Rachel Bailey - Return of the Secret Heir

He reached for a magazine from a bedside table, obviously planning to give her some privacy. It wouldn’t be enough, but it would be something-she would just need to be careful with what she said.

Straightening her shoulders and slipping into professional mode, she clicked the talk button. “Hello, Mr. Bramson.”

She felt JT stiffen beside her and heard the magazine being dropped back on the table as he moved up to sit against the headboard.

Ryder Bramson’s deep, commanding voice came down the line. “Good afternoon, Ms. Baxter. I’ve had a call from a woman named Linda Adams who tells me she’s taken the lead on administering my father’s estate.”

Her heart bumped around in her chest as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. “That’s true.”

“Why the change? I was happy with you.”

She lifted a hand to circle her throat. This wouldn’t be an easy conversation to have in front of JT and not give anything away, but her apartment was small enough that wherever she went, he’d overhear. She could tell Ryder that it was a bad time and ring him when JT wasn’t around, but when would that be? Tomorrow? Ryder Bramson would want answers before then. Running out of options, she crossed the room and leaned against the window frame. If anything confidential came up, she’d refer him back to Linda Adams.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Bramson,” she said, using a calm, controlled voice, “but it’s no longer possible for me to head up that case.”

“I’d like to know why,” he repeated.

Pressing a hand to her temple, she gripped the phone tightly. How much could she reasonably say with JT in the room? She concentrated, trying to get her post-lovemaking brain to function, and knew the answer-the information his lawyer could find by ringing her firm.

Glad to have a line in the sand for the phone call, she expelled a breath. “A conflict of interest has arisen and it’s better that I step back. Linda has taken the lead and I’m assisting her.”

“A conflict of interest? Tell me,” Ryder said, voice suddenly like steel.

Her heart stuttered like a jackhammer. “It would be better-”

“Pia, we’ve been working with you for some time on this, and been happy with your work. But if you have a conflict of interest, then I think I deserve to know what that is.” His voice lightened. “You’ve found you’re another of Warner’s long-lost children?”

She glanced at JT, sitting up against the headboard, hair rumpled, comforter strewn around his thighs, not even pretending to not listen in. Despite the seriousness of the phone call, a quivering began down low in her belly.

“No,” she said slowly, turning away, “but I have an unacceptable link to someone who claims to be one of those children.”

There was a sharply inhaled breath down the line. “You’ve met Hartley?”

She looked back at the gloriously naked man in her bed. “Yes.”

“To have handed over the case, it must be serious. You’re somehow involved, I take it?”

Involved? Try pregnant with the man’s child. “You could say that,” she said, trying not to let the irony come through in her voice.

“Then I can see why you need to step back.” He sighed with what sounded like disappointment.

She squeezed her eyes shut, hating that she’d let everyone down-the firm, Ryder Bramson, herself. It reminded her too much of her childhood where she was constantly facing her parents’ disappointment.

Then she made herself put it all behind her and stood taller against the bedroom wall. All she could do from here was ensure she didn’t make one more mistake-even a spelling mistake, as Ted Howard had helpfully pointed out-and to reassure Ryder that things weren’t as bad as he might be imagining, for the firm’s sake as well as hers.

“I promise you, Mr. Bramson,” she said, injecting her words with confidence, “the firm’s integrity has never been, nor will it be, compromised. As soon as I realized I couldn’t work with the necessary detachment, I excused myself from the case.”

There was silence for a moment before he let out a breath. “I appreciate that. Tell me something, off the record. Since you’ve come to know him, do you personally believe his claim to be Warner’s son?”

She looked at JT while she had his half brother on the phone, acutely aware she was trapped between two powerful men. All she could do was tell the truth. “Yes, I believe him. But that won’t affect the way I carry out my duties assisting Linda Adams.”

“Okay, good to know. Thanks for your work on the case and your honesty.”

She thumbed the off button and dropped the cell on her bedside table, moving slowly to give herself the extra few moments to compose herself before facing JT. She pulled a white silky robe from her cupboard and slipped her arms through the sleeves, then sat on the side of the bed.

“That was one of Warner’s sons,” she said needlessly as she looked at him.

His eyes were shuttered against her, his arms folded over his bare chest. “Can you tell me which one, or is that privileged information?”

“Ryder.” Being in the room with her during that call was probably as close as he’d ever come to either of his half brothers-to anyone on the paternal side of his family-so she waited patiently for him to process the information.

JT nodded. “The legitimate one.”

“Yes,” she said, wishing she could climb back into the bed and hold him, to find what he needed in this moment and give it to him. But JT Hartley wasn’t a man who appreciated any form of sympathy. Especially from her. He’d shared his body, but he hadn’t shared even a sliver of his heart.

“Apparently,” he said, the bitterness only faint in his voice, “it was to protect Warner’s engagement to Ryder’s mother that my mother was chased out of town.”

“Warner’s wife came from a rich family.” She didn’t like to be cynical, but the media had speculated for years that the reason Warner hadn’t divorced his wife and married his long-term mistress was the chance he’d lose too much money in the process-most of the money had come from her. A man like that wouldn’t want his financially advantageous marriage jeopardized before it had started.

He cocked his head to the side. “What do you think of Ryder?”

She thought of the tall man with the rugged features. He was straight down the line and had been nothing but courteous to her. “I think he’s a good man.”

“A good man who married to get more stock in his family company.” He arched an eyebrow. “That sounds a whole lot like his father to me.”

The media had gone crazy when Ryder’s engagement to Macy Ashley had been leaked, and the implications for Bramson Holdings became apparent-he acquired her family company and its ten-percent stock in Bramson Holdings at their wedding. Perfect timing as he headed into a battle for control of the board with his other half brother, Seth Kentrell.

“I know it appeared that way, but I’ve seen Ryder with Macy and there’s something special between them. They’re in love.” Pia’s insides had twisted tight when she met Macy at a fundraising ball and seen her obvious affection for her husband, and his for her.

JT’s eyes said he didn’t believe it, but he didn’t say the words aloud. “Have you met the other one?”

She nodded. “Seth Kentrell.” Dark hair, midnight blue eyes, always in perfect control of himself and situations around him.

“Seems he’s recently engaged, too,” JT said with cynicism. “Again it had something to do with the family business.”

“Not in the way you think. He had some delicate negotiations with April Fairchild over the ownership of a hotel. It would have been difficult for him, so soon after losing Jesse.” Seth’s brother-JT’s third half brother-who’d recently died in a car accident. Her heart cramped as she remembered being the one to break the news to Ryder about a brother he’d never met. Such a sad, senseless loss of life.