My One And Only

by MacKenzie Taylor

  "Abby asked me to look into your financial problems."

  "And you agreed. Why?"

  "Actually"—Ethan crossed his long legs in front of him—"I haven't agreed yet."

  "Bullshit. You wouldn't be sitting here if you weren't going to do it."

  "Maybe not." Ethan rubbed his fingers on the burled wood arm of his chair. "There are— considerations."

  "Do they have to do with Abigail?"

  "Some of them."

  "You're a real bastard, you know that?"

  At the irony of the statement, Ethan shrugged. "You don't have to tell me that."

  Harrison ignored his sarcasm. "Abby's a good friend and an innocent bystander. She doesn't deserve to get hurt."

  "Why is everyone convinced that I'm going to hurt her?"

  "Aren't you?"

  "Not if I can help it."

  Harrison glared at him. "Get real, Ethan. What are you prepared to offer her?"

  "Good God, Harrison, are you asking me what my intentions are?"

  "I'm asking you to be decent."

  "Like you were?"

  Harrison's lips pressed into a thin line. "I deserved that, I suppose."

  Damned right he did, Ethan thought. "I'm willing to discuss MDS with you, but what's between Abby and me—" He waved a hand in the air. "That's off limits. It's a bit late in the day, don't you think, for a father-and-son chat on the importance of honor and decency?" The words hit their mark. Harrison glowered at him, but Ethan didn't back down. "Tell me how you got yourself into this mess," he insisted.

  Harrison rubbed a hand over his face in frustration. "I don't owe you any explanations."

  "You damned well do if I'm going to get sucked into saving this company of yours."

  "You have no idea what you're dealing with. Neither does Abby." He shook his head. "If I have to sell, it's not the end of the world."

  "It's the end of the Montgomery fortune." At Harrison's raised eyebrows, Ethan nodded. "I've seen the statements. The hit will wipe out most of your assets."

  "You can't necessarily believe what you see on paper," Harrison replied carefully. "Numbers can be deceiving."

  "I'm starting to get a picture. And I'm starting not to like it." Ethan gazed deeply into the pale blue eyes of his father. They looked weary, and they'd lost some of their fire. "Do you want to tell me what's been going on, or do you want me to figure it out on my own?"

  "I have no idea what you're talking about."

  "No?" Ethan rose from his chair to pace the confines of the small space. "You don't know that your accounts have been leaking for the past eighteen months?"

  "Financial oversight—"

  "Or that you're draining off your assets at rates that should have you out of business in less than a year?"

  "We were undercapitalized."

  "You don't know that inexplicably large investments have been made in risk ventures?"

  "The global market—"

  "Or that low-end stock trade-offs have your balance sheets in the gutter?"

  "I needed to increase our reserves."

  Ethan pinned him with a hard stare. "Where's the money going, Harrison?"

  The old man seemed to hesitate for a few moments. Something in his expression told Ethan he knew more than he had let on, but then the look was gone. Harrison shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

  "I have some of my people checking into it. I'm starting to hear words I don't like—like 'collusion' and 'insider trading.' "

  "You should be familiar with how to handle that, then. I understand you have a client under investigation for racketeering."

  "I guess I'm not the only one who's been investigating."

  "I watch the news."

  "And pay Atkison Bates," he said, naming the firm Harrison employed to track Maddux Consulting's business ventures, "to give you quarterly reports." When Harrison didn't respond, Ethan told him, "I've known for years."

  "Whether you believe it or not," his father said, "I wanted to know how you were doing."

  "You'll forgive my skepticism?"

  Harrison shrugged his broad shoulders. "It doesn't bear discussing, I suppose." He traced his fingers over the smooth surface of his desk. "For what it's worth, Ethan, I regret that things turned out the way they did." He met Ethan's gaze. "I never wanted anyone to get hurt."

  Ethan frowned. "Is that how Abby ended up working for you?"

