At Odds With the Heiress

by Cat Schield

  Ten

  “See,” Scarlett murmured, sounding sleepy and smug. “I told you morning sex was worth sticking around for.”

  Logan slipped a hand along her delicate spine as she set her cheek against his heaving chest. He soothed a strand of dark hair off her damp forehead and deposited a kiss just above her brow.

  “I never doubted you for a second.” Logan rolled her onto her back and kissed her slow and long.

  The sky visible through Scarlett’s bedroom window was a bright blue. Not wishing to set a bad example for Madison, he’d never stayed the whole night with Scarlett. She’d said she understood his reasons.

  But last night he’d let her see how much she meant to him, and sharing his emotions with her had increased the intimacy between them. Leaving had been impossible, so he’d called the guy keeping an eye on Madison and told him to stay until morning.

  Tangled in sheets and warm, naked woman, he pushed all thought to the back of his mind and concentrated on the contour of her lips, the way she moaned when he licked at her nipples and the unsteady beat of her heart as he nibbled on her earlobe.

  “Last night was amazing.” She burrowed her face into his neck so he couldn’t see her expression. “I’m really glad you came by.”

  “I’m glad you decided to stay in Las Vegas.”

  “You were pretty sure I needed to go.”

  “I wanted my life to get back to normal.”

  She put her hand on his chest and pushed him back so she could look into his eyes. “Has that changed?”

  “No.” He flopped onto his back beside her and set his hands behind his head. Staring at the ceiling, he debated how much to tell her. “But I’m not sure I recognize what’s normal anymore.”

  She rolled onto her side and rested her head on her palm. “What does that mean?”

  “You’ve bothered me from the first moment we met.” The words came out of him slowly. “Whenever we’re in the same room it seems as if my senses sharpen. I can discern your voice amongst a dozen others. Your perfume seems to get on my clothes and infiltrate my lungs. And when I close my eyes it’s your face, your eyes, your body I see.” From her wide eyes and open mouth, he gathered his romantic blathering had surprised her. Logan let a smile creep over his lips. “In short, I’ve been obsessed with you for five years.”

  “Were you one of those little boys that shoved and shouted at the girl he liked because he didn’t want to be teased for liking her?”

  “I don’t remember.” He did recall in junior high that he’d been a lot more comfortable with computers than the girls in his class. While his buddies were serial-dating, he’d been modifying motherboards and hacking into the school’s database. “Lucas was the one who excelled with the opposite sex ever since he was six years old. Always dating someone. Most of the relationships didn’t last more than a couple of months before he was on to someone new.”

  “You are never going to get me to believe that you were a monk.”

  “Not a monk. I had a steady girlfriend from the time I turned fourteen. We dated all through high school and college.”

  “Fourteen?” She gave him a wry grin. “What happened after school?”

  This was the part he didn’t like talking about. After ten years, it still stung. “She chose her career over me and moved to London.”

  “Why didn’t you go with her?”

  Because he’d been too stubborn and arrogant to realize he was losing the best thing that had ever happened to him. “My life was here. I’d started a computer security company and I wasn’t about to give it all up.”

  “Then it couldn’t have been that serious.”

  Resentment burned at her easy dismissal of what had been the most important relationship of his life. “We’d been dating almost nine years. Been engaged for three.”

  “But neither one of you had pulled the trigger. Maybe it was more about how comfortable and easy it was than that you were in love.”

  His temper continued to heat. She was the furthest thing from an expert on how he felt.

  “You weren’t there.” He’d devoted years to loving Elle. Giving up a future with her hadn’t been easy. “You can’t possibly know how it was between us.”

  “Of course not,” she soothed. “I’m simply pointing out that if she’d been your everything you’d have figured out a way to stay together.”

  It cut like glass that he considered the merits of her argument for even a second. He and Elle had been devoted to each other for nine years, and he had let her go without much of a fight. Just like he’d been ready to let Scarlett move to L.A. Only this time, he’d come to his senses and asked her to stay. He hadn’t done the same with Elle. She’d been determined to go, asked him to join her, but he’d never requested she turn down the job offer. Had she been waiting for him to?

  “From your expression, I’m going to guess something new has crossed your mind,” Scarlett said. “Care to tell me what?”

  “You might be right. Maybe what kept us together all through school was that we were traveling the same path.”

  “Sometimes that’s the only thing that does keep people together. Giving up your dream so another can live theirs isn’t a sacrifice many are willing to make.”

  “When I came in tonight you were dressed up. No matter how dedicated you are to managing this hotel and competing against your sisters to run Fontaine Hotels and Resorts, you are at heart an actress.” He noted the way her lashes flickered at his statement. “Are you sacrificing what you truly want to stay here?”

  “I made a choice between two heart’s desires,” she said, her smile cryptic. “And I’m never going to second-guess myself about it.” With a languid stretch she swung her feet to the floor and stood. “I’m going to grab a shower. Want to join me?”

  * * *

  After an early lunch in her suite, Logan headed to Wolfe Security, leaving Scarlett to wander downstairs to her office in a happy daze. She sat down behind her desk and stared out over the Las Vegas skyline, hoping no big emergencies came up while she was in this state of bliss because she couldn’t count on her problem-solving abilities.

