The Legacy Collection Box Set

by Ruth Cardello

  Lil had heard of the museum before and the quirky history of the woman who had built it and then donated the building to the city. She’d always meant to come see it, but somehow never had. She was reasonably certain, however, that the courtyard was normally closed to the public. Of course it wasn’t closed to Jake. She didn’t imagine many places in the world were.

  Colby’s needs overshadowed the romance of the location at first. Lil sought a place to change her, then asked the staff to help her prepare a bottle. Jake sat across from Lil, appearing to wait patiently while she fed her daughter and then settled her down into the stroller for a nap.

  When Lil finally settled back into her seat, she expected Jake to be irritated with her, but found him looking rather pleased with himself instead. He said, “I had a cook prepare a meal for us. I hope you like beef tenderloin. Normally, I would ask for your preference, but it would have ruined the surprise.”

  He accepted a glass of wine from the staff, tasted it and nodded in acceptance of it. “Do you like it?” He gestured with the glass to the area around them. The server offered to fill Lil’s glass, but she shook her head. The last thing she needed was to relax her tongue.

  Do I like it?

  The setting was unimaginably beautiful, the staff was attentive yet unobtrusive, and the space provided enough quiet for her daughter to sleep while they ate. Who wouldn’t love being treated like visiting royalty?

  Only a woman who had no right to enjoy it.

  She couldn’t look him in the eye. “It’s beautiful,” she said.

  He took both of her hands in his and waited for her to look up from the table. When she finally did he said, “Why do I get the feeling that there is something wrong?”

  “Today was beautiful, Jake. I mean that. The way you included Colby into our day together . . .” She motioned to the garden around them and the staff that perked up as soon as her hand raised. “All this . . .”

  “Your daughter is your priority.” His expression held a bit of longing.

  Why are you making this so hard? “You have to see how this wouldn’t work.”

  “Why? Because I don’t love you?”

  Ouch.

  Lil pulled her hands out of his. “There’s that.”

  He opened his napkin and placed it on his lap. “Love is a myth perpetuated by people who don’t have anything better to believe in. You’re fantastic in bed, you make me laugh, and I enjoy your company. That’s enough for me.”

  Sadly, he probably meant what he was saying.

  “That sounds like the last, valiant declaration of a man about to lose his heart completely,” she scoffed.

  Instead of brushing her comment off or picking up the challenge, he gave her that steady, unblinking look she was beginning to understand meant that his mind was set to his course. “Maybe,” he answered.

  More on the subject was interrupted by the food arriving. Delicious as it looked, Lil couldn’t imagine putting anything into her churning stomach. She finally toyed with a piece of beef enough to bring it to her lips.

  “Move in with me,” he said calmly.

  Lil dropped the fork to her plate with a loud clatter along with the meat she hadn’t tasted. “We discussed this.”

  The strong set of his jaw and the proud look in his eyes told her that he wasn’t going to let her brush the topic aside. “Not because you might be pregnant. Move in because you want to fall asleep in my arms at night and wake up next to me each morning.”

  Lil hedged, “I have Colby . . .”

  He said, “Don’t hide behind her. You know I could more than take care of both of you. She would have the best of everything.”

  Except his love and what kind of life would that be for either of them? “For how long?” Lil asked.

  He shrugged. “If you’re looking for promises, I don’t have any. If it’s your financial future you’re worried about, I’ll have my lawyers draw up some sort of settlement to remove that concern.”

  There’s the Jake I know. Lil tossed her napkin onto the table and stood. “Wow, you’re about as romantic as my car service plan.”

  “Sit down. Lil,” he said in a tone that probably worked on people who cared about pleasing him.

  Lil was unimpressed. She leaned one hand onto the table and looked him straight in the eye. “No, I will not sit down. Did you seriously just offer me a settlement to ease my pain on the day—whichever day you choose—when you throw me out?”

  His explanation was lacking. “It’s quite common to think about . . .”

  Lil gathered her purse, took her baby stroller by the handle and started to leave. So as not to disturb Colby, she lowered her voice, but her tone remained angry. “Maybe it’s common in your world. Not mine. I’m one of those poor sops, I suppose, who has nothing better to believe in than . . . than . . .”

  He blocked her exit. “You can’t even say the word and you think I’m the one with the problem?”

  She sucked a breath in harshly, her hands flexing on the handle of her stroller. “Fine. You’re right. I’m too screwed up to accept your offer. Luckily for you, there are probably a hundred women within yelling distance who would jump at your offer. Ask one of them. Now get out of my way.”

  “I don’t want them.” His jaw set, he planted his feet and continued to block her path. “I want you.”

  Lil could be just as stubborn. “We all want things we can’t have, Jake. That’s reality. Now, seriously, don’t make me ask someone for help to get past you.”

  He stepped aside. “I’ll drive you home,” he growled.

  “No,” she said and held a hand in front of him. “You’ll give me my keys and find your own ride to wherever you’re going—hopefully New York.”

