don’t see what we have to discuss. You’re trying to extort money from me for a debt that doesn’t exist. My father was very emphatic about that. I also think it’s in very bad taste for you to swoop in like some type of vulture on the heels of his funeral to make your demands.”
Jared cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. A quick look of surprise covered his features. “Extort? That’s a rather harsh word to apply to an honest debt, one that’s five years past due. If you were five years late in paying a twenty-thousand-dollar debt to anyone else, they would have had you in court by now.”
She fixed him with a hard stare and blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. “If there was a legitimate debt, it would have been paid by now!”
He leveled a pointed look at her. Her blatant attempt at being as difficult as possible did not negate the obvious. Kim Donaldson was definitely a feast for the eyes, from the beautiful face to a body that would set any man’s pulse racing—including his. His gaze wandered to the soft fabric of her T-shirt and the way it caressed the curve of her breasts, to her sleek tanned legs extending from her shorts and the russet polish on her toenails. He pegged her height at about five feet seven, a good match to his six-one. Her stubborn determination and the fiery glints of anger sparkling in her blue eyes did not dissuade him from entertaining the numerous erotic thoughts that had been circulating through his mind from the moment she’d opened the door. He forced his thoughts to the business at hand.
“I don’t know where you got the impression that the debt isn’t legitimate. Your father signed a promissory note with Stevens Enterprises for twenty thousand dollars, payable in full two years from the date of signing. In exchange for the promise to pay, your father received exclusive use of one of our warehouses for that two-year period of time. Having a promissory note rather than a lease agreement was your father’s idea, an unusual request, which my father extended himself to accommodate. Shortly before the two years was up, my father died. Collection of the money due ended up in a state of limbo while the company changed from my father’s hands to mine.”
He placed his attaché case on the coffee table, then withdrew a file folder. “After taking over the company I was busy with several other matters, including restructuring part of the organization and developing new business areas. Three years passed before the now severely overdue note was brought to my attention. For the past two years my corporate attorney and your father had been going around and around about the principal amount due plus all the accrued interest.”
Kim folded her arms defiantly across her chest in an attempt to put up a staunch front, but listening to Jared’s description of the business transaction left her feeling a little uneasy and a lot uncertain. “My father’s account of the events differs quite a bit from your fanciful version.”
“My version is fact, and I have the appropriate documentation to back up my claim.” Once again he flashed a devilishly disarming smile. “If you have any proof of your father’s side of this, I’ll be happy to take it into consideration.”
Her anxiety level jumped up a notch or two. Jared was too self-assured, too smooth. She had never seen any paperwork relating to the matter. She only had her father’s assertions. A shudder of apprehension swept through her consciousness. What if her father really did owe Stevens Enterprises twenty thousand dollars plus all the accumulated interest? She would never be able to pay that off. There hadn’t been much money in her father’s estate, and most of that went to pay for his funeral. As for his other assets, she would need to convert them to cash to pay what she considered his legitimate debts. Her savings amounted to only a little over two thousand dollars.
She gathered her determination. He was just trying to bluff her, to make her believe he had some kind of tangible proof. She was not going to fall for his line. It was the way the high and mighty Stevens family had been treating her family for three generations.
“If you have this proof, then I want to see it now.”
“Of course.” His manner was almost condescending as he smiled at her again, a smile that spoke volumes—a smile that said he had not been bluffing.
Jared opened the file folder and handed her copies of a signed contract and a signed, notarized promissory note for twenty thousand dollars. She fought to keep her hand from shaking as she stared at her father’s signature. She carefully read both documents. It all looked legal and binding. A sinking feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. All her bravado crashed as the cold chill of reality sank in.
“I, uh, I want Gary Parker to look over these documents.”
“Is that your attorney?”
“Yes.”
“No problem.” Jared stood, picked up his attaché case and walked to the front door. “I’ll contact you in a couple of days to finalize the arrangements for the payment of the debt.”
Kim watched from the window as Jared returned to his car and drove away. It had been a very unsettling meeting, caused as much by the way he made her senses tingle as by the stressful outcome of their conversation. Why had her father insisted the debt didn’t exist when he had obviously signed a contract and a promissory note? She knew he couldn’t have already paid out the twenty thousand dollars to settle the debt. As executrix of his estate, she had been over his finances.
A hint of despair settled inside her as her gaze drifted around the living room of the old house, the house where she had grown up, the house where she had lived until seven years ago—the house where just yesterday mourners had gathered following her father’s funeral. Her father’s sudden death at the age of fifty-five from a massive coronary had come as a shock to her. She had always thought of him as being in good health. He had never mentioned anything about heart problems, but her conversation with his doctor before the funeral told a different story. Her father had known of his heart condition but had chosen not to follow his doctor’s orders.
She looked around the room again. It seemed like such a long time since she had moved from Otter Crest to accept her first job as an English teacher at a high school in San Francisco. In reality it had been only seven years, but it had been a very eventful seven years.
She had firmly established her career and earned the respect of her peers for her hard work and dedication to her teaching. She had twice been voted the most popular teacher by the student body of the school. The only downside had been her ill-fated engagement to Al Denton, a man whose idea of commitment to a relationship turned out to be that she was the one with the commitment and he was the one who could continue to date others.
Several months prior to the wedding, he’d changed. He had become overbearing, demanding, argumentative and controlling to the point where he made her life miserable. Whatever love she had felt for him quickly disappeared. She had broken the engagement, put the unfortunate experience behind her and gotten on with her life.
And now the past, in the form of Jared Stevens, had intruded into that neatly organized and smooth-running life.
She wandered into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of iced tea. How in the world could she ever pay off the debt, assuming it was legitimate? She didn’t even know the exact amount. All those years worth of interest on twenty thousand dollars would make the debt even more insurmountable.
She returned to the living room and sank onto the corner of the couch. She took a sip of her iced tea, then set the glass on the end table. Her stress level had already been up due to her father’s death, and now Jared Stevens had pushed it even higher. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. A vivid image of Jared popped onto the screen of her mind—his handsome features, the sexy grin and the
