She was right, he thought, and felt a twinge in his heart he hadn’t expected.
And as he continued to study the kids, he realized there was a stark difference between those four children, mesmerized by the flashing colors and dancing bears—and the two free spirits now trying to color Andy’s khaki slacks.
He stayed through the whole half hour and when he left, he found Dave. “Tell Andy the company’s buying his coffee for a month. He earned it.”
Laughing, Dave went back to work, and Luke stepped into the afternoon sunlight. His mind was racing, bouncing from one thought to the next as he began to rethink his own opinions on kids and tech.
Maybe it was time to go see Pop.
* * *
Jamison felt better than he had in weeks.
Except for the fury.
“Loretta,” he snapped, “someone at the company’s been trying to gaslight me and doing a damn fine job of it.”
It infuriated him that he’d bought into the whole thing. He should have had more confidence in his own damn mind. But whoever was behind this had counted on him reacting just as he had. As you got older, there was no greater fear than losing your marbles. Forget anything and the word Alzheimer’s sailed into your brain along with the terror that word invoked.
“There has to be another explanation,” his wife said from her chair in his study.
“Like what?” He tossed both hands up and shook his head fiercely. “Some stupid practical joke that nobody laughed at? What other possible explanation is there except that someone wanted me to think I was losing my mind?”
Since taking that SLUMS test at the doctor’s office, Jamison knew his mind was as sharp as ever. Bill hadn’t even bothered with other tests once he’d seen the results. The doctor had sent him home with a clean bill of health, thank God. But now he was forced to get to the bottom of a mystery.
Idly, he jingled the change in his pants pockets until the sound began to rattle him. He stopped, stared into space and tried to get a grip on the anger surging through him. Even Loretta’s calming nature couldn’t quell it. Not this time.
“Jamie,” she asked, “who would do it?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, shooting a glance at his wife. The not knowing was gnawing a hole in his gut. At this rate, he’d have his mind but would soon gain an ulcer.
Outside, the winter sky was as dark as Jamison’s thoughts. He’d been betrayed. By someone he trusted. And that was a hard thing to accept.
“By God, most of our employees have been with us more than twenty years,” he murmured. “Why suddenly would any one of them turn on me like this?”
Loretta folded her arms across her chest and hugged herself tightly. Shaking her head, she said, “It can’t be someone we know.”
“It has to be,” Jamison countered. He knew what she was feeling, because he was feeling the same thing. Neither of them wanted to believe that someone they’d known and trusted for years would do something like this. But it was the only answer. “Who else would know how to forge my signature? Or do any of the other things that were done to me? It’s someone close to me.”
He paused. “Donna?”
“Oh, please.” Insulted for the woman who had been their friend for decades, Loretta said hotly, “You might as well suggest it’s Cole as Donna. I’ll never believe she is capable of this.”
“But we can say that about everyone at the company.” He scrubbed one hand across the back of his neck. “Tim in marketing? Sharon in accounting? Phillip in purchasing? I’ll tell you the truth, Loretta. This is a damn nightmare.”
Loretta stood up, walked to her husband and wrapped her arms around him for a quick hug. “We’ll find out what’s going on.”
He patted her back. “It won’t change anything, but damn right we will. Someone in my own damn company was trying to sabotage me. Get me thinking I was senile or something. I need to know who.” He thought about it for a minute. “I can’t come right out and ask anybody, because they’d all deny it. So, we’ll have to be sneaky about it.”
“I hate this,” Loretta murmured, stepping back from him to stare into his eyes.
“So do I,” Jamison admitted. “But it has to be done, and there is one person who might be able to get to the bottom of this. Fiona Jordan.”
“Who’s that?” Loretta asked.
“How do you know Fiona?” Luke demanded.
* * *
Luke stared at his grandfather and, to his credit, the old man didn’t look away. But he knew his grandfather well enough to see the shock and shame glittering in his eyes. As if it were a living, breathing entity in the room, Luke sensed guilt hovering right behind his grandfather as if trying to go unnoticed.
“Luke, sweetheart, it’s so good to see you!” Loretta smiled and gave him a hug.
“Hello, Gran.” He held on to her for a moment, then let her go and fired another hard look at the man who’d raised him.
Jamison Barrett was a law unto himself. He did what he thought was right and didn’t care what anyone had to say about it. But Luke knew him too well to be thrown by the bravado in the old man’s eyes. There was something here, and he wasn’t leaving until he found out what it was.
“Good to see you, boy.”
“Uh-huh. How do you know Fiona Jordan, Pop?” Luke kept his gaze fixed on the older man’s. He saw the flash of unease in Jamison’s eyes and knew that whatever was coming, he wasn’t going to like it. In his own head, Luke was putting things together quickly and he didn’t like what he was finding.
Meeting a gorgeous woman at a tech conference in San Francisco when she had no real reason to be at that hotel? She’d said she was there on business, but what were the odds of someone in Northern California hiring a woman from Long Beach to do anything?
He smelled a setup.
Betrayal snarled inside him. Were Fiona and Pop conspiring together against him? God, he was an idiot. Fiona had been lying to him all this time. What the hell else had she lied about?