  "Can't a man regret the decisions he once made and try to make good on them later in life? Is there anything wrong with that?"

  Ethan didn't respond. Harrison shook his head and asked abruptly, "Are you sleeping with her?"

  The door to the vault rattled. Ethan had to clamp down hard to suppress his rage. "Are you?" he shot back.

  That had Harrison on his feet. "Damn you—"

  "You damned me a long time ago, Harrison. But unfortunately for you, I just won't go away, will I?"

  Harrison took a step back. "That's not what I meant."

  "I imagine that whole childhood-and-youth phase I went through was really tough on you. I mean, it had to be a nightmare having me right under your nose to remind you that you never could stand up to your father. The stakes were always too high, weren't they?"

  "It wasn't like that," Harrison replied through gritted teeth.

  "Either way," Ethan said, unwilling and unable to keep the bitterness from his voice, "you finally got what you wanted. I walked out of your life."

  "And now you're back."

  "The prodigal has returned. What a joyous occasion."

  "And you want Abby, don't you?"

  Ethan hesitated, then nodded. "Yes."

  "She's out of your league."

  "Probably," he admitted.

  "But it isn't going to stop you from pursuing her."

  "Why does that bother you?" Ethan asked. "If you were going to seduce the woman, you'd have done it years ago."

  "You don't think I have?"

  "Hell, no. Abby's got too much class for that."

  Something softened Harrison's expression. "So you aren't after her because you think she's my lover?"

  "No," Ethan said tightly. "Believe it or not, the thought of bedding your conquests leaves me a little cold. That's your style, not mine."

  Harrison sat down again. "Why do you always have to be so difficult, Ethan?"

  Ethan watched him warily, but didn't try to answer. "What's going on in that brain of yours, old man?"

  "I'm not entirely sure yet. I have to think about it for a while. When it comes to Abby, though, I wish you'd trust me and leave her alone."

  "It's too late for that." Ethan studied his father closely.

  The look Harrison gave him had a definite sadness to it. "It's too late for many things, Ethan. Far too many things."

  This was the closest to an apology he was likely to get, Ethan supposed. He shook his head. "I'm not your enemy, you know."

  "Not yet you aren't."

  "Care to explain that?"

  Harrison shrugged. "Suffice it to say that you're wading into some very deep water if you decide to get involved in the MDS buyout. If you're as smart as people say you are, you'll go back to San Francisco and forget everything about this. In a few months it'll all be over."

  "Over?"

  Harrison picked up his bourbon. "Watch your back, Ethan. And whatever you do, don't let Abby get hurt."

  "You think she will?"

  "I think she could." Harrison looked him in the eye. "You've got a right to hate me, but you don't have a right to destroy her. She never did anything to deserve that from you."

  "I'll bear that in mind."

  "And for what it's worth," his father told him, "I appreciate your willingness to do this. If you manage to bail us out of this mess, I'll take back every rotten thing I ever said about you."

  Ethan shook his head in frustration and reached for the door. "That's something to live for."

  He found Abby near a secluded area of the deck. On the opp
osite end of the yacht, Carlton's party was in full swing, but Abby had pulled away from the crowd to watch the waves lap the hull as the sleek craft cut through the water. She had wrapped her arms around herself to guard against the spray and the slight chill of the wind. Ethan walked up behind her and wrapped his arm around her waist. "We both survived," he said into her ear. "No blood was drawn."

  She didn't move. "What did you tell him?"

  "I told him I had some people looking into things, and that I hadn't fully decided whether or not I wanted to get involved in this."

  She turned then and stood with her back to the rail. "Why?"

  "Why haven't I decided?"

  She shook her head. "Why didn't you just tell him what you told me? That I'm part of the bargain?"

  He wasn't sure if he heard hurt in the question or not. He was starting to have a bad feeling that he was seriously screwing this up. He almost wished Pamela were here to set him straight. What he wanted from Abby was too important for him to blunder with his usual lack of tact. He gave her a shrewd look. "Why did you defend me earlier?"