  Smooth Jake was struggling to contain his growing frustration with her. Impatiently he dug the keys out of the front pocket of his shorts, but did not immediately give them to her. “If you’re sure that is what you want.”

  Lil simply maintained her stance. What she wanted didn’t matter; she knew what she had to do. She wanted to throw herself into his arms, tell him everything, and accept his pitiful offer. She wanted to believe that despite what he said, he was already half in love with her. And against all common sense, she wanted to think that he could forgive her if she told him the truth.

  Wanting wasn’t enough.

  And it certainly didn’t make his last offer any less insulting.

  “Lil,” he said and paused as his cell phone rang. He checked it quickly. “I have to take this.”

  Unable to stop herself, she said, “Maybe it’s your lawyer and you can tell him to leave the name blank for now on that settlement form.”

  His phone rang again. He answered his phone, but mouthed to Lil, “This is not over.”

  Yes, it is, Lil thought. I’m not doing this again.

  She was almost through the roped area that led to the rest of the museum when she heard Jake completely lose his cool for the first time since she’d met him. His voice boomed through the courtyard. “What the hell? I thought you’d beefed up our firewall in anticipation of something like this. I’m absolutely coming back—right now. And I’m going to find out how this happened.”

  Lil stepped up her pace.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  This was exactly why he didn’t believe in acting impulsively.

  He should have been in New York, in his office, on top of the situation and keeping his team on high alert. There was absolutely no excuse for something like this happening, but there was an explanation.

  He’d let his lust for Lil cloud his judgment and distract him when he most needed to be focused on saving Corisi Enterprises.

  I’m no better than Dominic. We both deserve to be flipping burgers next year if we screw this up.

  What was it about those Dartley women?

  For just a moment, he entertained the possibility that they could have been planted by the competition. Did Stephan’s initial plot against Dominic include gaining their tru
st and then taking both men out of the picture via the oldest trick in the book?

  No, not only were Lil and Abby likely the most thoroughly background checked women in the country, but he pictured Lil putting him in his place the very first night he’d met her and smiled. Lil would make an awful mole. She said whatever was on her mind. She might be frustrating as hell—but she was no liar.

  The weight of responsibility lay squarely on his shoulders. He’d watched Dominic check out of reality after he lost his father over a month ago and there was no sign that he’d be checking back in any time soon.

  Getting involved with Lil right now was irresponsible, ill-advised, and all he’d been able to think about this past week. Why couldn’t she just move in with him and remove the fascination of it all? Familiarity was the most likely antidote to what was beginning to feel like an obsession.

  Mentioning the settlement had been a mistake. She was wavering until he’d tossed that tidbit into the ring.

  Maladroit comments were out of character for him. So was asking a woman to move in with him; never mind practically begging her to.

  What was happening to him?

  He wasn’t sure how to move forward with Lil.

  He had no idea how to make Dominic see how close they were to losing everything.

  But there was one area he was still certain of. He was going to find out who had hacked into his personal computer and whoever it was he was going to crush them financially, and quite possibly, physically. Never before had he understood the lure of violence, but right about now the urge to punch someone was surging within him.

  Pulling up to the building that housed her new apartment, Lil decided that it was too beautiful of a day to hide away inside so she handed her keys to the valet and took her daughter to a local park. She was pushing Colby lightly back and forth in one of the baby swings when her phone rang.

  She almost didn’t answer it.

  What am I afraid of? Really, how much worse could today get?

  Alethea’s voice exploded from the phone as soon as Lil answered. “Lil, I’ve got good news for you.”

  Considering the source, that was highly unlikely.

  “I could use some, Al.” Lil sighed and pushed her daughter’s swing again.

  “I don’t think they’re doing anything illegal. Everything points more to damage control. Looks like our friends are in scramble mode to fix something. My guess is it has something to do with that Chinese server Dominic has scheduled to unveil next month. Jake’s good, though. Nothing in his email was specific.”

  “So the good news is that Dominic is having some huge server issue?” It didn’t sound like anything to celebrate.

  “No the good news is that my instincts are still sharp. There is definitely something going on, but it doesn’t sound like anything that will endanger your sister.”

  So Jake isn’t a criminal.

  Lil scrambled to piece together what it all meant. How would their date this morning have ended if she’d never doubted him? Could she blame Jake for thinking their relationship might not last when she ended every encounter with him by telling him that she never wanted to see him again?

  I keep thinking that Jake is the one who is wrong, the one who has to change, but what if it’s me? What if I could have had everything but lost it because I was too scared to trust that something that wonderful could happen to me? Never knowing the answer to that would be the price she’d pay for believing the worst of Jake again and again. “I’m heading down to New York in the morning. I’ve changed my mind. I don’t think you should go.” Lil balanced the phone on her shoulder while she released her daughter from the swing and returned her to the stroller.

  Lil was too restless to stand there and pretend she wasn’t full of nervous energy.

  Real concern entered her friend’s voice. “Are you feeling guilty about today? We didn’t have a choice, Lil.”

  Everyone faced tough choices, but not everyone always made the wrong one. “Al, Jake knows someone hacked his computer.”

