Not a word. Not a single word, work-related or otherwise, in two weeks! The land was purchased and leveled, the plumbing was run and the slabs were poured and in the process of curing for all three houses. Framing was going up tomorrow and the roofs after that. And yet, Morgan hadn’t spoken to him since she’d run from the town house that afternoon.
River stood in the lobby of Steele Tools, trying to decide if he should go upstairs and confront Morgan. He did need to talk to her about some business-related topics, but he knew those could’ve been handled via email. The truth was that he was here on a personal mission.
She walked out on him. In the middle of...well, the worst possible time to walk out. There was no explanation, no nothing. She’d run from his life once without another word. He wasn’t about to let that happen a second time. If she didn’t want him, if she had regrets about back then and now, she was going to tell him to his face without Daddy running interference.
He straightened his tie and was about to head toward the elevator when he heard an odd sound. It was something akin to a sputter and a gasp mixed together. He expected it to be Morgan, but then he turned to his left and found he was suddenly face-to-face with her father—Trevor Steele.
He expected the man to yell. Trevor had certainly done his share of that when he’d stolen River’s wife from his bed all those years ago, but now, there was only an eerie silence as the man stared him down.
River was older now. Less intimated by a man like Trevor than he was back then. He wasn’t a kid anymore, playing at being a man. Instead, he grinned and stuck out his hand to greet him. “Mr. Steele! Good to see you again, sir.”
The man narrowed his gaze but didn’t return the smile. “What are you doing here, River?” he asked in a voice so low River almost couldn’t hear it.
That’s when he remembered what Morgan had said about her parents. They hated scandal. Trevor would probably love to beat River with his briefcase, but he wouldn’t because that would cause a scene. “You don’t know, sir? My company is working with yours to build houses for the less fortunate.”
River watched as the muscles in Trevor’s neck and jaw tightened until he thought they might pop through his skin. “Is this my daughter’s doing?” he asked coolly.
“Not at all. I believe my company was chosen through a downselect process overseen by one of your sons.” River smiled as brightly as he could manage at the scowling man. Trevor Steele’s firm policy of secrecy had bitten him in this case. “I’m not surprised they chose me. I took your advice and made the most of the bribe you gave me. I’m quite successful these days.”
“A bribe?!” Trevor sputtered as he glanced around the lobby to see if anyone was nearby. “You keep your voice down when you throw around accusations like that. It was no such thing.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and eyeballed the older man thoughtfully. “What would you call paying me to leave and never speak to your daughter again, sir?”
“I would call it softening the blow.”
River laughed at the man’s internal justification. You can’t have my daughter, but here’s a hundred grand for your troubles, son. “Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night?”
“I sleep very well, or I did when I thought you were out of my daughter’s life for good.”
“As far as your precious daughter is concerned, I am out of her life. No worries there,” River added with a bitterness he couldn’t hide. He still wasn’t sure what had sent her running and kept her silent for the last two weeks, but he was going to get to the bottom of it. That is, if security didn’t toss him out of the building before he got the chance.
“Good. Keep it that way.” Trevor started to turn his back and walk away.
“Of course, she doesn’t know the truth,” River called after him.
Trevor froze and turned back to River. “What truth?”
“I’m not sure, but she seems really upset with me about that money. Almost like it was my idea.”
Trevor stiffened at his words. He had lied to his daughter and now River was calling him out on it.
“At first,” River continued, “I thought maybe she was just angry because I took the money you offered. Honestly, I quarreled with myself about accepting it, but when it came down to it, I had nothing else left. Then I wondered if maybe she thought she was worth more than a hundred grand to me. But talking to you now, I think I’ve realized the real issue. She thinks I made you pay me to go away. Like I was just after her money the whole time and hit you up for cash to go away quietly.”
Trevor crossed his arms over his chest. “You did take the money and go away quietly, River. That’s a natural conclusion for her to make under the circumstances.”
River shook his head. “No. No, I think she believes it because that’s what you told her. You lied and told her I demanded money to agree to the annulment. I’m sure it made it easier to get her away from me if she thought I was just some poor scum after whatever cash I could get. I couldn’t possibly have really loved her, right?”
Trevor looked down dispassionately at his watch and shrugged. “If that’s what you want to believe—if that makes losing her more palatable for you—then fine.”
“I should tell her the truth. She deserves to know you lied to her to break us up.”
