Green Fire

by Stephanie James

  “Well, I hear they’re on the move again. And this time they’re looking at some land Ackerly Manufacturing owns,” Nina declared.

  “You’re kidding!” Shelley paused with a forkful of salad halfway to her mouth and slowly lowered it “One of Ackerly’s manufacturing sites?”

  “That’s the word I got. That parcel outside of Scottsdale.”

  Shelley froze, staring at her friend. “That particular site? They’re interested in acquiring it?”

  “I’m not positive of the details,” Nina confessed briskly. “There’s nothing firm about it, but another broker who has some dealings with the group said they were beginning to ask questions about the Ackerly site.”

  “No one’s approached Ackerly as far as I know,” Shelley noted with a frown.

  “It will probably be done through the same broker who worked on the Cassidy deed. I thought you might appreciate the advance warning on behalf of your client I know you said the firm was in trouble. If that California group is serious, they’ll offer top dollar. They’re not quibbling about money. Maybe the sale of the site would be a help to Ackerly in its present financial difficulties?”

  “What do you mean by offering top dollar?” Shelley whispered, staring at the golden wine in her glass as she tried to think through the situation.

  “Half a million is my guess,” Nina offered casually.

  “Half a million dollars,” Shelley repeated unbelievingly. “Nina, this is incredible. A sale of that magnitude could do a great deal to help Ackerly consolidate its financial position. There’s just one very small, very interesting catch.”

  “Which is?” Nina cocked an interested eyebrow as she attacked her salad with the gusto she attacked everything else, including men and business.

  “That particular parcel of land, together with the outdated manufacturing facilities on it,” Shelley explained in a hard little voice, “just happens to be the Ackerly Manufacturing asset Phil Ackerly used to secure a loan he got from Joel Cassidy last year.”

  Nina chewed vigorously for a moment, swallowed and then said very dryly, “Interesting.”

  “Isn’t it just?”

  “Then Ackerly would not be free to sell that parcel for half a million to the California group?”

  “Nope. Not at the moment,” Shelley murmured thoughtfully as she tried to put together the pieces of the puzzle in her mind. “Ackerly can’t do anything with that land until it pays off the money it owes Joel Cassidy.”

  “Of course,” Nina observed very deliberately as she followed the line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, “Ackerly could surrender the parcel to Cassidy and get out from under the loan entirely.”

  “Whereupon Cassidy could then turn around and sell a piece of land he acquired for a hundred thousand dollars to the California investors for five hundred thousand dollars. A nice return on his money,” Shelley concluded bleakly.

  “Is Cassidy pushing for repayment of the loan? Trying to force Ackerly to hand over the land?”

  Shelley shook her head wonderingly. “For some reason, he’s agreed to give us more time to repay the loan. That doesn’t make sense, does it?” She looked at her friend uncertainly.

  “Who knows?” Nina shrugged. “Maybe he’s confident Ackerly will never be able to pay off the loan and he’ll eventually get the land, regardless.”

  “Games,” Shelley said under her breath.

  “What?”

  “Games. The man’s an expert at games of all kinds. Makes his living off them.”

  “I see what you mean. You think he might be playing a very sophisticated sort of game with you and Ackerly Manufacturing?” Nina hazarded perceptively.

  “I don’t know, Nina. I just don’t know. I thought…” Her words trailed off as the memory of the night returned. Dear God, surely he wouldn’t, surely he couldn’t be playing a game with her? Don’t be an idiot, she told herself grimly in the next instant. What did she know about Joel Cassidy to make her think he might not be predisposed to play such games? Not much. Only that he made love with a passion that seemed entirely honest But perhaps he was entirely capable of combining passion and business. He’d said as much, hadn’t he? He’d said he could make love to a business partner or do business with a lover.

  But this would hardly qualify as doing business! This— this manipulation of herself and Ackerly Manufacturing amounted to something much more lethal than ordinary business dealings!

