by Zara Chase
“I’m liking this assignment already,” Marty said with enthusiasm.
“I’m the one who spotted Athena on the box,” Dex reminded them. “Does that mean I get the first shot at her?”
“You’re certainly welcome to try,” Bay said, chuckling.
“Thanks for the permission.” Marty grinned at their senior colleague. “Watch and learn, buddy, watch and learn.”
Still chuckling, Bay bent to retrieve the scattered contents of a drawer. As he methodically replaced them, he wondered why he’d taken such an immediate interest in Athena. He’d felt sympathy for her, but his recent conversation with his partners was engendered by more than images of a mercy fuck. There was something about her that attracted him on a level he was unable to control. She was sassy, had a smart mouth, and was as sexy as hell. But Bay and the others were constantly flocked by women far more attractive and sophisticated than she was. It was one of the reasons they avoided hotels, where women seemed to declare open season on them. Even so, romance definitely wasn’t on his agenda, was it?
The other two helped Bay clear up the mess, chatting amongst themselves about Athena’s likely availability. By the time she returned to the room, it was vastly improved.
“You don’t need to do that,” she said.
“No problem,” Bay responded easily. “What news?”
She bit her lower lip. “His head wound has been stitched, but it seems he’s got a concussion and is quite confused. They’re keeping him in overnight at least. He’s sedated, and they’ve said there’s no point in me going in because he won’t know I’m there.”
Bay could see that she was struggling not to cry. “He’s in the best place,” he said softly.
“No, Mr. Marshall, he isn’t,” she said, rounding on him, her lovely eyes alight with hostility. “This is the best place for him. This is where he belongs, but thanks to whoever you set on him, he’s not well enough to come home.”
She sank into a seat, rested her arms on the scrubbed pine table, dropped her head onto them, and proceeded to sob her heart out.
Chapter Four
Bay shared a bemused glance with his buddies. This was the last reaction he’d expected. Anger, wild accusations, flying fists even, he could have dealt with. Athena was clearly closer to the edge than he’d realized.
“See if you can find some liquor,” he said to Dex.
“Right.”
“I’ll give him a hand,” Marty said, following him from the room, like he understood they were probably crowding Athena in her own home.
“Hey.” Bay sat beside her and slipped an arm across her shoulders. He was encouraged when she didn’t immediately shake it off. “Don’t let it get to you. It’ll be okay.”
“Easy for you to say.” She raised a tear-stained face in his direction. “It isn’t your life’s work that’s going down the can.”
“Just let it all out,” he said softly, speaking into the top of her head, breathing in the fragrance of herbal shampoo that had left her hair shining with health. “It’ll make you feel better.”
“I never cry,” she said, sniffing. “Never.”
“Everyone cries sometimes.”
“Not me,” she said, eyes still streaming. “It’s all so bloody unfair. Gramps doesn’t deserve this.”
Bay noticed that she didn’t complain for herself, which told him a lot about her priorities. He wasn’t sure how to answer her, didn’t think she expected him to. Instead he dropped his arm from her shoulders and stroked her back with slow, seductive sweeps of his hand, intended to reassure. She obviously disliked and mistrusted him. Given recent events, he couldn’t entirely blame her. He figured that touching her would bring her fighting spirit back to the fore. Instead her head fell against his shoulder, and she sobbed fit to break her heart, soaking his T-shirt with her tears.
He weathered the storm in silence, continuing to stroke her back, ignoring the raging hard-on that contact with her engendered. Now was definitely not the time. Finally she lifted her head and offered him a watery smile.
“Sorry,” she said.
“No apology necessary.” He returned her smile. “Feel better?”
“Not really.” She glanced around the now-tidy kitchen. “Nothing’s changed, has it? Gramps is still in the hospital, and the bank is still withdrawing their support.” She shifted her chair so that she was no longer so close to him. Bay already missed the feel of her body pressed against his side. Damn it, she was getting right under his skin without even trying. “It’s hopeless.”
Dex and Marty returned. “Can’t find any.”
“Any what?” Athena asked.
“Booze.”
“You want a drink?” she asked, like she couldn’t believe their nerve.
“No, but we thought you might.”
“I don’t need alcohol to get through.” She shrugged. “Just as well because we can’t afford any.”
“Look,” Bay said. “I know you think we’re the bad guys, but we’re really not. We own several country clubs in the States and decided to start one or two on this side of the pond.”
“Why?” she asked scathingly. “Isn’t America big enough for the three of you?”
“Sure it is, but Marty’s half English. He came over to visit his mom recently and has been going on ever since about the opportunities on this side of the pond.” Bay smiled at her. “I hate to admit it in his hearing, but he just might be right about that. The timing’s good.”
“Because people like us are suffering from the recession and you can take advantage of that by getting our properties at bargain basement prices.” She turned up her cute little nose in distaste. “That must make you very proud.”
“Business is business, babe,” Dex said. “We had an agent scoping out places before we got here, and liked the sound of yours.”
“Which is why we made an offer…no, two offers for it,” Bay continued. “Your grandfather turned us down. We got over our disappointment and looked elsewhere. End of story.”