“I have an important meeting to get to. I don’t have time to argue with you, River. But know this,” Trevor said, leaning in close to him. “You do not want to start unearthing the past. Morgan has spent years trying to get over everything that happened. It has been a long time now and it seems like both of you have done well on your own. I can only hope that you will be smart about this and let sleeping dogs lie. Nothing but pain will come from stirring things up. Good day, Mr. Atkinson.”
Trevor marched across the marble lobby floors, leaving River alone, stewing in his aggravation.
There was probably some wisdom in the older man’s words. Things might be better left alone. But they also might be better if everyone knew the truth. That all depended on Morgan.
Taking a deep breath, he headed toward the elevator and pressed the button to head up to her office.
* * *
Greg Crowley blew through the back door of his father’s home with a scowl of irritation on his face. He’d spent another day downtown trying to get some day-labor work for cash under the table and had come home with twenty bucks in his pocket. Not exactly where he pictured he would be after his ten-million-dollar payday only a month or so ago.
He chucked his ratty backpack onto the kitchen chair and went into the living room. His elderly father was sitting in his recliner, watching television. That was basically all the man had done for the last twenty years since Greg and Nancy’s mother passed away. Watch TV and collect his pension.
He turned to the television in time to see they were talking about the Steele kidnapping case again. That’s all they seemed to talk about on the local news these days. Or maybe it just seemed that way because of his conscience. Either way it made him nervous. “Turn that shit off, Dad. No one wants to hear about some rich girl’s problems.”
“Meh!” his father groaned and didn’t budge his remote thumb an inch.
Rolling his eyes, Greg returned to the kitchen for a can of beer and carried it with him back into his bedroom. It was the same bedroom he’d grown up in. With the same damn twin mattress that had been lumpy and awful then, much less now. Living with his father again hadn’t been ideal, but now this was his only haven. The only place in the world he felt safe.
No thanks to Buster.
Maybe Greg was naïve. He’d known Buster for over thirty years. That seemed like the kind of friendship that could be considered trustworthy, even if they shared a common bond of being criminals. He was wrong. After they made off with Jade Nolan’s ransom money, Buster insisted they lay low for a bit. By the time Greg looked up from his hiding place a week later, he realized Buster was long gone and so was the money. Every damn cent.
He hadn’t even wanted to go along with this whole plot. Not back then, and not now, either. It was Nancy and Buster who had been gung ho about it. His sister had gotten the idea after the Steeles were admitted to St. Francis, then discharged for false contractions. Nancy knew they would be back to deliver their child soon enough. That gave them just enough time to formulate their plan. Kidnapping the Steele baby outright wouldn’t fly. Someone had already abducted their eldest a few years before and it was in all the papers. They needed a different angle and they found it.
It seemed simple enough. Swap the babies. Send the Steele infant home with an unsuspecting couple. Their home wouldn’t have security, alarms, cameras or nannies watching the child 24/7 like they had at the Steele mansion. They would then kidnap the Steele infant from the regular couple, then call the Steeles, inform them of the switch and demand the ransom money.
It was a simple enough payday. No one got hurt. The baby would be returned, the parents would get their correct children back and they could all retire with pockets full of Steele family cash.
Hurricane Hugo hadn’t been a part of the plan, but it made things easier. Nancy had no trouble swapping the infants’ ID bands in the chaos. She had access to the names and address of the couple that would take the Steele daughter home with them. Everything was going according to plan. Until it wasn’t.
Greg never expected everything to go so spectacularly wrong. He couldn’t have even imagined it because he hadn’t realized how bad his sister’s drinking had become. Or how serious her depression had gotten. She hid it well behind a cheery exterior. But the next thing he knew, his sister was dead and the Steele baby’s location was lost with her.
When Nancy went into the ground, he thought—or hoped at least—that that would be the end of it. For years, he watched his parents struggle with losing Nancy. The stress of it eventually killed their mother. Greg tried to move on with his life and put his criminal phase behind him. And he’d succeeded. He’d had a steady job, a nice enough apartment and a lady friend he went to dinner with from time to time.
Then Buster showed up one day pointing to an article in the newspaper about some big hospital mix-up thirty years ago. Now they had the piece of the puzzle they were missing—Jade Nolan was the Steele heiress. Buster was convinced this was their chance to get the payday they were owed at last. Greg wasn’t as enthused. He would’ve rather the woman just keep her mouth shut and let it go. He’d sent threatening letters and even ransacked her house to scare her off the case.
