by Lisa Childs
Grant snorted. “That’s my name. What’s yours?”
From the way the guy’s big body tensed, Teo suspected he already knew. “Matteo Rinaldi.”
Grant nodded, grimly, in acknowledgment. He had definitely recognized his voice as well. “Why are you here?” he asked, his voice even deeper with something that sounded like dread.
“You haven’t returned my calls.”
Grant shrugged. “No reason to. You want something I can’t give you.”
“Bill no longer works for you?”
“Bill never really worked here,” Grant replied dismissively.
Of Teo? Or of Bill?
“What are you saying?” he asked. “Bill was the best pilot I’ve ever had, and I’ve flown a hell of a lot.”
Grant sighed. “That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“All I need is to find out where the guy’s working now,” Teo said. Then he would hire him away to fly his private plane.
But Grant Snyder shook his head. “I can’t.”
“You will,” Teo insisted. He was damn well going to get what he wanted this time. He wasn’t going to be denied what he needed to know—like he was denied every damn time he called Liaisons International and asked for more information about Savannah. He pulled his wallet from the inside pocket of his jacket. “How much?”
Grant had the audacity to chuckle at him. “You’re like that, huh? You think everyone has a price.”
“Not everyone,” Teo said. Not Savannah...
She had him so hooked right now she could ask him for anything, and he would willingly give it to her. But he suspected what she wanted most was her freedom.
“But most people do have a price,” he insisted. Even his own mother and sister.
Using that dismissive tone again, Grant replied, “Not me.”
Teo arched a brow. “Really? You’ve not been in business very long.” Despite the recommendation from, of all people, Miranda Fox, he had checked out the charter company before he’d called them the first time. “You must be struggling.”
Grant snorted again and shook his head. “Business is thriving, man. We’ve been buying more planes and hiring more pilots.”
“To replace the ones you’ve lost.”
“Haven’t lost a thing.”
“Bill isn’t working here anymore,” Teo reminded him.
“Bill...” The big man trailed off with a sigh. “Bill isn’t a loss.”
Teo glanced around the office. “Is there anyone else here?” he asked. “Your sister?” She was a pilot; she had to know how damn good Bill was...unlike this Neanderthal who kept insulting him.
The blond man jumped up from his chair so fast that it toppled over behind him. “My sister doesn’t have a price, either. You just need to get the hell out of here.”
“Your sister might listen to reason,” Teo said. “Where you don’t seem capable...”
“You need to get the hell out of here!” Snyder shouted again. But it was almost as if he was looking at someone else, someone over Teo’s shoulder.
He turned and noticed a shadow in the hallway. Someone had been standing behind him. And he suspected that was to whom Grant Snyder had been speaking. More than curiosity compelled him to rush back into the hall—to see if he could catch the person Grant wanted the hell out of there.
Why?
What the hell was going on at Private Flights?
Once in the hall, he didn’t know which way to turn. Had the person headed to the front door that Teo had entered or out the back where the planes were probably stored? Before he could decide on a direction, Grant joined him in the hall. After glancing around him, his broad shoulders sagged a bit as tension left his body.
“Who was it?” Teo asked. “Who were you talking to?”
“You,” Grant replied.
“No.” Teo shook his head. “Someone else was here. Who was it? Who were you telling to get the hell out of here and why?”
Grant shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But it was obvious to Teo that the man was lying, and he hated being played for a fool. Hated it so much that he felt like swinging at the guy...
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
WHAT THE HELL was Teo doing at the office? Had he found her—Savannah? Or had he just been arriving for a flight?
If he’d booked one, though, she would have known; Grant would have told her, especially given the meltdown she’d had over Teo. That must have been why her brother had shouted at her to get the hell out of there. Unless he’d been shouting at Teo?
Their conversation had sounded intense. Maybe Teo had figured out who she really was.
With Grant yelling and Teo heading into the hall, she’d been so overwhelmed that she’d dashed out to her car. But once she got into her Mini Cooper, she didn’t drive very far from the office. A short distance away from the hangar, she pulled off the road and pulled her cell phone from her purse. Then, trembling slightly, she punched in a contact.
“Liaisons International,” a melodic voice answered.
“Hello, Tabitha?” she replied with surprise. “I thought you were doing a play in New York right now. Are the calls being transferred to you?” Miranda had told her that her sisters had gone into the business with her, but it seemed like Miranda was the only one working. Which was the same way it had seemed when they were all younger.
“No, I transferred here,” Tabitha replied. “I got fired.”
Blair smiled. Even as a little girl, Tabitha had always been very blunt and honest, which was probably the reason she’d been fired. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It was for the best,” Tabitha replied with her usual optimism. “I probably would have gone to jail for killing the director if he hadn’t fired me first. He was even more of a control freak than Miranda is.”
“Speaking of Miranda, is she available?”
“Of course she is,” Tabitha replied. “She has this crazy rule that we can’t use the service ourselves, so she doesn’t ever meet anyone. A single matchmaker—Mother would turn over in her grave.”
