Chapter Three

The quick change in his demeanor made Maddie pause. A burning sensation leaped to life in the pit of her stomach the longer she stared at him. Was there something about him? Maybe in the eyes… He was slightly familiar. But surely she would have remembered a man like him. Right?

Maddie gasped as her mind made the connection. Wrong. Oh-so-wrong.

“Cole Mitchell,” she whispered, blinking twice to make sure he wasn’t a mirage, but it really was him. This polished stranger was a far cry from the Cole Mitchell who’d grown up in her hometown.

He’d been one of the wildest boys in Butler Field. So wild he’d made the local biker gang look as sweet and innocent as a basket of puppies. He’d had a you-know-you-want-me attitude back then and wore that cockiness as if it were his due. Girls had clamored for his attention like he was the answer to everything they’d always wanted. In high school, a glance from those dark eyes of his had made more than one girl walk into a door because it was so hard to look away.

But Maddie had known better than to look—or anything else, for that matter. She’d kept her distance from him. The last time they’d spoken had been harsh and ugly, but for his sake, she hadn’t had a choice.

Cole’s gaze moved down the length of her body like she was a hundred miles of road he wanted to travel.

He crossed his arms. “What was this tonight? Some kind of game you’re playing? Pretend you want me so you can get whatever the hell it is that you’re after?”

“I wasn’t pretending,” Maddie tossed back, still stunned by his revelation, even as her body shook with unfulfilled need.

“I gave instructions to my assistant to fire everyone associated with Samuel Russell immediately. Why were you still hanging around the hotel when we met?”

“I wanted to finish out the day.” The look he gave her chased chills up her spine. “I work, or rather used to work, in the office, but the cleaning staff was short handed, so I pitched in. It was the honorable thing to do,” Maddie said a little defensively when the air between them thickened with his obviously unspoken you’ve got to be kidding me.

“Honorable?”

There was no mistaking the insulting way he said the word. Maddie swallowed, then she frowned as something dawned on her. “Wait a second. You said you had your assistant fire people. You’re the ruthless multi-millionaire everyone’s talking about?”

His dark eyes gleamed. “In the flesh, honey.”

“Why would you buy a hotel that’s upside down in profits?”

“It belonged to Samuel Russell,” he said with a satisfied smile.

The savagery in his tone surprised her, and she blurted out, “Why do you hate my grandfather so much?”

The smile disappeared. “Don’t act like you don’t know that your grandfather made sure my friends and I ended up convicted for a crime we didn’t commit.”

Whatever she had imagined, it wasn’t that. While her grandfather had sticky-fingered the hotel into the predicament that it was in, he would never have railroaded innocent teens. He didn’t have the heart to do something so unkind. “The evidence that you and your friends set that fire was solid. My grandfather did nothing wrong testifying to what he’d seen.”

His eyes darkened. “Spoken like a true Russell.”

She fought back the urge to laugh. He had no idea that she wasn’t a true Russell any more than he was. “I’m sorry for what happened to you, but don’t blame my grandfather. He’s a good man.”

“He’s a greedy, self-serving bastard, and I’m going to ruin him.”

Maddie didn’t recognize the man in front of her, so twisted with anger. How had things gone wrong so quickly?

“You don’t know the real him.” Her head was spinning from everything he’d said. Disappointment and panic rushed her as she realized her job was well and truly gone. She’d held out a sliver of hope that she’d be able to convince the new owner to undo her firing. But with Cole at the helm…

“Aren’t you going to ask me for your job back for old times’ sake?” he asked with a distinct edge to his voice.

“I do want to keep my job. I need it,” she said softly, wondering if there was hope it was at all possible. She didn’t like to think of the alternative. Dani needed her.

“Trust fund running dry, princess?”

Maddie kept her face impassive, a trick she’d learned to master years ago to hide the wounds from her father’s verbal jabs. Like others, Cole had judged her, thought of her as the spoiled rich girl without a care in the world. After their dance and kisses, it stung more than it would have if she’d never given in to the desire.

“Something like that,” she said, not wanting him to know that she was broke and desperate.

He gave her a dark look. “The answer is no.”

Maddie lowered her hand, then thought about everything her sister needed and all the bills piling up on her kitchen counter. If she were able to continue working at the hotel, she could take care of her sister financially until she figured out what had happened to the rest of Dani’s inheritance. Helping her sister was all that mattered, and she wasn’t above begging. She lifted her chin, met his steely gaze, and feeling like she’d jumped off of a cliff, said, “Please. I’ll do anything.”

“What makes you think I’d give you anything you asked me for?”

“Because I clearly have something you want.” Maddie’s heart beat faster as a wild proposition formed in her mind. It couldn’t work…could it?

He arched an eyebrow. “Which is?”

