by Marie Force
Noah laughed at the cute face she made at them. “Someone has you very firmly wrapped around her little finger, Ray.”
“She sure does. The only thing she can’t get me to do for her is her homework.”
“I’ve even tried bribing him,” Simone said.
“How do you know about bribery?” Noah asked.
“They learned about it in school,” Ray said, sounding amused. “And now she’s trying to practice what she learned on me.”
“He won’t budge,” Simone said with a cute pout.
“I assume you’ve come to see your brother?” Ray asked.
“We have, but the cookies and the bribery made for a nice extra,” Noah said.
“He’s in the office. You know the way, right?”
“I do.” Noah ruffled Simone’s hair as he went by her. “Good luck with the bribery.”
“Thanks. I’m gonna need it.”
“They’re adorable,” Brianna said as she followed Noah through the living room in what had once been the central part of the church. “And this house is amazing.”
“Yes, they are, and isn’t it great? It was already like this when Grayson and Emma bought it, but it’s one of my favorite houses in Butler. I’d love to do more of this type of renovation.”
“Why don’t you?”
He shrugged. “There’s more money in the big stuff.”
“Not if you had a few of them going at the same time and sold them all at a profit. You should think about that.”
“Maybe.”
“Gray’s office is behind these French doors,” Noah said as he knocked.
“Come in, Simone, but only if you’re bringing cookies.”
Noah opened the door and stuck his head in. “Sorry to disappoint. I’m not a cute redhead, and I have no cookies.”
His brother laughed. “That’s okay. You can come in anyway.”
“I brought a potential client. This is Brianna Esposito. Bri, my brother Grayson.”
Grayson stood to reach across his desk to shake her hand. His coloring was like Noah’s, but he had a more refined way about him. He wore a dress shirt under a navy V-neck sweater and dark jeans. “Nice to meet you.”
“You, too,” Brianna said.
“Have you seen Iz today?” Noah asked his brother.
“Not yet. Emma and I are going tonight. What about you?”
“Going after this. Anyway, Brianna is the architect working on the inn with me.”
Gray gave his brother a curious look. “Oh right. You were at a meeting the day I came to visit.”
“Sorry I missed you,” Brianna said.
“Her asshole ex-husband is trying to sue her after he made her life a living hell. I thought you might be able to help her.”
“If you have time,” Brianna said. “We didn’t even ask if you were busy.”
“I’ve got time. Any friend of Noah’s is a friend of mine.”
“Your family is very sweet.”
“Just us,” Gray said, smiling. “The rest of them not so much.”
Brianna laughed. “If you say so.”
“She met most of them last night,” Noah said. “She brought us dinner after the hospital.”
Grayson seemed intrigued to hear that news considering Noah’s reclusiveness lately. “So, what’s up with the ex?”
“It’s kind of a long story.”
“Start from the beginning. Tell me everything, and then I’ll look at the lawsuit and see what I can do to help you.”
Over the next hour, Brianna told him everything about what’d happened with Rem, giving him details she’d left out of the retelling to Noah the other night. While she talked, she felt Noah watching her in that intent, unblinking way of his. It was intriguing to her that his brother was every bit as attractive as Noah, maybe even more so, but Brianna had no interest in him. She was, however, incredibly aware of Noah sitting as close to her as he dared with his older brother watching their every move.
Grayson took notes as she told her story. When she got to the part about how Rem’s frequent disappearances had led her to start tracking his credit card, Grayson looked up from his notebook. “Did you keep everything you uncovered?”
“Every single thing.”
“That’s good.”
“Even before I understood the full scope of what was happening, I had the foresight to know I might need to document it all. Especially when the money in our joint account started to disappear.” Her heart ached whenever she thought of those frantic early days when she’d first begun to put pieces together that added up to a nightmare.
“Did you figure out what he was spending it on?”
“Mostly other women and hotel rooms right in Boston. He didn’t even try to cover his trail. He thought he had me so wrapped up in love for him that I’d never question what he was doing or who he was doing it with.”
“Did you?”
“I confronted him with proof of multiple affairs. He said I was crazy, that he’d been working and had never been with anyone but me. I even had photos of various times I’d followed him and seen him with other women. He said it wasn’t him. I had the wrong guy, and how dare I accuse him of cheating on me when I knew full well that I was the only woman he’d ever love.”
“Unreal,” Noah muttered.
“I’ll take a look at the lawsuit,” Gray said.
Brianna handed him the envelope, and as he read the opening pages, she fought the urge to fidget as nervous energy ran through her like nuclear power.
Noah reached over to put his warm hand on top of the freezing hands she had clutched in her lap. “Keep breathing.”
Having him there and so clearly on her side helped tremendously. Later, when they had a minute to themselves, she’d tell him so.
“Talk to me about where the word ‘sociopath’ came from,” Gray said.