“Your mother is alive,” Blair reminded her.
She sighed. “Not to us. Or I should say, we’re not alive to her. She disowned us all for never getting married.”
Blair laughed.
“No, I’m serious,” Tabitha said. “It’s an embarrassment to her. She only sold us the business because she thought we’d use it to find husbands like she did.”
“Is she married now?”
“Yeah, and happily for once,” Tabitha said. “I think that’s why she’s so pissed at us for not getting hitched. That and she loves weddings.”
“Then it’s a good thing she had so many herself,” Blair said.
“That’s what Miranda said.”
“I’d like to talk to Miranda,” Blair tried again. “If she isn’t busy...”
“She’s just working, as usual,” Tabitha replied. “Now if she was smart, she’d date that Italian billionaire that keeps calling for her.”
A pang struck Blair’s heart.
“Although he seems kind of hung up on some woman named Savannah.” Tabitha chuckled. “I bet I could make him forget all about her, if Miranda would let me.”
Teo would appreciate Tabitha’s honesty, especially after dealing with Savannah’s secrecy.
“Try to talk her into it for me,” the younger woman urged. “I’ll get her for you.”
After a series of clicks, Miranda picked up with a harried-sounding hello.
“Are you okay?” Blair asked.
“Yeah, yeah, just love having my youngest sister working here,” she replied with heavy sarcasm.
“At least she’s working.” Which, being an actress and not a very good one, was something Tabitha rarely did.
Mirand
a sighed. “Yeah, so am I. What can I help you with? Do you want me to give Teo a message for you?”
“I can do it myself,” she said. “He just showed up at the office. Did you tell him where to find me?” That was what she’d wanted to know—if he’d come there just for a flight or for Savannah.
“Hell, no,” she said.
“Then what’s he doing there?” She was asking the questions rhetorically since she didn’t expect Miranda to actually know the answer.
But her friend replied anyway. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s looking to book a private plane. I think I might have mentioned your company to him during his initial interview because he’d said something about having to fire his pilot.”
That made sense then that he’d called them when he had.
“But that was before I even thought about introducing the two of you,” Miranda continued. “It might have been what made me think of you, though, and that the two of you would work well together.”
Tears stung Blair’s eyes again. They had worked well together—in every way, but most especially in the bedroom or the back of a limo...
“Guess I was wrong about that, though,” Miranda continued. “Since you won’t return his calls.”
“I screwed up,” Blair admitted.
“I know,” Miranda agreed. “He’s a great guy. Tabitha keeps nagging for me to bend the rules and let her date him.”
Panic struck her heart over the thought of him being with anyone else. “Would you do that?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Miranda said. “He canceled his membership.”
So she’d already cost her friend a client. “I think he’s canceling his flights with us right now, too.”
“He booked some?”
“I’ve been flying him,” Blair admitted.
“You have?” Miranda asked with surprise that she followed with a snort. “Then of course he knows that’s where you work.”
“He doesn’t realize that I’ve been the pilot flying him,” she explained. “I used the costume that Tabitha helped me with last Halloween, the one when I dressed up to look like Grant.”
“You didn’t look anything like Grant,” Miranda told her.
“Maybe not,” Blair agreed. Even with the padding, she hadn’t looked as broad as her brother. “But at least I didn’t look enough like me for Teo to figure it out.”
“Or so you thought,” Miranda said. “He’s a smart guy. He wouldn’t have already made billions at his age if he wasn’t. He’s an incredible guy.”
Blair groaned and squeezed her eyes shut to hold in those threatening tears. “You don’t have to tell me. I know it. And I know I blew it.”
“What the hell were you thinking?” Miranda wondered aloud.
“I wasn’t...” That was the problem. Her attraction to Teo had scared her so much that she’d lost her senses for a while. “I’m really sorry.”
“I’m not the one you need to say that to,” Miranda said.
“But I cost you a client.” She sighed. “I cost myself one, too.”
“Teo is more than a client to you,” Miranda said. “And you are more than a client to me. If my business is successful, then I’m going to lose some clients to monogamy. Or worse yet, marriage.” She expelled a shaky-sounding sigh. “So don’t worry about me. The business is actually doing pretty well. Or it was before Tabitha got fired and came to our Monaco office to work as the receptionist.”
“You don’t think she told Teo where to find me, do you?” It had always been easy for anyone to get information out of Tabitha; she was the reason Blair and Miranda had gotten caught so many times in their old escapades.
“Neither of my sisters knows who Savannah is,” Miranda assured her. “They only know you as Blair, or I would have had to kill them per the deal you made me make with you when you first told me.”
Blair was afraid that Teo knew now, though. But maybe he had just come in looking for a flight or for the pilot he kept requesting.
Her...
No. Bill. He hadn’t wanted a female pilot. She had to remind herself of the reason she’d donned that disguise in the first place. The discrimination she’d felt—again—and from the man she’d just slept with...