  "I wasn't defending you," she said absently. "I was keeping the balance sheet even. It was you and all those Montgomerys. It didn't seem fair."

  Ethan played with a tendril of her hair as a smile lifted the corners of his mouth. "Like the avenging angel against the class bully?"

  "I'd hardly say you were outmatched or outwitted. I just didn't think you should have to take that verbal barrage from Harrison just because you're doing the man a favor."

  "It's like I told you, he's not the one I'm doing the favor for."

  Abby glanced at the water. Several moments of silence elapsed. When she spoke, her voice was so low, he could barely hear her over the hum of the engine and the slap of the water. "Ethan, are you telling me that if I don't agree to have sex with you, you won't try to bail out MDS?" She looked sad, he observed, as if the question had hurt her to ask it. She didn't want to believe he was capable of something like that.

  Relieved by the revelation, Ethan realized this was where he had misstepped. He'd momentarily forgotten that Abby was eons removed from the Pamelas of the world. The sophisticated repartee he could expect from his ex-fiancée wasn't part of Abby's vocabulary. She was honest and straightforward, in a classic, elegant kind of way. He'd expected her to return his verbal volleys with coy remarks and practiced phrases, but she was a woman who simply said what she meant. And the thought was having a profound effect on him. "No," he said finally. "I'm not saying that."

  Confusion clouded her eyes. "But…"

  He reached for one of her hands and guided it around his neck. "I'm saying," he told her, "that I won't agree to get involved in Harrison's life without certain promises from you."

  "What kind of promises?"

  "That when the time comes, you'll trust me to tell you the truth. That no matter what he says or who tells you I'm lying, when it comes right down to it, I'm the only one you can trust."

  "I barely know you," she protested.

  He traced the line of her jaw with his thumb. "Don't you?"

  "Harrison is my friend—"

  "And I have no idea where this is going. But I'm not willing to pursue it unless you tell me you trust me."

  She searched his gaze, her own anguished and uncertain. "And all the rest?" she asked.

  Ethan nodded and pressed the pad of his thumb to the corner of her mouth. "All the rest we'll settle when the time comes. I want you, Abby. I'd be lying if I said that didn't include wanting you in my bed. But it's more, believe me. I want to know that if you end up having to choose sides, you're going to be on mine."

  She glanced along the rail of the ship to where Harrison's family was gathered. "They've taken care of me for a long time."

  He knew exactly who she was talking about. "Have they?" he probed.

  Her eyes drifted shut. "It's the only family Rachel and I have left."

  "I understand that."

  "You're asking me if I can turn my back on them."

  "I'm asking you if you can trust me enough to believe me, even if it means accepting something you don't want to about Harrison Montgomery."

  "Before this is over—" She hesitated. "You think I'll have to, don't you?"

  As much as he would like to spare her, he knew it was better to lay it out now. "Yes."

  "Can you tell me why?"

  "I will when I have something concrete to show you. Right now, I just have hunches."

  "And isn't it possible that you're wrong?"

  "Anything is possible."

  She glanced toward Harrison's family again. Laughter carried along the deck, in stark contrast to her noticeably melancholy mood. "What if I can't?"

  "Then tell me now, and I'll go back to California."

  Abby worried her lower lip with her teeth. "I'm not sure."

  "I have to have it all," he told her. "It's the only way."

  She watched as her sister made her way around the buffet table, delicately sampling each of the various dishes. She seemed to find strength in that. When she looked at Ethan again, her eyes showed determination and a subtle will that made him ache to kiss her. "Can I ask one thing in return?"

  "The moon," he replied.

  She shook her head, and the wind lifted one of her curls and danced with it. "Nothing that complicated." She placed both hands flat on his chest. "Promise you'll never try so hard to protect me from the truth that you refuse to give it to me."

  He frowned. "Have other people done that to you, Abby?"