  On the other hand, if his goal was to get hold of that chunk of Ackerly land, why would he agree to extend the loan? Shelley’s head was beginning to spin with the various possibilities.

  “Shelley, old pal, correct me if I’m wrong, but I get the feeling you’ve just seen a ghost.” Nina frowned at her worriedly.

  “Or an alien invader from space,” Shelley clarified absently as she tried to focus on the problem. “The question is, Do I have the skill to defend the planet successfully?”

  “Is this obscure accounting jargon?” Nina chuckled.

  “That’s game-playing jargon, Nina. I seem to find myself in the middle of a very complicated puzzle with no handy set of rules.”

  “I’m the bearer of bad tidings, aren’t I?” Nina groaned in commiseration.

  “They say it’s better to be forewarned so that one can then be forearmed.” Shelley tried to keep her tone firm and brisk. “Thanks for telling me what you found out about that conglomerate, Nina. You’ve been a great help. If I can ever do you a favor, you know you have only to ask,” she added with genuine appreciation.

  Nina smiled. “I know that, Shelley.”

  If only, Shelley thought ruefully, she had learned this piece of information before she had allowed herself to be seduced by Joel Cassidy. The uneasy regret made her fingers tremble slightly as she picked up her fork and went back to work on the salad in front of her.

  What was going through Joel’s head today? Self-congratulation? Was he whistling contentedly to himself as he worked on a pinball machine, thinking how he had Ackerly’s accountant neatly in the palm of his hand?

  Shelley winced. But why should he agree to extend the loan? Or had he done so because he was afraid that, if pushed, Ackerly might somehow find the hundred thousand dollars and not be forced to turn over the land? Had he decided it would be better to give Ackerly Manufacturing a little more rope to make certain it would indeed hang itself before demanding the asset that had been used to secure the loan?

  What a mess! And now she’d been stupid enough to involve herself emotionally in the elaborate game being played with Ackerly Manufacturing. Shelley castigated herself mentally for the grievous error all the way back to her office.

  “There you are, Shelley.” Carol Robinson-greeted her brightly as she walked into the reception area of Mason Wells & Associates. “You’ve had a couple of phone calls from Joel Cassidy.” She handed Shelley the messages. “He wants you to call him back at that number when you get the chance.”

  Shelley stared down at Carol’s scrawled messages and nodded, lifting her eyes obliquely to the younger woman, who smiled back at her.

  “He sounded much nicer on the phone today than he did yesterday when he barged in here and demanded to see you immediately.” Her attractive brown eyes lit up with amusement as she tossed her dark curls. “He seemed more polite today.”

  “Perhaps you succeeded in terrorizing him yesterday,” Shelley offered in a vague attempt at humor.

  “Who knows? More likely his lady friend was extra nice to him last night,” the receptionist shot back unconcernedly as she returned to her typewriter.

  Renewed interest in the letter she was typing kept her from seeing the wave of red that washed into Shelley’s face. The day was deteriorating rapidly, she thought grimly as she hurried toward the privacy of her own office. When she passed another of the Mason Wells accountants in the hall, she didn’t even bother with more than a brisk nod. The last thing she wanted was a casual chat She felt like a small, cornered animal that wants only to hide fr
om approaching predators.

  When she reached her office, she slammed the door quickly and tossed the messages from Joel into the trash can. She needed desperately to think before she had any more dealings with Joel Cassidy.

  The phone calls began to come with regular frequency after two o’clock. Carol put the first one through to Shelley with automatic assurance.

  “It’s Joel Cassidy again, Shelley. I’ve got him on line three.”

  “Tell him I’ll call back when I’m free,” Shelley said grimly into the intercom.

  “I’m sorry, Shelley. I thought you were available!” Carol sounded so instantly contrite, Shelley wanted to relent But discretion played a larger role in her life at the moment. She had been far too indiscreet last night!

  “That’s okay, Carol. I’m just a little tied up at the moment”

  “Okay, I’ll tell him.”