“We don’t influence banks’ lending policies, here or at home, nor do we hit old men over the head,” Marty said. “There are plenty of other decent sites for us to consider.”
Her glance slid from one of them to the other, as though she was assessing Marty’s words. Bay tried to see them through her eyes. Three guys, all of whom exuded the aura of power and authority that went hand in hand with financial security. They played hardball when it came to business, not always abiding by the rules. But they had integrity and absolutely didn’t resort to underhand tactics to get what they wanted. There was no need.
Each of them looked right back at her, holding her gaze with open transparency, not attempting to break the penetrating silence as she continued to assess them.
“Perhaps I got it wrong,” she eventually said.
“You did,” Bay assured her.
“It’s just that I was so damned mad. I’ve been staving off our creditors for months, which is stressful enough. I hate not paying people what they’re owed. I’d just been to the bank and got stone-walled by that little jerk Lyle. Then I came home and found Gramps.” Her voice caught. “All that blood. I thought he was dead.”
Bay patted her hand. “So you jumped to conclusions.”
“Yes, I suppose.” She shook her head. “But I still can’t think who else it could have been if it wasn’t you guys.”
“This wasn’t a burglary,” Marty said with conviction. “Dex and I just took a look round. Burglars don’t deliberately trash places. Someone did this with the deliberate intention of frightening you.”
“They succeeded.”
“Any idea who it might have been?” Dex asked.
“Absolutely none.” She turned her hands palms up at them and shrugged. “We get along with everyone hereabouts. No one else has expressed any interest in buying the farm, and I can’t imagine why they’d want to drive us out of business if it wasn’t the property they wanted.” She wrinkled her brow. “What I sti
ll don’t understand is why the bank is suddenly withdrawing its support.”
“What explanation did they give?” Marty asked.
An angry frown invaded her brow. “Not much of one. New policy or some such rubbish. He wouldn’t discuss it with me because only Gramps’s name is on the account. But that’s just stupid. I’ve handled Gramps’s financial affairs for years, and everyone at the bank knows it. They’ve never refused to talk to me before.”
“What about going above the guy’s head?” Dex suggested.
“I tried. Jerry Jennings, the manager, is a personal friend of Gramps.” She shrugged. “It seems he’s on holiday.”
“Okay,” Bay said, “ring the bank and find out when he’s due back, Marty. Say we’re interested in opening an account but will only deal with the manager.”
“Gotcha.” He pulled a cell phone from his pocket. “What’s the number, sweetheart?”
Athena told him and then fell silent as he placed the call.
“Seems someone’s been telling you fibs, darlin’,” he said as he hung up. “I have an appointment with Jennings in the morning.”
“The conniving little shit!” Bay enjoyed the sight of the fighting Athena, face flushed, eyes blazing with rage. “Jerry can’t possibly be behind this.”
“So why did the little shit pretend he was on vacation?” Dex asked.
“Good question, and one I intend to get an answer to,” she said aggressively, reaching for her own phone.
“No, don’t do that.” Bay placed his hand over hers to physically prevent her. “If he told this Lyle character to say he was on vacation, there has to be a reason for that.”
“You think he’s involved somehow?” Athena shook her head. “He wouldn’t do that to us.” She paused, frowning again. “Why would he?”
“If he’s not involved, why is he avoiding you?” Marty asked.
“Probably because it really is the bank’s policy to rejig its lending policy and he’s embarrassed about it because of his friendship with Gramps.”
“Were you behind with your payments?” Dex asked.
“We have an overdraft facility and a business loan. We’d kept up the interest payments on the loan, and the overdraft within its limits.” She flashed a brief smile. “Just about. We hadn’t repaid any of the capital on the loan, but Jerry sat at this very table not two months ago, saying he understood the reasons why and that the bank was prepared to wait. Then, out of the blue, we got a coldly worded letter from the bank’s head office saying they wanted to see a reduction on the capital loan or they’d withdraw our overdraft facility.”
“Without which you can’t function,” Bay said.
“Precisely.” She expelled a long breath. “We’ve tried to adapt with the times and turned the farm into a wholly organic setup. As you probably know, it’s an upmarket area, people around here have money, and it’s what they want. Organic is all the rage amongst the indolent rich,” she said with a trace of irony. “We supply the village stores and take our produce to farmers’ markets. We’re starting to gain a reputation and build up repeat customers. But—”
“But it was expensive to set up and takes time to turn a profit,” Bay finished for her.
“Right. We’ve worked our backsides off and really thought we were getting somewhere.” She scowled at the surface of the table as though she bore it a grudge. “Now this.”
“So we come back to our original question,” Marty said. “Who else, besides us, would want to see you fail?”
“That’s precisely it—no one I can think of.” Athena shook her head decisively. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“Then we’d better figure it out for you,” Bay said.
“Okay, Mr. Fix-it.” She turned eyes wide with scepticism directly on him. “How do you plan to do that?”
“Seems to me,” Bay replied easily, “that whoever trashed this place, and clouted your grandfather, will want to know how you’ve reacted to this latest setback. Anyone come calling since it all went down?”