“Well,” Jamison said, and jingled the change in his pocket.
Luke frowned. The jingling was a nervous habit when Jamison was trying to think or when he was uneasy.
“Fiona did some business for Donna not too long ago. Found her sister’s long-lost daughter.”
“It’s true,” Loretta said, laying one hand on her heart. “It was lovely to see Donna’s sister Linda so happy after all those years.”
Fiona had told him about that job. She hadn’t mentioned that she’d done it for his grandfather’s secretary’s sister. All the time they’d talked about Jamison and she’d never once mentioned that she had a connection through Donna?
Coincidence? Luke didn’t think so.
“Right. So, you didn’t hire her?” Luke asked.
The change jingling got louder. Jamison rocked on his heels and did everything he could to avoid eye contact.
“You did, didn’t you?” Luke pushed one hand through his hair in frustration. “You hired her. You sent her to San Francisco to ambush me.”
His grandfather rubbed his jaw.
“My God, Pop. What the hell won’t you do to get your way?”
“Jamie?” Loretta asked warily, “Is he right? Did you do something you should be ashamed of?”
Jamison looked from one to the other of them and even through the anger spiking inside him, Luke could see the old man trying to find a way out of this.
Luke wasn’t going to let him. “Damn it, Pop, just admit that you did it. You hired Fiona to seduce me into coming back to the company.”
“What?” He looked genuinely shocked at the accusation. “I did not. I hired her to get you to come back, yes. If you were seduced, that’s on you.”
“Jamie, how could you?” Loretta gave her husband a smack on the arm.
“What else could I do?” he argued. Poin
ting at Luke, he continued, “The boy wouldn’t listen to me. I was afraid he’d never come back, and I needed him.”
“You’re unbelievable.” Luke could hardly talk. He was furious. He’d been used by his family, lied to by his lover. His stomach was in knots, and his heart was hammering in his chest.
What the hell was going on here?
“You left me no choice.”
“The choice was to butt the hell out.”
Jamison waved that away. “That wasn’t going to happen.”
“Of course not.” Through the rage, the sense of betrayal, Luke could admit that he should have seen this coming. His grandfather would always do whatever he had to do to get his way. He’d been doing it his whole life. Hell, he’d taught Cole and Luke both to go after what they wanted and never take no for an answer.
It had never occurred to Luke, though, that meeting Fiona was anything other than a happy accident. Had she planned to fall into his lap? Was the sex all about the job? Did she sleep with all of her clients or targets?
Damn it, he’d fallen for her whole act. That laugh of hers. Her eyes. Her kiss. He’d listened to her. Respected her opinion, and it was all a lie. Hell, for all he knew, she loved the idea of tech for kids, and everything she’d said to him about it had been scripted by his grandfather. He’d actually been tempted to build something with Fiona. In spite of not wanting a relationship, he’d been leaning toward breaking that personal rule. And this is what it got him.
“This is low, Pop,” he ground out, gaze pinning the older man. “Even for you.”
Jamison didn’t like that and scowled to prove it. “If you’d just listened to me.”
“Jamie, you never should have done this,” Loretta snapped, glaring at the man she loved. “Apologize this instant.”
“Damned if I will. I did what needed doing.” Jamison shot a hard look at his grandson. “I’m eighty years old, boy. You think I’m going to live forever? If you don’t come back, the family company will go under.”
“Oh no,” Luke told him. “You don’t get to lay this on me. Cole is more than ready to take it over.”
“We both know Cole couldn’t do the job. It’s you I needed, and you damn well knew it when you walked out.” Jamison was just as mad as Luke. and the two of them stood there glaring at each other.
“I left to prove something to myself. And to you,” Luke snapped. “I didn’t do it to ruin your plans—”
“Well you did anyway.”
“Jamie!”
“They were your plans,” Luke argued. “Not mine.”
“And that’s what this is about? A tantrum? You don’t like taking orders, so you just run off?”
“Jamie, stop,” Loretta ordered.
“I didn’t run. I left. You know the irony is,” Luke countered, gritting his teeth and narrowing his gaze on the man he admired more than anyone else in his life, “I was actually coming here today to say maybe you were right. Maybe we should work together at the family company. Find a compromise.”
Jamison’s eyes lit up.
“Then I find out you set me up.”
“Oh hell,” Jamison argued, “that doesn’t change what you’ve come to believe, does it? True is true no matter how you come to it.”
Loretta sighed. “Jamie, I’m so disappointed in you. You can’t run our boys’ lives no matter how much you want to. What were you thinking?”
He turned on his beloved wife then. “I was thinking that I heard my wife crying in the shower when she thought I couldn’t hear her over the water running.”
Luke snorted. “Gran doesn’t cry.” Then he looked at her and saw the truth on her face. “You cried?”
Frowning at Jamison, she stabbed her index finger at him. “You shouldn’t have said anything. That was private. And stop listening at the bathroom door, it’s rude.”
He went to her, rubbed his hands up and down her arms and said, “I was worried about you, is all. And I knew I had to get him—” he jerked a thumb at Luke “—back for both our sakes.”