  Her cell phone rang at a little after two o’clock, rousing her out of a pleasant memory of the night before. It was Grady.

  “Scarlett, I think you are going to want to come down here and see what I found in Tiberius’s files.”

  After the theft of documents in her suite, they’d agreed nothing was to leave the secure-documents facility.

  “Can you tell me what it is?”

  “I’d rather not. You will want to see it for yourself.”

  Disturbed by Grady’s caginess, Scarlett grabbed her car keys and headed for the door. “I’m going to MyVault Storage,” she told Sandy as she left. “I’ll be back by four for the senior staff meeting.”

  Through most of the half-hour drive she wondered what Grady might have found. The fact that he’d been reluctant to share the information over the phone had been odd. What, was he thinking that someone could be listening in? For an instant all she could see was the man in the ski mask. How easy it would have been to plant listening devices in her suite while she was unconscious. Almost as soon as the thought occurred, she brushed it away. Logan’s paranoia was beginning to rub off on her.

  She used her key card and entered the facility. The security guard in the lobby nodded in recognition as she signed in. Cameras watched her from three directions. The security had seemed a little much when she’d first visited the place, but right now she was glad she’d listened to her gut.

  Halfway down a long corridor, she stopped in front of a door marked 23. Again she used her key card to gain access. Grady spun around as she entered. She noted his pale complexion and startled gaze and decided he needed to spend a little less time here.

  “Have you
eaten lunch?” She held up a bag of Chinese food and a six-pack of Diet Mountain Dew, his favorite.

  “No. I was going to go grab something before I found this.” He nudged a file toward her and accepted the bag of takeout.

  What he showed her was an old photo of a group of teenagers. One of them looked familiar, but she couldn’t place why.

  “This is a photo of someone named George Barnes and his buddies.” Grady turned the photo over and showed her the names jotted down on the back. “There’s an old police report from 1969 that mentions George Barnes as well as a few other guys in this photo in connection with some neighborhood burglaries, but nothing was ever solid enough to arrest any of them.”

  “So Barnes was a bad kid.” Despite her confusion, Scarlett felt a jolt of excitement at the old documents and what they meant to Grady.

  “In another file, I found this newspaper clipping about an accidental drowning during a storm. A local boy by the name of George Barnes had been killed. An eighteen-year-old kid from California had tried to save him. A wealthy, orphaned kid by the name of Preston Rhodes.”

  “Preston Rhodes?” Scarlett looked from the article to the photo. “As in Tiberius’s brother-in-law, the current CEO of Stone Properties? That explains why Tiberius had collected information on George Barnes. But what does it mean?”

  “The article says Preston was traveling cross-country on his way to attend college on the East Coast. Thought he’d go out and do a little hiking.”

  Despite the weird sensation crawling up her spine, Scarlett couldn’t discern anything in either the article or the photo that had prompted Grady’s call. “I’m not sure I understand what’s so important about this information.”

  “Look more closely at George Barnes.” Grady was buzzing with excitement. “Does he remind you of anyone?”

  “No. Yes. I’m not really sure.”

  “He looks like JT Stone.”

  “What?” Scarlett looked closer and the pieces slipped into place. “You’re right. What are you thinking, that this George Barnes guy and the Stone family are related somehow?”

  “No.” Grady grew serious. “I’m thinking that Barnes and Preston Rhodes are the same guy.”

  “How is that possible?” Then a door in her mind opened and a hundred detective-show plots raced through her brain. “You think George Barnes stole Preston Rhodes’s identity?”

  “Why not? Barnes’s file paints a picture of a kid with no future. Mom’s a hooker. Dad’s probably one of her clients. He’d been in and out of the foster care system. Spent some time in juvy. Three of his buddies in the photo are in prison. Then he meets Preston Rhodes, a kid his own age who has money and no family, and who’s moving clear across the country to go to college. Who would know if George Barnes put his wallet in the dead kid’s pocket and assumed Preston’s identity?”

  “And when Tiberius found out...” Scarlett stopped breathing as she absorbed the implication. “You think that’s why he was killed.”

  “Makes a good motive.”

  It certainly did. Perhaps it was time to let the police know what they’d discovered.

  * * *

  As Logan was turning into his driveway, his cell rang. It was Scarlett.

  “Logan, you won’t believe what Grady and I found in Tiberius’s files.” She sounded both exhilarated and anxious. “We might have figured out who killed him.”

  Logan entered his house and made a beeline for Madison’s room. Earlier that afternoon his sister had called. Madison hadn’t done as he’d asked and called her parents. Nor was she answering her phone. Giving her the summer to change her mind about college wasn’t working. It was time for her to go home.

  “The police already have a suspect in custody. A detective buddy of mine has been keeping me updated on the case and he called to tell me that a little after noon today.”

  Madison’s bedroom had an empty, unlived-in feel. No clothes cluttered the chair by the window. The dresser wasn’t littered with jewelry and cosmetics. Even as he crossed to the closet, his instinct told him what he’d find. Nothing. His niece was gone.