  The calls started coming every twenty minutes after that, and with each succeeding call Carol’s mood went from cheerful to confused to plain curious. By the time she had completed the unpleasant task of trying to explain that Shelley Banning was unavoidably tied up in her office for the eighth time, Carol was ready to demand an explanation.

  “Start telling him I’m out of the office if it’s getting too difficult to tell him I’m busy,” Shelley advised when Carol finally confronted her.

  “Lie to him?” she gasped. “I don’t think he’s going to like that, Shelley. He’s beginning to sound downright surly.”

  “Probably because the beneficial effects of the attentions he received from last night’s lady love are wearing off,” Shelley suggested with a trace of bitterness she couldn’t quite hide.

  If Carol was beginning to have her own suspicions about who the lady with Joel might have been last night, she wisely refrained from voicing them.

  “What am I to tell him if he shows up in front of my desk in another hour?” she demanded instead.

  With sudden decision, Shelley stood up and began stuffing some papers into her briefcase. “You can tell him I’ve left for the day. It will be the truth!”

  “Oh.” Helplessly, Carol watched the one member of Mason Wells & Associates whom she hadn’t yet labeled “temperamental” walk out of the office in high dudgeon.

  By the time she reached her yellow Toyota in the office parking lot, Shelley knew for certain where she was headed for the rest of the afternoon. It was time Dean Ackerly learned about the potential gold mine he was sitting on and couldn’t yet sell. It was time he learned they might both be pawns in the high-stakes game Joel Cassidy was playing.

  The game he might be playing, Shelley couldn’t resist correcting herself as she drove through the sprawling suburbs of Phoenix toward the main headquarters of Ackerly Manufacturing. There was still a chance Joel was dealing a straight hand with her. After all, he had consented to extend that loan. So many “ifs,” she thought ruefully. So many unknowns.

  At Ackerly headquarters she announced herself to the receptionist, who sent her straight upstairs to the office of the new president. There again she was waved along until she found herself in Dean Ackerly’s plushly carpeted, elegantly paneled suite. Shelley hid a small frown as he rose with alacrity to seat her. Attired in a light-colored linen-weave business suit and surrounded by such handsome furnishings, he appeared to command fully as much financial power as Joel Cassidy; it was difficult to remember that he was, in fact, in debt to the pinball mechanic to the tune of a hundred thousand dollars. Life, Shelley told herself reflectively, was not always fair.

  “Shelley, I’m delighted to see you. I had no idea you were going to drop by this afternoon. If you’re here for those inventory records, I can probably call downstairs and have them hurried along,” Dean began a little anxiously.

  “That’s not why I’m here,” she told him with a reassuring smile. “I won’t need them until the first part of next week. This has to do with something else entirely.”

  Quickly, she told him what she had learned at lunch, keeping her voice smooth and businesslike. Not for the world did she want Dean to guess how involved she had managed to get with Cassidy in the course of forty-eight hours!

  When she was through, he sat back in his padded leather chair with a murmured exclamation of incredulity. “I’ll be damned. What a crazy situation. All that money almost in Ackerly’s grasp and we can’t quite reach out and take it”

  “Not as long as it’s being used as collateral on the Cassidy note,” Shelley agreed with a short nod. “Remember, too, that these are just rumors,” she added hastily. “There might not be any truth in them.”

  “What’s your best guess?” he charged, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his desk and fix her with a narrowed gaze.

  “My best guess is that the information is solid. The source is reliable.”

  “What about the possibility of paying off the Cassidy loan and stalling the bank for a while? If the conglomerate came through with an offer of half a million, we could then pay off the bank, too!”

  “I don’t think the bank will stall, Dean,” Shelley said honestly. “And we don’t yet have that offer in hand, either. If we did, there might be some negotiating we could do.” Shelley broke off, trying to work out the possibilities in her mind.

  “When do you think the offer will come?” Dean asked flatly, watching her intently.

  “Who knows? Maybe never. At least not to us.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Shelley drew a deep breath. “Dean, the big question in all this is, What does Joel Cassidy have in mind? I’m just not sure where he fits in.”