“Me. Tonight proved that you want me as much now as you did back then.” Her breath hitched, but she forced herself to keep going. “Back when there wasn’t a snowball’s chance of surviving a Texas summer that it could happen.”

He cocked his head but didn’t deny it. “What are you proposing?”

“Give me back my job, and in exchange, I’ll become your lover…your mistress. Whatever you want to call it.” That way she could at least stay close to him and prevent him from ruining her grandfather—and in return, her sister’s inheritance—while at the same time continuing to provide for Dani.

If her proposal shocked Cole, he didn’t let it show. “That’s very blunt of the oh-so proper Maddie Russell to say. Not the kind of talk that would fly at one of your cotillions.”

She clenched her teeth together. “I learned to speak up.” She’d also turned her back on society life, but he didn’t need to know that.

“I know from personal experience that you don’t have any problem speaking up, remember?” His eyes flashed with the same heat, anger, and pride she’d seen in him that last hot summer before he’d been locked away.

Crossing her arms, hoping to steady herself, Maddie said, “Think what you want. You don’t know me.”

“Oh, but I do. You’re the granddaughter of the once richest man in Butler Field, Texas. You date trust fund guys and my ‘dirty, wrong side of the tracks hands’ should never touch you. Isn’t that how you worded it?”

“I said that to you back then for a reason,” Maddie said softly.

“Do you remember what happened after you yelled those words at me?”

Maddie nodded. “I do remember.” Cole had worked for a landscaping company that handled her grandfather’s estate. He’d been planting shrubs near the pool house when she’d finished swimming and had fallen on the wet tile as she climbed out.

He’d helped her up, and she’d known as soon as his hands were on her sun-warmed skin that he’d be able to open the doors of heaven with his touch if it ever went any further. But she’d also known that her father would open the doors of hell in turn. He’d been listening and watching, waiting for a moment to scream that she was “just like your slut of a mother” and waiting to destroy another boy’s life like he had the last one who’d showed her any kindness.

Cole didn’t know it, but she’d done him a huge favor by cold-shouldering him.

“I got fired because you thought I was beneath you, and yet here you are, offering yourself up.” He shook his head. “Tonight was a mistake. When I take a woman to bed, it sure as hell isn’t ever going to be a Russell.”

Conceding defeat, Maddie didn’t correct his wrong assumption that she’d thought he was beneath her. She’d do a lot for her sister, but she wasn’t going to bare her soul to Cole, not when he so clearly wanted to destroy it.

She lifted her chin a notch. “Not taking me up on the offer is your loss, because I promise you, not only am I capable of running this place, but I am un-freaking-forgettable in bed.” Offering to become a man’s mistress wasn’t something she would normally ever do, but then there had never been anything normal about her life. She turned and walked away, head high.

When she reached the elevator, she jabbed her finger against the button. Come on, come on. She made a silent vow then that she wasn’t down for the count. Come hell or high water, Maddie would find a way to fix everything for her sister.

…

Late the next afternoon, Cole was still wound up from the night before. Finding out that the intriguing brunette he’d wanted fiercely enough that it had kept him awake half the night was the granddaughter of his enemy had thrown him. He’d looked forward to having her in his bed, to getting to know her. There was no way in hell that was going to happen now.

He shook off the thought and sat at the desk that was once used exclusively by Samuel Russell. In the chair across from him, his friend Jake lounged. “What’s with the judgmental look?”

“I’m wondering how far you’re willing to take your plan for revenge. You already managed to secretly buy the hotel by having your attorney set up an anonymous company.”

Cole smiled when he thought about how Samuel would react once he discovered the truth about who now owned his hotel.

“Have you considered who else might get hurt by your actions?”

Cole’s smile faded when Maddie’s face came to mind. When she was younger, she’d had blond hair and wore it styled exactly like her circle of snobby friends. They’d all talked and acted alike.

“If you’re talking about Maddie, she’s got nothing to do with this. But you have to admit it’s funny how fate brought her to me after all these years now that I’m not the poor boy from the wrong side of town.”

Jake got up and stretched. “Now that you can return the hell that’s been handed out to all of us, right?”

“Right,” Cole said, clenching his jaw, not wanting to think about the memories that surfaced and tied his heart in knots. The memory of Adam’s face with the expression of fear and the plea for help that he’d mouthed as he’d died would forever haunt him. “I owe it to your brother.”

Adam had helped him to survive. After the guards had beaten Cole and thrown him into the hole, leaving him to starve, Adam had risked his own safety to slip food to him. It had been Adam who’d alerted the supervisor to what was going on, and he’d saved Cole’s life. It’s why the guards had retaliated as soon as they’d found a reason. Adam had died as a result. Clenching his jaw, he gave Jake a hard look.

“We ended up in the facility, and Adam died, all to protect a business deal between Samuel Russell and the fathers of the real arsonists. The ones from the good families.”