Luke shoved his hands through his hair. He was angry and regretful and furious and guilty and realizing that maybe he’d had a huge hand in all of this happening. He hated thinking that Gran had been brought to tears over what he’d done. He owed her better than that. And Pop had only done what he’d always done. Rush in to handle a situation the best way he knew how.
That might excuse his grandfather, but it sure as hell didn’t excuse Fiona. She’d lied to him. He felt like a damn fool. Every minute of time he had spent with her had been bought and paid for by his grandfather.
She had come to mean a lot to him. Now he had to face the fact that all of that was a lie as well. Where that left him, he didn’t know.
Shaking his head, Luke promised himself to take this up with her later. He would have the truth. Finally. From everyone. For now, there was his grandfather to deal with.
Taking a deep breath, Luke shoved his hands into his pants pockets and stared at the old man watching him warily. “Leaving all the rest of it alone, what are you hiring Fiona for now?”
Jamison eyed him. “Does this mean you’re back?”
“God, you’re a hardhead.” Luke threw both hands in the air. “Even when I find out what you’ve been doing all you’re interested in is, am I coming back?”
“Well, why wouldn’t I want to know? That’s what it’s all been for. So, are you?”
Blowing out a breath, Luke said only, “It means I’m here now, and I haven’t left even though I’m so mad at you I can’t see straight.”
Clearly insulted, Jamison muttered, “Well, that seems an exaggeration.”
“Jamie!” Gran slapped one hand to her own forehead in clear exasperation and, suddenly, Luke felt all kinds of respect for the woman who could put up with Jamison Barrett for nearly sixty years.
Scowling, Jamison admitted, “Fine. We’ll leave it for now. As to your question, I need Fiona to find out who’s been trying to drive me out of my mind.” He was jingling again.
“What are you talking about, Pop?”
Jamison started talking then, words rushing together, and with every word his grandfather said, Luke’s anger became cold as ice. Who the hell would torture an old man like that? Make him doubt himself?
Too many lies, he told himself. Too many people who couldn’t be trusted. He’d find who had been trying to destroy Pop. He’d even use Fiona to get it done.
But first, he was going to have a talk with the woman who’d been lying to him from the moment they met.
* * *
Fiona finished typing up three résumés for new clients, then baked a pan of brownies for a neighbor’s birthday party and ended the day by returning a lost dog to its very happy owner. Of course, she still had to design baby announcements and one save-the-date card for two other clients, but those jobs would be fun.
She loved the creativity of what she did and, mostly, she loved being busy. Because at the moment, keeping her mind occupied meant she didn’t have time to worry about what would happen when she talked to Luke.
Fiona had tried to make plans for exactly how to tell him the truth. No matter what she came up with though, it didn’t sound right. Over a drink? During dinner? After sex? She wouldn’t want to tell him before sex, or it might not happen again.
The sad truth was, she didn’t want to tell Luke at all. In her fantasies, her lies were buried, Luke loved her, and they lived happily ever after. But fantasy rarely had anything at all to do with reality. So, she was left with her only choice.
Confessing all and watching him walk away.
When she pulled into the driveway that afternoon, it seemed almost cosmic, then, to find Luke sitting on her front porch, waiting for her. Her stomach jumped and her heart gave a hard leap in her chest.
He wore one of his amazing suits, with the top collar
button of his shirt undone and his dark green tie hanging loose. He had one arm resting on his upraised knee and as she approached, he narrowed his gaze on her until she felt as if she were under a microscope.
“Luke? I wasn’t expecting to see you tonight.”
“Yeah. Thought I should come by and tell you that I talked to my grandfather today.”
Her heartbeat skittered into a frantic beat. She swallowed hard and forced a smile. “That’s wonderful. Did you work everything out?”
“Not nearly.” He stood up and loomed over her, forcing Fiona to tip her head back to meet his gaze. “But you’ll be happy to know that Pop is planning on hiring you again since you did such a great job with me.”
Did the earth open up under her feet? Is that why she felt that sinking sensation? Staring into his eyes, she wanted to look away, but didn’t. She saw the accusation, the anger, there and knew this talk was going to be every bit as bad as she’d feared it would.
“Oh God. Luke... I wanted to tell you—”
“But you just couldn’t find the time?” Sarcasm and a hard expression.
Fiona shook her head, dug in her purse for her keys and said, “Just let me open the door. Come inside. I’ll explain everything.”
She squeezed past him and he didn’t budge an inch.
“Can’t wait to hear it.”
She felt him behind her. Judgment and anger were rolling off him in thick waves, and she couldn’t even blame him. Her hands shook so badly she couldn’t get the stupid key into the stupid lock. But maybe part of that was psychological. She knew that the minute they were inside, the argument would start, and the end of her relationship with him would arrive.
“Let me do it.” Luke reached around her for the key. She gave it to him; he slid it home and opened the door. He was right behind her as she stepped into her house.
Fiona dropped her purse onto the closest chair, braced herself and turned to face him. “I know you’re angry...”
“Oh,” he assured her, “angry doesn’t even come close to describing what I am right now.”
Jet Set Confessions (HQR Desire) Page 13