  “Are you trying to tell me he might be manipulating this whole situation?” Dean surged to his feet and walked restlessly toward the window.

  “There is that chance,” she told him baldly. “We know he was involved with the same conglomerate on a huge deal a few months ago. At that time, he may have discovered that they were also interested in the Ackerly land he was holding as collateral. He may have known about their potential interest in that land a year ago when he made the loan to your father! How do I know?” she grated fiercely. “He may have told them he has a claim on it and that he’ll sell it to them when he takes possession!” Her mouth turned downward in self-disgust. How could she have been so stupid?

  “If he wanted to take possession, why did he extend the loan?” Dean asked reasonably enough.

  “I don’t know, Dean. I just don’t know. Unless he thought we might somehow manage to pay him off instead of turning over the land. Maybe he thinks that with my expert assistance you will actually find yourself in bankruptcy, after all. Or perhaps when he thinks we’re desperate enough, he’ll offer to buy the land from you for a paltry sum plus cancellation of the loan. Who can second-guess him?”

  “We can’t second-guess him, but we could try asking him exactly what he’s got in mind,” Dean murmured thoughtfully.

  Shelley looked up in surprise, staring at Dean’s back. “Could we trust his answer? That’s the problem.”

  “Wheels within wheels,” Dean groaned.

  “Games,” Shelley corrected ruefully. “Complicated games.” She got to her feet purposefully. “Dean, I’m going to go home and try to sort this mess out. I want to have all the facts straight before we do anything as rash as confronting Cassidy and asking him what he’s up to. I need a little time to map everything out on paper and draw up some contingency plans in case he’s manipulating things for his own benefit I’ll check back with you tomorrow with some realistic scenarios we can work with, okay?”

  He smiled wryly. “Okay. I’ll rely on you to put everything in perspective, Shelley. In the meantime, I’ll alert a few key members of my staff. Maybe all together we can come up with a way of resolving this to Ackerly’s benefit!”

  “We will!” she vowed with a resolution she wasn’t sure she really felt Leave ‘em confident and thinking positive, she reminded herself as she returned his smile and headed for the door.

  “She
lley?”

  She paused, hand on the knob, and glanced back inquiringly. “Thanks,” Dean said simply. “Your advance warning might make all the difference.”

  In spite of her brave words to her client, however, Shelley wasn’t seeing the complicated situation in any clearer light by the time she had parked her car in the drive and let herself into the cool, inviting interior of her home. With a persistent frown of concentration, she crossed the champagne-colored carpet toward her bedroom where she changed from her business clothes into a pair of snug, faded jeans and a loose-fitting, exotically patterned shirt in saffron and purple.

  Barefooted, she padded out into the kitchen and rummaged in the refrigerator for a grapefruit A few minutes later, with the sectioned grapefruit perched on a small dish, she wandered back out into the living room.

  Shelley glanced at the bulging briefcase waiting for her beside the desk in front of the window, but it was the puzzle table that drew her for some reason. She stood staring down at the unfinished scene of Venice and then reached idly for a piece to insert into the gondola.

  What was Joel up to? What game was he playing with her? Could a man make love to a woman the way he had made love to her last night and still be intent on using her? Slowly, Shelley sank down into one of the ladder-back chairs and picked up another piece of the jigsaw puzzle. She should be working on the contingency plans she had promised Dean Ackerly, but somehow it was easier to think while fiddling with the game in front of her.

  Resolving the problem with Ackerly Manufacturing was similar to doing an especially difficult puzzle: there were too many unknowns to sort out and piece together. But one had to start somewhere. Take the first identifiable factor and search patiently for the next one.

  Fact number one: Joel was a financially successful man, and he was a self-made man. That meant he was astute, quick to take advantage of a situation and use it to his own ends. People didn’t start out with nothing and wind up controlling the kind of money Joel Cassidy controlled unless they always kept an eye out for the main chance. Such a man was capable of using people.