Maureen Child - His By Any Means

Not a date. Of course it wasn’t a date. Idiot.

“Why?” And why are you questioning it, her mind demanded.

“Well, I still want to talk to you about J.D.,” he said. “And it’s been a long day. For both of us.”

Of course. That explained it, Colleen told herself firmly. He wanted to talk about his father and all she’d managed to do was talk his ear off about her problems.

“Okay,” she said after a long moment. “That would be nice.”

“Great.” He stood up and looked down at her. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

“I’ll give you my address.”

“I know where you live,” he told her. “I’ll see you tonight.”

He knew where she lived. What was she supposed to make of that?

“Can I carry your suitcase down to the car?”

“What? Oh. No, thank you.” She glanced around the room. “I’ve still got a few things to pack up.”

“All right then, I’ll leave you to it,” he said, heading for the doorway. When he got there, he paused, turned around and speared her with an unfathomable look. “See you tonight.”

When he left, Colleen stared after him for a long minute. Her heartbeat was racing and her knees felt a little wobbly. Her reaction to Sage was so staggering, she wasn’t really sure how to deal with it. However, as the sound of his footsteps faded away, Colleen told herself that she couldn’t really be blamed for her response to his presence. He was like a force of nature. Sage Lassiter was a gorgeous steamroller, flattening everything in his path.

And Colleen realized that now, for whatever reason, she was in his path.

Four

“So how’s the rest of dealing with the will going, Walter?” Sage drove straight from Big Blue to the lawyer’s office. He wanted a chance to talk to J.D.’s lawyer without the explosive release of emotion that had happened when the family was gathered together. Not that he’d been able to dismiss the anger churning inside him. The plan had been to arrive, calm and cool, and outstare the older man. That didn’t happen though, because he was far from feeling cool and detached.

Tension played in every one of his muscles and tugged at the last threads of his patience. Being with Colleen had ramped his body up to the point where he’d practically had to limp his way out of the ranch house. Just sitting beside her on the bed in her room had tested his self-control, because what he’d really wanted to do was lay her back on the mattress and explore those amazing curves she kept so carefully hidden.

Instead, he’d talked to her. And talking to Colleen hadn’t solved a damn thing—it had only muddied waters that were already so damn thick it might as well have been concrete. He couldn’t make her out. Was she the innocent she seemed to be? Or was she working him as she had worked J.D.? He had to find out...but that was for later. Right now, he had a couple of questions for his late father’s lawyer.

“It’s coming along but I’m not discussing it with you, Sage, and you damn well know it.” Walter Drake steepled his fingers, leaned back in his leather chair and looked at Sage with the barely hidden impatience he would have shown a five-year-old. “J.D.’s will is a private matter. I’ve already read publicly the parts that affect the family. As for the rest...”

Sage jumped out of his chair and stalked to the far window. Yeah, he was too on edge to be facing down a lawyer. He should have known better than to come here today, but damn it, there were just too many questions about the will.

Looking down on the street below, he focused for a second on the traffic, the pedestrians wandering along the sidewalks and even the mountains jutting into the sky in the distance. He looked anywhere but into the smug features of J.D.’s lawyer.

Going in, Sage had guessed that Walter wouldn’t talk. Hell, he wouldn’t have even if he could. The man liked holding all the power here. Liked having information that no one else did. And getting anything out of him would probably require dynamite—or someone with far more patience than Sage possessed. Fine, then. He’d back off the topic of the rest of the will for the moment and try a different tack. Half turning, he faced the man watching him through hooded eyes.

“All right,” Sage said, “never mind.”

Walter nodded magnanimously.

“But there’s still the matter of J.D. leaving control of Lassiter Media to Evan instead of Angelica.”

Walter frowned at him, sat up and braced both elbows on his desktop. “J.D. had reasons for everything he ever did, Sage. You know that.”

J.D. had sure thought so. But Sage had given up trying to figure out the old man years ago. The whole time he was growing up, the two of them hadn’t even been able to be in the same room together without snarling and growling like a couple of alpha dogs fighting for territory.

But Angelica was different. Right from the start, she had been J.D.’s shining star. So how he could have cut her out of her rightful inheritance was beyond Sage. “Yeah, but what reason could he have for cheating his daughter out of what should have been hers?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Can’t?” Sage demanded, walking back to stand opposite the man’s desk. “Or won’t?”

“Won’t.” Walter stood up, since staying in his chair required him to look up at Sage, and he clearly didn’t enjoy that. “J.D.’s my client, Sage, dead or alive. Not you. Not the Lassiter family.”

“And you’ll protect him from his damn family even after his death?”

“If I have to,” Walter said softly.

Frustration clawed at him. “None of this makes sense. You know as well as I do that J.D. had been grooming Angie for years, getting her ready to run Lassiter Media.”

“True...”

“So does it seem rational to you that he would leave the company to Angie’s fiancé?” There went his grasp on the last slippery thread of temper.

The lawyer only stared at him for a long minute or two. “If you’re trying to insinuate that J.D. wasn’t competent to make this will, you’re wrong. And that allegation would never stand in a court.”

“I’m not talking about court.” Yet. “I’m talking about your knowledge of J.D.”

“As I’ve already said, J.D. had reasons for everything he did, and this is no different.”

Sage had no idea why J.D. would have done this. It made no sense at all.

The lawyer’s deliberate refusal to give anything away just increased the sense of outrage snarling inside him.

“This isn’t getting either of us anywhere, Sage. So if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got business to take care of and—”

“I’m not done with this, Walter,” Sage promised. “We all want answers.”

For the first time, a flicker of something that might have been sympathy shone in the other man’s eyes. “And I wish I could give them to you,” he said. “But it’s out of my hands.”

Frustrated, Sage conceded defeat. At least for now. “Fine. I’ll go. But once the family gets over the shock of all of this, I won’t be the only one showing up here demanding answers. I hope you’re ready for that.”

At any other time, Sage might have laughed at the beleaguered expression on the man’s face. But right now he just wasn’t in the mood to be amused.

Once out in the parking lot, Sage hunched deeper into his black coat as a cold mountain wind pushed at him. Even nature was giving him a hard time today. He crossed to his black Porsche and climbed in. During the winter, this car spent most of its time locked away in a temperature-controlled garage on his ranch. Right now, he was glad he had the sports car. He had a driving need to push the car to its limits, wanting the speed, needing the rush of the moment.