“My therapist. She said that she could tell he had all the hallmarks of a sociopath without even meeting him. For one thing, he lacks a conscience. Without that, there’s no hope of having any kind of meaningful relationship with him.”
“I have some experience with antisocial personality disorder. I handled a case for my former firm in which a woman left an estate to her grandchildren. One of them was a sociopath who gaslighted the others out of their inheritance. They sued him, and we represented his siblings and cousins. From what you’ve told me, I’d have to agree with your therapist’s assessment.”
“He’s a textbook sociopath with one caveat. Whereas most sociopaths are antisocial, Rem was very social, thus the fact that he could juggle five other women in addition to his wife. My therapist believed he was part sociopath, part narcissist.”
“A delightful combination,” Gray said with a hint of humor.
“Indeed. While my ex was lying, cheating and manipulating me into basically thinking I was losing my mind—which was intentional—he was pursuing grandiose, expensive endeavors that were mostly about feeding his ego. He used the savings we’d been growing to buy a house to open a restaurant he named for himself—Remington’s. When I found out where that money had gone, the restaurant was already closed because he’d run out of money before it could open. His business partner in the restaurant sued him for breach of contract, and I was named a codefendant because the partner knew I was the only one making any money. I was able to prove I had no knowledge of or involvement in the restaurant and was dropped from the suit, but not before it cost me ten thousand in legal fees to get free of it.”
“This just gets worse and worse,” Noah said.
“And we’ve only scratched the surface,” Brianna replied.
“How did he find out you were referring to him as a sociopath?” Gray asked.
“I told some of our mutual friends that I’d come to believe he had antisocial personality disorder, which is the official term for sociopathy. I explained what that means and gave them examples of things that’d happened to make my case. They were as shocked as I had been initially. I think
some of them didn’t believe most of what I was telling them, because it seemed so farfetched that it couldn’t have happened.”
“You can’t honestly think he has a case against her when she can prove he did all this shit?” Noah asked, sounding as agitated as Brianna felt.
“My concern would be that Brianna isn’t a trained therapist or psychiatrist, so she doesn’t have the authority to diagnose him,” Gray said.
“That diagnosis came from a trained therapist,” Brianna said.
“Who has never met your ex-husband in person, correct?” Gray asked.
“Correct.”
“The diagnosis was made from anecdotes you provided, not from a complete evaluation of him.”
A sinking feeling overtook Brianna. “What does this mean?”
“He may have a case if the info you gave your mutual friends impacted his ability to make a living.”
She wanted to howl from the sheer injustice of it all. That Rem could treat her like he had, lie, cheat and steal from her and then sue her and possibly win? That couldn’t happen. It just couldn’t. “What should I do?”
“I’d suggest countersuing him for damages, focusing on the things he did before you split. We’ll toss in pain and suffering and generally throw the book at him.”
“How fast can we do that?”
“I can put something together this week. Do you know where to find him?”
“I think so.”
“Work on nailing that down so we can have him served. Often, suits and countersuits tend to cancel each other out when the rubber meets the road, so try not to worry.”
“How much will it cost to countersue him?”
“I’ll give you the friends and family discount wherever I can, but about ten thousand to start with.”
“To start with.”
“If the two suits don’t cancel each other out, it could get costly to defend yourself against his.”
“Even though she can prove all the shit he did?” Noah asked.
“Even though. He may have a case that your accusations hurt his reputation.”
“Even if they’re true?” Brianna asked.
“Even if.”
She’d known for some time now that life wasn’t fair, but this was almost too much to handle.
Grayson got up and went to his file cabinet, returning with a sheet of paper he handed to Brianna. “My engagement agreement. If you sign this, I can get started for you right away.”
Since she needed his help so badly, she took the form and signed it, resigned to fighting back no matter how much it cost her.
“With your permission, I’d like to retain a private investigator I’ve worked with before in Boston to do some groundwork for us. He’s excellent, and if there’s new dirt, he’ll find it.”
“Go ahead,” Brianna said, anticipating another costly, protracted battle to rid herself of the man she’d once loved so much.
“I know it’s easy for me to say try not to worry, but I honestly believe we’ll be able to reach a settlement with him that won’t break the bank. He’s going to have to deal with our suit, and at the end of the day, he’ll probably see it’s easier to let his go than to have to defend against ours.”
“You don’t know him. He won’t give up until he’s completely ruined me.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Noah said, reaching for her hand and holding on tight. He didn’t seem to notice the subtle lift of his brother’s eyebrows.
But she saw it.
“We won’t let that happen, Bri. You heard what Gray said. It’s going to be okay.”
“I’ve got a lot of experience in this kind of thing,” Gray said. “I’ll do everything I can for you, Brianna.”
Did he have a lot of experience dealing with sociopaths? Had he ever come up against someone so devoid of basic human emotions that he would do to someone what Rem had done to her? She doubted it, but he’d find out soon enough who he was dealing with.