  A host of conflicting emotions moved across the planes of her face. Her fingers curled into his shirtfront, and she laid her cheek against his chest. "I don't know yet," she said so softly he had to bend his head to hear her. "But I have a feeling I'm about to find out."

  eight

  Abby closed her eyes. "I had no idea it was that bad."

  Ethan gathered the stack of reports he'd been showing her for the last half hour. He and Abby sat on the couch in her living room. From the kitchen, they heard LuAnne and Rachel laughing as they worked on the baking project. The house had the delightful scent of chocolate and cinnamon.

  "It'll take a miracle," he concurred.

  She opened her eyes and looked at him. "But can you do it?"

  At the hope in her gaze, he felt his stomach knot. "Maybe. I'm not sure."

  The sound of clanging baking sheets in the kitchen momentarily drew her attention. Then she said, "When you were looking at the reports, did you come up with any idea how Harrison got into this mess?"

  She was going to extract the answer from him. He should have expected it. He knew her well enough to realize that she would have examined these reports dozens of times, probing for anything that might provide a way out of the mess Harrison had created. Abby might not be a financial expert, but she was not a fool either. She was bound to have seen the inconsistencies.

  If Ethan had spotted the truth from his rather cursory examination of the numbers, then Abby surely would have seen it too. For reasons he didn't begin to understand, he didn't want to tell her what he suspected—what was gradually being confirmed by the investigation in his office. He didn't want to be the one to shatter the illusions she held about Harrison Montgomery.

  "Did you?" she asked again.

  "It appears," he said, "that either someone is embezzling Harrison's company into ruin, or else he's gotten himself blackmailed."

  Abby let out a long breath and rested her head in her hands. "I knew it."

  He rubbed one hand up her spine. "And you wanted me to confirm it for you?"

  "No, no, it wasn't like that." At his skeptical look, she nodded. "Really, it wasn't. When I came to see you the first time, I had no idea. It wasn't until after—while you were in Prague. Things started to get really bad. Several of Harrison's business associates called, looking for answers. And the family—" She shrugged. "They started getting hysterical when funds began to get tight. People were calling me, asking questions. I didn't kno
w what to say. That's when I really started to go over the reports."

  "But you weren't sure?"

  "No. I'm not an expert, and there was every chance I was reading something wrong." She rubbed her eyes with her thumbs and forefingers. "I really wanted to be wrong."

  Ethan kneaded a knot in her shoulder. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. And I'm sorry you had to find out like this."

  "Me too." She drew a fortifying breath. "But you still don't know exactly what's happening, do you?"

  "Some of my top people are on this. At best, you've got an embezzler on your hands. If we find the culprit, then we might be able to repair some of the damage."

  "And at worst?"

  "At worst, Harrison has been bleeding the profits himself. Maybe he got over his head somewhere."

  "Or it could be blackmail?"

  "It could be," he concurred.

  "And then what?"

  "There are stockholders involved," he said slowly.

  "I know."

  "Other people's money."

  "I know."

  He hesitated. She still seemed to be waiting for an answer. Ethan forged ahead. "He might be in violation of federal trade laws."

  She shuddered. "Oh, God."

  "Which means he could go to jail."

  Abby shivered. "I don't understand this," she said, and he heard the hurt in her voice. "How could he have let this happen?"

  Ethan didn't answer. Abby seemed to make a decision then. She wiped her hands on the legs of her jeans and said quietly, "I can't change it."

  "Not today," he agreed. And silently added, And probably not ever.

  She appeared to process what he said for several seconds before she stood and extended a hand to him. "Then we might as well get back to work. If we don't help Rachel with the baking, we won't be able to taste."

  Ethan took her hand, but made no move to rise from the sofa. "For what it's worth, Abby," he said quietly, "I may not like the man, but I didn't want to see you get hurt."

  "I know." She folded her hand in his. "But there's no evidence yet, and you said yourself you could be wrong."

  "I could be." He hoped she wasn't holding too tightly to the idea.