shivered. “I don’t get that.”
“On that, we agree.” A smile tugged on the corner of Carter’s mouth as he took a few steps around her small space.
That cocky walk, the self-assurance. The way he stepped into a room and owned it. He was older now, more attractive in the way age and life experience molded and changed a person. Defined his features. That firm chin. The sexy smile.
The teenaged version of her had suffered from a debilitating crush that made her stammer and stare at her feet during the few times he’d talked to her. The grown-up version of her, the one who had experienced nothing but grief and anguish at the hands of the Jameson family, appreciated the way he looked but was smart enough to be wary. To not get reeled in.
“So, your father’s sole instructions were to find me and give me that.”
“Yes.” He held the envelope out again.
None of this made sense. She’d never said anything. Never tried to see Carter. Ripped up the damn check his father had given her as a payoff, but there’s no way the elder and famously impulsive Mr. Jameson had waited all these months to send Carter to try to pay her off again. Something else was happening here.
A terrible thought floated through her mind, freezing her to the spot by the door. “Is he with you?”
“My father?” Carter shook his head. “He’s not even in the country, as far as I know. He and the new wife live in Tortola. Since I haven’t heard from him in a few weeks, I’m assuming he’s back there.”
She noticed Carter didn’t sound upset about living that many miles apart. The family dysfunction was his business, but she did have a few seconds of silent celebration at the thought of being some distance away from Carter’s father. “Good.”
Carter eyed her, his gaze assessing her, as he leaned against the wall next to the window. “I’m guessing whatever happened between you two was bad.”
“The good news is you’ve done your duty. Daddy asked you to visit me and you did. Mission accomplished.” It was time for Carter to leave. She needed to make plans, figure out where she went from here.
“I still have the envelope, so I’m not convinced we’ve resolved anything.”
“The reality is I’m not related to the man, so I don’t have to do what he wants.”
Carter made a noise that sounded a bit like huh before he started talking. “Any chance you’re going to fill in the blanks and tell me what all of this is about?”
No way would she give up her small advantage by sharing anything she knew. “Hey, stud. You came to see me.”
“I guess shy little Hanna is all grown-up now.”
She reached out and opened the door. “And she’s done with this conversation.”
He pushed off from the wall and took the few steps that put him in front of her. “You know this isn’t over, right?”
Her hand tightened on the doorknob. “Sure feels like it.”
His smile returned as he nodded. “Goodbye for now, Hanna.”
Then he was in the hall and she slammed the door behind him. Her heart hammered in her chest as she tried to drag in enough air to breathe. She gulped and panted as she fell against the door, letting her back slide down when her knees gave out and she fell to the floor in a boneless heap.
“Now what?”
* * *
Carter walked out of the lobby and stepped into the cold upstate New York evening. Winter fell early and heavy here. There was talk of snow in the forecast and he wanted to be long gone before it arrived.
It was a little after five. The sun had set and clouds filled the darkening sky. He zipped his jacket to block some of the biting October wind. He glanced up at Hanna’s window and saw a peek of light behind the drawn curtains blocking his view inside.
She might not want to reminisce with him, but he possessed some vivid memories of her. Shy and pretty. She’d been a teenager on his family’s Virginia estate and had hidden behind her older, more outgoing sister. The Wilde girls. Back then he’d thought of himself and Hanna as friends. It wasn’t until he was older that he’d realized he’d held the sisters at a distance. He’d all but ignored Hanna, treating her as the child of the “help” and nothing more, just as his father insisted.
Carter shook his head, hating the reminder of his past and who he’d once been. The same history he’d run from and gotten dragged back into when his brother called him home, asking for help. Now Carter was the one who needed assistance. At the very least, a little information. He couldn’t do much more without that.
He grabbed his cell phone out of his jacket pocket and called Jackson Richards, the real hub of information at Jameson Industries and one of the few people in the world Carter actually liked and trusted.
“Hey, I need your help.”
“Nothing new there. You still working on your top-secret mission for your dad?”
Carter decided to ignore the question as he listened to Jackson typing in the background. “Ready for the list?”
“Wait, don’t you have an assistant?”
“I don’t actually work at the company. I’m happy staying on the Virginia property, far away from the family business.”
Carter’s preference for the Virginia countryside was a fact his father had once used to drive a wedge between Carter and his brothers. They were the business-minded ones. He was the disappointment. Carter had heard the refrain so often it rang in his ears even now.
He’d come back to the D.C. area expecting to check in on his brothers and help out with their ongoing fight with their dad about governing interest in the business, then go again. When that didn’t happen he’d settled in to the Virginia estate. It was a small act of defiance against his father, who had kicked him out of that same property almost a year ago and told him never to come back.
But now he needed some intel. “No one is as good at this stuff as you are.”
“Flattery won’t work.” Jackson cleared his throat. “For the record, expensive liquor will.”
“Done. As soon as I get back, I’ll come by with a bottle.” Carter moved out of the glare of the streetlight and leaned against the brick wall of Hanna’s apartment building. Cars buzzed by and people moved around him on the sidewalk, likely on their way to the bars and restaurants two blocks over. “I need all the information you can get me on Hanna and Gena Wilde. Sisters. Their dad used to work for our family at our Virginia estate.”
“Do you know what you sound like when you say estate like that?”
“I have an idea.” Carter glanced at his watch and made a quick decision. “You have three hours to gather intel.”
The typing stopped. “What the hell? I do have a real job, you know.”
A fair argument but a strange anxious feeling