But as always, Buster got his way. Greg quit his job to help Buster plan. He wouldn’t need the work once he was rich, right? Then they kidnapped the Steele woman and for once in his life, he thought things were finally looking up.
As Greg looked around his childhood bedroom, he realized that his whole life had been a waste. Whatever he’d wanted to be, whatever he’d hoped to become had been taken from him. Taken by Nancy. Taken by Buster. Even taken by those mixed-up babies at the hospital. He couldn’t blame any of them for what had happened. At least not Nancy and Buster. It was too late for that with his sister in the ground and Buster vanished.
But it wasn’t too late to blame the Steele family. They dangled their wealth and privilege around town, just daring people to take a chance at getting a cut for themselves, then crushing anyone who tried.
For a while, Greg thought he could start over again. Maybe he could get the job back and give that lady friend a call. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that time was long gone. He was fifty-six, unemployed, broke and sleeping on a lumpy twin bed in his father’s home. He had nothing to offer and nothing left to lose.
And that made him dangerous.
* * *
Morgan looked up from her computer to find River standing in her doorway. She glanced at her phone, wondering what had happened to her receptionist and gatekeeper, then remembered she had left early today for an appointment.
Of all the days...
“That’s not excitement to see me,” River said as he stepped into her office and shut the door behind him. “It’s almost like you’ve been hiding from me for two weeks and finally got caught.”
“I haven’t been hiding. I’ve been...busy.” That was a terrible answer, but the best Morgan could come up with on the spot. She sighed and shut her laptop down, then she stood up and came out from behind her desk. She was hoping to intercept River before he sat in her guest chair and got comfortable, but he just sauntered over to the conference table and leaned against it instead. He crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his gaze at her.
“Busy? Busy doing everything to avoid talking about what happened is more like it.”
Morgan’s tight lips twisted as she sought out the right words to respond. She had decided that honesty was not the best policy in this case, especially after all this time, but she hadn’t come up with a better story, either. “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “It was rude.”
“Rude?” he chuckled. “Rude is saying you think I’m ugly. Or that dating me was the dumbest thing you ever did. Making out with me and then abandoning me with a serious case of blue balls is something else entirely.”
She shook her head. “Were you always this crass and I just didn’t notice it?”
“No. But I also wasn’t this angry back then, either. I hadn’t met your father yet, of course, so my young idealism was still intact. But I just ran into him in the lobby. Seems you were right and he didn’t realize I was working with you on the housing project. He was really excited to see me,” he added with an upbeat tone despite the sarcastic bite of his words.
Morgan had been hoping her father would remain out of the loop concerning River, but unfortunately that hadn’t worked out. She was certain she’d be hearing about his concerns posthaste. “No, I hadn’t mentioned it. It didn’t seem like a good idea, especially coming from me. Contracts were already signed at that point. He isn’t involved with the project, so I was hoping it wouldn’t matter. I couldn’t very well explain to my brothers that there was a problem without telling them more than they needed to know.”
“Your family and their secrets. It’s not healthy the way you all keep them.”
Morgan shrugged and slumped against the table beside him. It wasn’t the best idea to stand this close to him, but it was better than looking him in the eye. When he looked at her that way, she was tempted to tell him everything she knew, and that was dangerous. “I’m sure we don’t have any more secrets than any other family. Ours just tend to be on a larger scale. More dramatic than most. I guess it just comes with the territory.”
“You mean with the money.”
She shrugged. “As they say, more money, more problems. And I guess more secrets.”
River sighed, standing silently beside her for a full minute before he spoke again. “What happened at the town house?” he asked quietly.
There were so many things she could say. Should say. And yet, she couldn’t voice any of it out loud. Maybe later. Once the houses were built and their project together was at an end, maybe then she could tell him about Dawn. Then, when he hated her, they could go their separate ways.
The side of his hand brushed against her fingers and stole any concerns from her lips. It sent a thrill through her no matter how hard she tried to tamp it down. Eventually, Morgan would have to face that she and River had something that just couldn’t be ignored.
“I got scared,” she said at last. That, at least, was true enough.
“Of me?”
That forced her to turn and look him in the eyes. They were wary as they watched her. She’d hurt him on some level when she ran off the other day. She hadn’t meant to, but she had. Perhaps it was too much like the last time when she’d left, only this time had been her choice, not her father’s. “Of course not,” she said emphatically. “I was scared of this. Us. This thing between us, whatever it is. I thought that after all this time, it might have lessened, but it hasn’t. So I ran.”