  “What? How do you know?” Alethea’s voice went up a pitch.

  Back on the sidewalk and heading home, Lil said, “He got a phone call while we were at lunch and I heard him say that they had made changes to their firewall to ensure that something like this couldn’t happen. What if he knows it was Jeremy? What if he traces it back to him . . . to you . . . to me?”

  Alethea said, “Jeremy did say that he’d encountered a snag.”

  “A snag? A snag?” Lil heard her own voice rise with panic and took a deep breath. People on the street were beginning to stare at her. Great, maybe I’ll end up in a video on the internet and round this week out. She lowered her voice to near a whisper. “You said no one would ever know.”

  “Knowing that someone breached your security is a long way from knowing who did it. Jeremy is careful. He has several dummy, dead-end accounts. No one will ever find out about today, Lil, unless you tell them.”

  “I know,” Lil said with little conviction as she gratefully ducked into the privacy of the high-rise building she still didn’t consider her home. She leaned her head back against the cold wall of the elevator as it carried her up to the top floor.

  “Lil, I recognize that tone. You want to confess.”

  “I know I can’t.”

  “Exactly. Jeremy and I could be in serious trouble with the law if you do. This is the kind of secret to take with you to the grave, Lil.”

  “Don’t you think I know that?” Only a fool would want to risk everything for a man who’d made it pretty clear that he didn’t love her. Lil let herself into her penthouse.

  Alethea shared her opinion by saying nothing at all.

  Lil removed Colby from the stroller and took her to the bedroom to change her. The contrast between the mundane and the insane made it difficult to reconcile the two. Lil said, “Trust me, if I didn’t spill the beans this morning, I can keep my mouth shut through anything.”

  “That bad?” Despite the tension of their conversation, Alethea sounded sympathetic.

  “That good. He even asked me to move in with him.”

  “What did you say?”

  Lil grimaced. “I said no. What could I say?”

  “Were you tempted?”

  “I don’t know. He says the stupidest things, but then he does something that shows me that he cares about what’s important to me and I want to believe that something is possible between us. Oh, Al, I think I’m falling in love with him, but I ruined everything, didn’t I?”

  Ever the practical one, Alethea said, “You can have your happy ending, Lil, if we mutually agree to forget what we did today.”

  Lil had done plenty in her life that she considered rash, but she’d never hidden. When you are doing something that you believe in, you don’t have to hide—at least, that was what she’d always believed.

  Deceiving Jake ranked highest on her list of what she regretted doing. Looking back over her time with him, it was clear to Lil that he’d tried to protect her—even from their attraction. Not telling him was a blackness growing in her heart. “I don’t feel right about lying, Al.”

  All sympathy left her friend’s voice. “How right will you feel when we’re sharing a cell at the local penitentiary? It won’t be only me going down. You’re just as culpable.”

  I know.

  Lil said slowly, “Maybe Jake would understand why we had to know what was going on.”

  “Or maybe not.” Alethea blew out an exasperated breath. “We’re not kids anymore, Lil. No one is going to lock us up for one night and try to scare us straight. We all have too much to lose. Do you want Abby to raise Colby for you? Because that’s what will happen if you forget how serious this is and end up in the slammer with me.”

  Lil shuddered at the thought and confused tears made it difficult to locate the wipes as she changed her daughter’s soiled diaper. When she’d agreed to the hack, she hadn’t thought this far ahead. She’d risked much more than she’d underst
ood at the time. Colby was her number one priority. How could she have done something that put her in jeopardy?

  She secured the new diaper, arranged her daughter’s clothing and hugged her daughter to her as she walked back to the living room.

  “I have to go see Jeremy and warn him,” Alethea said.

  “See if he can cover his tracks better?” Lil asked, settling Colby on the floor with some toys.

  “That, and to warn him that they know someone was there. He planned to go back in one more time.”

  “Back in? Why?”

  “He said he found something he hadn’t expected to and it made him curious.”

  “Oh, no. Alethea, he’ll get caught for sure if he tries to access their system again.”

  “That’s why I’ve got to go to his house. He doesn’t answer his phone most of the time—not even texts.”

  Lying on one side on the floor, Lil forced a smile for her daughter’s sake. Colby wasn’t fooled, she let out a loud wail. I totally know how you feel, Colby. In a shaky voice, Lil asked, “Al, this is going to work out, isn’t it?”

  Alethea answered with more bravado than she likely felt. “It all depends how smart your boyfriend is.”

  Shit.

  Lil remembered reading a magazine that estimated Jake’s IQ to be around the 190 range. He might be irritatingly sexy, frustratingly stubborn, and emotionally thrifty, but there was no doubt that Jake was brilliant.

  Oh, this is going to go really badly.

  Maybe it was time to start being extra nice to her future brother-in-law. He might be the only one able to keep her and her friends out of jail.

  Chapter Twelve

  Although, Lil had arrived mid-day, she and Abby hadn’t said more than a few sentences to each other. Lil had claimed fatigue from the short flight and had retreated with Colby to the suite Dominic’s staff had prepared for them.