Chapter Sixteen
“We are afraid to care too much, for fear that
the other person does not care at all.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt
Noah couldn’t believe Bri’s ex might have a possible case against her after all the shit he’d done to her. He’d never thought of himself as a violent person, but he’d love ten minutes alone with that son of a bitch.
“I’m sorry you’re so upset.”
He looked over at her. “Don’t worry about me. This isn’t about me.”
“Thank you for taking me to see your brother. I’d be losing it if I hadn’t been able to do something after being served.”
“I’m sorry he wasn’t more outraged.”
“He’s just doing his job, and it’s not helpful to me if he doesn’t give it to me straight.”
“I guess… It just makes me so fucking mad.”
“You’re very cute when you’re mad.”
He looked over at her, seeming stunned before he had to return his attention to the road. “I must be fucking adorable, then.”
“You are, and I appreciate it, Noah. It helps to have a friend right now.”
“I’m glad. It’s total bullshit, and I have to believe that any judge in the world will see right through him and his bullshit lawsuit.”
“I hope so.”
“I hate that he’s going to cost you even more money than he already has. If you don’t have it, I can help you out.”
Later, she would probably look back and realize that was the exact moment when she began to have genuine feelings for Noah Coleman, the kind of feelings that could be complicated and wonderful and life changing. “That’s very kind of you to offer, but I’ve got some savings left. I just don’t want to spend it on him.”
“Try to think of it as spending it on yourself. It’s an investment in a future that doesn’t include him.”
“That makes it a little less painful.”
“I need to go see my sister. You feel like going for the ride?”
If she went home, she’d do nothing but stew about the latest nightmare with Rem. “Sure, I’d like that.”
“Good.” He reached across for her hand. “I don’t want you sitting home alone freaking out about this.”
Smiling, she glanced over at him as she wrapped her hand around his. “That’s what I would’ve done.”
“I know. I get it. I’ve been there. This kind of stress is all-consuming.”
“It’s the worst. That first month, after I realized our entire life was nothing but a house of cards…” She felt sick as she remembered the trauma of that dreadful time. “The worst thing I’ve ever been through in my life.”
“It’s in the past now, even if you still have to deal with this shit. He can never get near you again unless you let him, and you’re not going to let him. You got me?”
“Yes, Noah,” she said, smiling again. “I’ve got you. It helps to have you on my side.”
“I’m on your side.”
“Remember when we used to fight about everything?”
“I remember, and that was completely your fault for making me want you.”
Stunned by his confession, she said, “How was that my fault?”
“You were beautiful and sexy and smart and didn’t put up with my shit. I wanted you from the first day I ever met you—and I didn’t want to want you. I was very busy being a miserable loner. The last thing in the world I wanted was to be attracted to you.”
She couldn’t stop the laughter that gurgled up from deep inside her.
“It’s not funny!”
“Yes, it is.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Is.”
“Isn’t.
“And we’re back to fighting.”
“This isn’t fighting,” Noah said with a sexy little grin that made her wish they were going somewhere they could be alone. “Aren’t you going to admit you were into me, too?”
“I wasn’t.”
“Oh, please. You were, too.�
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“Full of yourself much?”
“I knew you were digging me. I could tell by the way your eyes would throw fire at me when we were arguing about why I’d done something I shouldn’t have.”
“I was throwing fire at you, hoping you’d disappear.”
“Nah, baby, I knew you wanted me.”
Brianna sputtered with outrage as she tried to pull her hand free of his.
“Stop fighting it.”
“I was starting to like you.”
“Let’s go back to that, then, shall we? After you admit you were digging me all that time you wanted me to go away.”
“You’re very exasperating sometimes.”
“Maybe so, but you’re not thinking about that other thing anymore, are you?”
“For a minute there, I was thinking of all the reasons I used to dislike you so much.”
Noah laughed. “It took a full minute to think of them all?”
“There were a lot.”
“But all that time you disliked me, you also wanted me, right?”
“You can keep trying, but you’ll never get me to admit that.”
“Oh, I do so love a challenge.”
“Thanks,” she said softly, glancing at him. He was too good-looking for her own good, and yes, she’d thought that from the beginning. But she would never tell him so.
“For what?”
“Taking me to see your brother, bickering with me, asking me to go to the hospital with you. You’re keeping me from a trip to the dark side, and it means a lot to me. Even if you are a pompous fool with a large opinion of yourself.”
“She gives and then takes away, all in the same sentence.”
“Gotta keep you humble, Coleman.”
“You do, Esposito. You’re very tough on my ego.”
“Your ego could use some humility.”
They were still going back and forth with the insults when he drove into the hospital parking lot twenty minutes later.
After he’d parked and shut off the engine, he turned to her. “Kiss me.”
“I’m not sure I want to after all your nonsense.”
“What nonsense?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
His smile lit up his entire face, and dear God, she was powerless to resist him. That smile completely transformed his face. He bore no resemblance whatsoever to the man who’d driven her mad for weeks.