around her shoulders and settled on a l
oose knit, just about see-through tank top that hung low and loose on her. Her mini skirt might’ve been scandalous on another woman, but because she was short, it hung midway down her thigh, and her knee-high boots had no heel, so the outfit really wasn’t that bad. Just a little bit of leg and a little bit of cleavage and if someone looked close, her waist and bra...
Okay, it wasn’t the most demure thing, but she was twenty-six, and working a job that had her moving all day kept her in good shape. It was about time she had a chance to enjoy it in a place that wouldn’t constantly have people comparing her to Katherine.
Jean headed for the dance floor, determined to have some fun, but Colin set a hand around her waist and pulled her back against him. Her breath caught in her throat as he surrounded her, and her eyes closed instinctively as she waited for his next move, not sure if she wanted him to move closer or farther away.
He bent close and spoke into her ear. “I’m going to find somewhere to sit. Want me to get you a drink?”
Oh. He’d pulled her close because he wanted her to hear him. That made sense. She turned to face him. “Rum and diet Coke?”
He nodded and held out a hand. It took a second before she realized he was asking for her sweater. Jean shrugged out of it and handed it over to him. His dark gaze glanced over her in one quick sweep before he turned away.
Maybe she should’ve asked for a few rum and diet Cokes.
Jean tried to force Colin out of her mind and headed out to the dance floor. For the first song, she was a little hesitant. It was hard to be out there all alone when other girls were surrounded by friends or boyfriends. But after a few songs, it was easy to get taken up in the crowd. Her hands swayed in the air and she swished her hips, letting her thoughts and worries slip away.
There were no strange men sneaking into her room. There were no family members trying to get her to lend money she didn’t have or guilt trip her for taking care of herself.
All she heard was the music and the sound of her own breath. Every once in a while, a guy would come up to dance with her. At first, she’d politely decline but after a while, the idea of dancing with men didn’t seem that bad to her.
Ruthless (Fractured Farrells: A Damaged Billionaire Series Book 1) Page 9