“Only you guys,” she said with a defiant smile that would have gotten her cute butt spanked under normal circumstances. It still might, if she didn’t watch her step. “Oh, and George, of course, but he doesn’t count.”
“Who’s George?” Dex and Marty asked together.
“He’s one of the two guys who works for Gramps. And before you ask,” she said, fending off the question Bay had been formulating with the flat of her hand, “it couldn’t possibly have been him. He’s worked for Gramps for twenty-odd years and is as honest as they day is long.”
“What’s his other name and where does he live?” Dex asked.
“George Bailey. He lives in the village, but you’re wasting your time with him.”
“We like to be thorough,” Bay said. “Who else works here?”
“Max Foreman. He’s sixty-odd and has worked here even longer. He lives just outside the village with his wife of God knows how long. Two of his kids are still at home, I think, and several more are married and scattered about the country.”
“So we’ve got a bank manager who isn’t on vacation when he says he is, and two long-term employees to look into,” Bay summarized. “Doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a start.”
“You said whoever did this will want to see how I react,” Athena said. “What did you mean by that?”
“I think he’ll return to the scene of the crime when he thinks you’re here alone.”
“What, tonight?” The light of battle shone from Athena’s eyes. “Let’s hope so.”
“Only thing is, you won’t be alone,” Bay told her. “One of us will be here to protect you.”
Chapter Five
“I don’t need protecting.”
Didn’t she? Athena wasn’t sure how she felt about having three such decisive overachievers crowding her out of her own kitchen, making it feel as if the walls of the huge room were shrinking in on her. She was still embarrassed about breaking down in front of them, compounding the felony by sobbing her heart out on Bay’s broad shoulder. Life had taught her not to rely on anyone other than herself. Even so, something about their rather arrogant assumption that they could sort her problems tempted her to place her trust in them because she was well aware that she was out of her depth. The vicious attack on her grandfather had sapped her of her confidence, and she badly needed help.
Her body tingled with sensations that had nothing to do with her grandfather’s situation when Bay focused the warm richness of his gaze squarely on her face, like he saw something in her unremarkable features to admire. It reminded her that she’d foregone sex for far too long. She suppressed that out-of-context thought, only for it to reassert itself when Dex looked her way. That sexy smile of his, full of wicked intent, made her feel like the most interesting woman on God’s earth. Get real, she thought, aware that her overactive imagination was up to its old tricks again. Marty didn’t help matters. With his auburn hair and emerald green eyes, he exuded sex appeal and an air of extreme competence that made him almost impossible to resist.
Damn it, it wasn’t fair! She had faceless entities trying to get one over on her beloved grandfather, and all she seemed able to think about was sex. In fairness, she’d have to be dead from the waist down not to react to three specimens of such physical perfection, but even so…
“You’ve got no choice, sweetheart,” Bay said.
The hell she hadn’t! “Excuse me, but—”
“You involved us when you spoke to that reporter. You’re not the only one getting phone calls from the press following the allegations you made about us.”
Ah, so this wasn’t about helping her. It was more a question of restoring their damaged reputation. She ought to have known. Even so, her disappointment was palpable. And the annoying thing was that he was right. She had spoken out of turn. She knew that now, even though they hadn’t offered her any concrete evidence of their innocence. Rich men like they obviously were didn’t resort to underha
nd tactics just to obtain a property they hadn’t even viewed for themselves. As they rightly said, in these straitened times there were so many properties on the market that they were spoiled for choice.
“All right,” she said irascibly. “What do you want me to do?”
They exchanged a smug grin that told her she could have chosen her words with greater care.
“For starters, it needs to look as though you’re here alone,” Bay said. “I suggest that when you go to see your grandfather in hospital tonight—”
“They told me not to go.”
A challenging smile flirted with his lips. “But you’re still going, aren’t you?”
“How did you know?” she asked, unable to snatch her gaze from his lips.
“Because you need to see him for yourself, just to make sure that he really is okay.”
“Yes, I intend to go,” she said, finally managing to look away, only for her gaze to collide with Marty’s. Talk about surrounded on all sides by an excess of testosterone.
“We’ll leave at the same time,” Bay said, smiling like he knew something about her thought process that she didn’t. “If anyone’s watching this place, they’ll have seen our car and know you’re not alone.”
“Why would anyone be watching?”
“To see how you’re reacting to their handiwork,” Dex said, scowling at the thought. “There’s plenty of hiding places. You’ve got woodland not far away. Anyone with a decent pair of binoculars would be able to keep you under observation without ever being seen.”
“Now you’re letting your imagination get away from you.”
Dex glanced through the doorway into the lounge, which had yet to be straightened. “Am I?”
“Yes, okay, point taken.”
“Dex and Marty will take our car back. I’ll hang about the hospital and come back here with you in the Jeep,” Bay said.
“Hey,” Dex protested. “How come you get all the best assignments?”
“You two have a video conference scheduled for this evening,” Bay said with what seemed to Athena to be a decidedly predatory grin. “That okay with you, babe?”