  “Are they sure they have the right guy?” Scarlett’s doubt came through loud and clear.

  “Positive.” Cursing, he retraced his steps down the hall and found a folded piece of paper on the breakfast bar. “He confessed that he was hired by Councilman Scott Worth to silence Tiberius and get a hold of some documents that proved he was embezzling campaign contributions.”

  “That’s what he stole from my suite?”

  “And grabbed some other random files to hide his true purpose.”

  Madison had taken off for L.A. again. No wonder she wasn’t answering her cell. What the hell was she thinking?

  “Oh, well, good.” Scarlett sounded less enthusiastic than she should.

  “Did you ever talk to Madison?” he asked.

  “No. I was going to and then Grady called.” Scarlett sounded subdued. “Have you tried her cell?”

  “She’s not answering. She took off for L.A.”

  “No,” Scarlett assured him. “She wouldn’t do that. Not without talking to me first.”

  “Well, she did.”

  “Damn.” Worry vibrated through Scarlett’s tone. “I really thought I’d gotten through to her.”

  “I think you did,” Logan said. “Only not about college. Ever since that producer friend of yours came into town, Madison has had nothing but stars in her eyes. And you didn’t do anything to dissuade her.” Even as he took his frustration out on her, Logan recognized it was unfair to blame Scarlett when he had a truckload of regrets at how he’d handled Madison yesterday. “Can you try her cell? Her mother and I aren’t having any luck getting her to pick up. Maybe she’ll answer for you.”

  “Sure.” Her voice was neutral and polite. “And then I’ll call Bobby to see if he’s heard from her.”

  “Is he trustworthy?”

  “Absolutely. She won’t get into trouble with him.”

  “What about the rest of the people she’s bound to meet?” His concern came out sounding like accusation.

  Scarlett’s answer was slower in coming. “She’s a smart girl, Logan. She’ll be careful.”

  “She’s ambitious and overly optimistic.”

  “I told her in no uncertain terms how hard the business is,” Scarlett countered. “She isn’t as naive as you think.”

  “She’s only eighteen.”

  “I get that you’re worried about her, Logan.”

  “Do you? She was hoping to stay with you in L.A.” He knew Madison had enough money from her birthday and from what she’d earned working for Scarlett to put herself up in a decent hotel for a week or so. Longer if she chose something on the seedier side. “Where is she going to go if you aren’t there?”

  “This isn’t her first trip to L.A. I know she has friends there she kept in touch with. She’ll probably crash with one of them. Let me try calling her. I’ll let you know in a couple minutes if I get ahold of her.”

  While he waited for Scarlett to call back, Logan stared out the sliding glass door at the pool where Madison loved to hang out. The sun sparkling off the water was blinding, but he stared at the turquoise rectangle until his eyes burned. Although part of him agreed with Scarlett that Madison was capable of taking care of herself, the other part recognized that he’d been tasked with a job and had failed miserably at it. Paula was going to kill him when she found out he’d lost her baby.

  His cell rang after what seemed like forever, but the clock on the microwave revealed it had only been ten minutes.

  “Her phone must be off. It’s rolling straight to voice mail,” Scarlett said. “So I called Bobby. He hasn’t heard from her, but he promised to call me as soon as he does.”

  “Thanks.” He sounded grim.

&
nbsp; “She was determined to go to L.A., Logan. We all may have been kidding ourselves that she intended to go to college this fall. When there’s something Madison wants, she goes after it. You should all be proud of her. I wish I’d had half her confidence at her age.”

  “You expect me to be proud?” he demanded, his voice an impatient whip. “She ran off without letting anyone know her plans.”

  “Maybe it was the only way she could do what she wanted.”

  Logan didn’t want to hear what Scarlett was trying to tell him. “What happens when this acting thing doesn’t pan out?”

  “She can always go to college.”

  “Like you did?”

  An uncomfortable silence filled the phone’s speaker before Scarlett replied. “Madison and I grew up very differently. I started acting when I was nine. That’s all I knew. I didn’t have the opportunity to choose what I wanted to do at eighteen. By then I’d been a star with all that came with it and was on my way to becoming a has-been. Maybe if I’d grown up around normal kids, gone to school, and the only expectations put on me were to go to college and get a regular job, I might have ended up a savvy businesswoman like Violet or Harper.” Her voice took on a husky throb. “Or maybe I’d have ended up just like Madison, feeling trapped by what everyone else wanted me to be.”

  “You think Madison felt trapped by her parents’ expectations?”

  “And yours. You are a hard man to please, Logan.”

  “Is that what you’ve been trying to do?” he questioned, infuriated by her reproach. “Please me? Because if that’s the case, you haven’t been doing a very good job.”

  “It figures you’d see it that way. For a few days I thought our differences were behind us, but now I see they’ll never be.” She sounded immeasurably sad. “I knew this thing between us would be short, but it was way more fun than I could have hoped.”

  Logan’s anger vanished at her declaration. He’d never imagined this phone call would lead here. “Scarlett—” Was she really ready to call it quits? Was he? “This is not the conversation we should be having right now.”