“I know we didn’t deserve what happened, but I also know that when you don’t let go of the revenge, it’ll consume you like it did me. There’s been enough pain.”

Yeah, there’s been plenty of pain, and someone’s going to pay. He was glad for Jake that he’d found a way to let go of the past, but he wasn’t a man who could look the other way when an injustice had been committed. “Don’t you have a meeting to get to?” Cole said.

Jake nodded. “All right. I get it.” He hesitated for a second in the doorway. “You know where to find me if you need me.”

After he left, Cole got up and crossed to the windows to look out across Lake Michigan. With the stunning views and the close proximity to the Navy Pier, the hotel was prime real estate, and now it was his. He poured a drink and toasted his success. Unlike Maddie, no one had given him a trust fund or a damn thing to help him get where he was.

After his mother had taken off, he’d been raised by a drunken excuse of a father who liked to prove a point with his fists. Thankfully, the old man had been in jail more often than he was home. Between him and the juvenile facility, Cole had learned how to take a punch…and how to give one back that was faster and harder. His earlier years had honed him, taught him to live by two ironclad rules: never love and never show weakness.

The strong survived. The vulnerable did not.

When a knock sounded on the door, he thought at first it was Jake returning, but it was his attorney and friend, Pierce Maynard. As soon as he entered, Pierce said, “It’s done. The Russell family estate and the items auctioned during the pre-sale are now yours.”

“Good. That’s one more piece.” He wouldn’t be satisfied until everything Samuel cared about belonged to him.

“What do you want me to do next?”

“Draw up the paperwork donating the estate to the family that fostered and adopted all those special needs kids. Relist the auctioned items from the estate and give half the money from the proceeds to the Butler Field food bank, the other half to the nonprofit sanctuary that takes care of abused animals.”

Pierce grinned.

“What?”

“I don’t know why you act like you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

“It’s not an act.” Cole tapped his fingers over his heart. “You know I’m not capable of feelings.”

“You sure about that? What about Maddie? Based on what you’ve told me about your history with her, I’d think you’d felt something there.”

Cole laughed, and the sound was bitter even to his ears. “If by some miracle I ever did grow a heart, I sure as hell wouldn’t fall for a Russell. No matter how beautiful she is.”

Pierce shook his head so hard his glasses slid downward. “Famous last words. Didn’t Mason and Jake say the same thing about the women they’re now married to?”

“It’ll never happen.” Cole clenched his jaw. “I don’t get involved with women who have dollar signs running through their veins. Maddie even offered to be my mistress in exchange for me giving her back her job.” He was guessing she didn’t need the money. That it was a ploy to get him for one reason or another. Samuel Russell was rotten to the core, and no doubt he’d taught his granddaughter well. She had an ulterior motive behind her offer; he was sure of it. He just didn’t know what it was.

“Is that right?” Pierce rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “You should take her up on it.”

“Hear me out,” Pierce said when Cole told him exactly what he thought of the idea. “You know that Samuel’s gone to ground. By getting close to Maddie, maybe she’ll lead you to him, and you’ll find the proof that you need for his part in framing you and your friends.”

“I’m not sleeping with Maddie Russell. I’d sooner cuddle up with a rattlesnake. It’d be a whole lot safer, too. I don’t need her. My investigators will find out where the old man is hiding and the proof.”

“Maybe, but the longer you wait, the more chance Samuel has of moving beyond your reach. You want Maddie, and from her offer, she obviously wants you, too, so why not go for it?”

“I don’t want her,” Cole denied. Then he thought of the kiss they’d shared at the party. Liar, liar, boner on fire.

“You do,” Pierce said emphatically.

“Maybe I do want her,” Cole conceded. “But being around Maddie Russell is like juggling live grenades. An explosion’s bound to happen.”

“It might all blow up in your face, but I doubt it. My money is on you. You’re more than a match for her.”

Cole weighed the idea, then dismissed it. He knew better than to jump into bed with Maddie. It would give her too much access to his personal life. He might slip up and reveal something he shouldn’t.

“Look, you don’t have to actually follow through with sleeping with her. Just let her think you’re going along with her idea. You get close to her, she lets down her guard, and boom! You find out everything you need to know.”

“No.” His phone rang, and Cole answered. He hardened his jaw with each sentence his lead investigator uttered. No luck finding Samuel, and the man’s son and daughter-in-law were also in the wind. Cole couldn’t handle the thought of his plans slipping through his fingers. He told the man to keep chasing leads and hung up.

Maybe Pierce was right. Maddie could be the answer. If pretending to go along with Maddie’s offer could lead him to another piece of the Russell puzzle, for Adam’s sake, he had to do whatever was necessary. He owed his friend this penance for failing him. His mind made up, Cole nodded slowly. “Looks like I’m going to juggle grenades after all. Let’s set it in motion.”