Her gaze dropped down to the knot of his silk tie and focused there instead of the face that was studying every one of her vulnerabilities. Then she felt the warm press of his hand against her cheek. He guided her back up to look at him. “You’re not the only one that feels that way,” he said.
Before she could really consider what that meant, his lips were on hers. She leaned into him, seeking out the comfort and protection he offered as he wrapped his arms around her. As a young woman, she’d always felt safe in River’s arms. When she lost Dawn and everything seemed to be crumbling around her, she wanted his embrace more than anything else, and it was the one thing she couldn’t have. But she could have it now. At least for a while.
“River?” She pulled away and whispered his name into the space between them.
An expression of physical pain flickered across his face for a moment. “You aren’t about to run off again, are you? I’m not sure I can take that a second time.”
“No. You’re in my office, so I’m not going anywhere. I just wanted to talk about something before this went too much further.”
“What?” His fingertips pressed into the curve of her waist, massaging her hip as she spoke and making it hard for her to focus on her words.
“It’s just that...well...I don’t want anyone to find out about this. Whatever this is going on between us. If someone does, it will get ruined, I’m certain of it. I’d rather walk away now than have something with you spoiled again. Can we please keep it—whatever we decide we want it to be—just between us?”
He sighed and leaned back from her. His disappointment was palpable. “Great. Another Steele secret.”
“It’s not about keeping it a secret,” she argued. “It’s about not letting outside influences taint this. I want you. You want me. It’s a simple thing. Neither of us is looking for anything more than a little comfort and release. Maybe some closure. But I don’t want it to impact our professional work. Keeping this between us is the best way to make sure that doesn’t happen. No drama, no scandal...nothing for Daddy to freak out over. Just a little fun between the two of us while it lasts.”
“And after the key ceremony?”
Morgan brushed a strand of hair from his eyes. That event would mark the end of the project, as they handed over the keys to the new residents of the homes they’d built. It would be a bittersweet event for Morgan in more ways than one. “After the key ceremony, I think the best thing is for me to go back to DC and for you to go off and capitalize on the good work you’ve done here. That’s the point of all this, right?”
“Right,” he repeated, but she got the sense he wasn’t content with this arrangement.
Did he want more? An actual relationship? Didn’t he see how impossible that would be? It would be an uphill battle for them every step of the way until something drove them apart again. There was no sense in even entertaining something like that.
“You want me, don’t you?” she asked.
His hands cupped her rear and pulled her tight against his erection. “You know I do.”
“Then what’s the matter? I thought you’d be happy. A no-strings affair with someone you have amazing chemistry with? That seems like a pretty sweet arrangement, especially considering both of us work too hard for anything more complicated.”
“It’s not that. The arrangement is fine. I guess I just want to know what’s changed,” he said.
Morgan pulled away and looked up at him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, the last time we were together, you literally ran from the room. You said you were scared of what we had between us, and now you’re practically crawling into my lap. What’s different about this time? Is it the secrecy that makes you feel more secure? Are you ashamed of people knowing we’re together, even casually?”
“Of course not. It has nothing to do with that.” She reached up and stroked his cheek, feeling the coarse hairs of his beard tickle against her palm. It was an obvious reminder that he wasn’t the boy she’d loved anymore. He was a man. A man that she wanted very badly, despite how she argued with herself. Over the last two weeks, she’d wrestled with how to move forward with River and get what she wanted without exposing the past she needed to keep hidden. For now, the best she could do was to try and keep parts of herself from being exposed so he wouldn’t ask questions. Whether that entailed lingerie, dim lighting or her current strategy—staying partially clothed—it didn’t matter. She was confident in her plan. If he was willing to go along with it.
“In the end, does it really matter why I changed my mind, as long as I have?” She looked at him with her mostly sultry gaze, hoping that it would make the answer moot.
“It shouldn’t,” River agreed. “I know I should just shut my mouth, thank the stars for the situation I’m currently in and take full advantage, but I guess I’m an ass and I overthink everything.”
Morgan cradled his face in her hands and looked him in the eyes. “What’s important is that I want you, River. Every time I argue with myself about it, every time I deny what I need, it only makes me want you even more. What’s different is that I know I can’t run from it anymore. So as far as I’m concerned, there’s only one thing left for us to do.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Lock my office door.”