That was why she’d gone a little crazy and, as Grant had accused, had probably overreacted. She’d been so unsettled from spending that evening with Teo, from connecting with him so easily and on so many levels. And then he’d turned out to be like every other man she’d dated.
“I think it’s past time that Teo learn the truth, though,” Miranda prodded her.
She sighed in resignation. “It is.”
“Good luck,” Miranda told her before disconnecting the call.
She was going to need it. He’d probably left the office already, so she would return to it first—to check in with Grant and find out what Teo knew. Then she would track him down, and this time, she wouldn’t chicken out of telling him the truth.
Within minutes she pulled into a parking spot in the lot next to Grant’s truck. Since it was after office hours already, he must have stuck around in case she came back. She owed him a big thank-you for warning her earlier. But he offered no such warning now as she walked back into the office and found he wasn’t alone.
Teo had stayed, and he sat at the break table with Grant, cards in hand. Grant sat across from him, studying his own cards. A bottle of whiskey and two nearly empty glasses sat on the table as well as some wadded-up cash.
She wasn’t the only one who needed luck. If Teo was playing for money with her brother, he needed it even more than she did. Her brother, a professional gambler, was a renowned card sharp and maybe an even more renowned drinker. He could hold his alcohol even better than she could.
Since Teo was still there, Grant must have been yelling at her earlier to leave. Or the two men might have settled their differences another way—since both their clothes and hair was rumpled, as if they’d been in a struggle.
Fighting was another thing nobody should do with Grant. Worried that Teo might be hurt, a gasp of concern slipped out of her lips.
Grant glanced up and noticed her and cursed.
Teo turned around then. His jaw fell open, but no words escaped his mouth. Grant must not have told him about her—because Teo looked absolutely shocked and devastated.
Knowing that it was her fault that he was hurt, she gasped again—as pain stabbed her heart. She regretted almost everything she’d done...except for falling for him.
* * *
How the hell much had Teo had to drink? Enough that he was hallucinating? Or was it really Savannah standing in the doorway to the hall, dressed in the Private Flights pilot uniform?
Pilot...
“What the hell?” he murmured.
“I told you to get the hell out of here,” Grant said.
And this time Teo had no doubt that he was talking to the woman who stood in the hallway. He knew now why the man had looked familiar when he’d first seen him. While he looked like Bill, the pilot, he also looked like Savannah. Or whatever her real name was...
“Blair Snyder,” he murmured. She had to be Grant’s sister. Was she also the pilot? “And Bill?” He narrowed his eyes and studied her, but he couldn’t imagine ever mistaking her for a man. Not with that sexy figure...that beautiful face...
But the figure could have been padded. The face covered with that thick reddish beard.
“What the hell sick game have you been playing with me?” he asked. Like Grant had earlier, he surged to his feet with such force that he knocked over his chair. Before he could advance on the woman, a big hand grabbed his shoulder.
“Take it easy,” Grant advised him.
Teo whirled toward the man he’d briefly considered a new friend. But he had suspected Grant of lying to him, of playing him, and had considered swinging at him before Gran
t had shoved him against the wall and suggested drinking instead. “You’re in on this? What the hell kind of family are you?”
“A close one,” Grant said, his voice gruff with warning. “I will defend and protect my sister no matter what.”
“No matter what,” Teo repeated. “You don’t agree with what she’s done then.”
“Don’t blame it all on her,” Grant said. “Blame Miranda Fox. That woman has always been trouble.”
“This isn’t Miranda’s fault.” Blair jumped in to defend her friend. “And it isn’t Grant’s, either. He didn’t know.”
Teo could only shake his head. “So I wasn’t the only one you were lying to, playing games with? Why? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Hey,” Grant said, his hand tightening on Teo’s shoulder. “Don’t—”
“Don’t defend me,” Blair told her brother. “This isn’t your fight. Go home.”
But Grant didn’t release his shoulder. “You two shouldn’t be alone right now,” he said. “This has been a shock. And he’s been drinking.”
Teo wouldn’t hurt her. But he was so damn hurt himself...
Then Blair chuckled, as if amused at the thought of his being able to hurt her. Had she cared so little for him?
“I can take care of myself,” she told her brother. “You don’t have to defend me anymore. Go.”
Grant hesitated yet.
“Please,” Blair implored him.
And finally the man released his shoulder and stepped around him. He paused in the doorway and turned back. “You better not hurt her,” he warned Teo. “Or I will track you down and hurt you far worse.”
Teo nearly laughed. He was already hurting. His heart was aching as well. That was crazy, though. How could he have cared that much about someone who hadn’t really existed?
“Grant, stop being a Neanderthal,” she told her brother. “And leave us alone.”
With a heavy-sounding sigh, the big man finally turned and walked out.
Teo waited until he heard a door open and swing shut before he spoke. “I don’t know if that was a good idea,” he admitted. “I’m not sure that you should be alone with me right now.”
