Heartbreaker. Joanne Rock

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       Two

      Gage wondered how she could possibly look him in the eye and claim otherwise.

      She sat beside him in his study in her bloodred dress, glossy tendrils of hair winding around her shoulders like Medusa’s serpents. It was all an enticing distraction from the threat she posed. To his name, his reputation and everything he’d worked hard to build at Mesa Falls Ranch.

      “Revenge for what, exactly?” she asked finally, recrossing her legs in the opposite direction, causing the long slit in her dress to part and expose her lean calves. Velvet ribbons from her high-heeled shoes wound around her lower legs, their soft bows drawing his gaze to her feet, where red-painted toenails peeped from supple leather.

      She was a breathtaking woman, even when she didn’t dress to turn heads. Tonight, he couldn’t look away from her if he tried. And damn it, he needed to try harder.

      “For your wounded pride. For the slight from my family when my father bribed you to leave me. You were livid with him.” And she hadn’t even blinked when he’d asked her if she’d accepted the payment. Her affirmation—the defiant lift of her chin—had iced all the feelings he’d had for her. “With me.”

      He’d never understood how she could have transferred so much anger to him when she was the one who’d sold out what they had. Later, it occurred to him that his father might have filled her head with lies about Gage not wanting her in his life. But by then, she was long gone and none of it mattered.

      She’d moved half a world away, returning to Southern California, where they’d first met, while he remained in New Zealand to help his father campaign for a parliament seat and a more prominent position in his party. For Gage’s father, politics had been a paramount concern his whole life, an important way to maintain Striker family interests. Sadly, now that Gage’s fortune outstripped his father’s several times over, his relationship with his dad seemed even more tenuous.

      “It’s been six years since we ended things,” she reminded him, glancing down at her fingernails as if the discussion bored her. “I moved on. Married someone else.”

      “And look how well that worked out for you.”

      The beat of silence afterward told him the barb had hit the mark. It also made him realize how damned petty that had been. Her gaze flicked up to his, her expression tinged with a hint of pain before the walls went back up again.

      “I agree that was a foolish move.” Her easy response surprised him as she leaned back deeper into the couch cushions, relaxing her rigid posture a fraction. “But my point is that I certainly wouldn’t hatch a revenge scheme after all this time.”

      “I have no business commenting on your marriage.” He squeezed the bridge of his nose, the tension in his head a sign that she was getting under his skin. “My apologies.”

      She inclined her head, gracious as a queen. “And I’m sorry for sneaking into the party under another woman’s name. But given our history, I didn’t feel comfortable requesting an invitation.”

      He couldn’t help a wry laugh as he forced himself to gaze into the fireplace flames instead of at the woman on the couch beside him. “Probably because I would have never granted you one. You have to know that it’s my job to protect the privacy of my guests. Which means no tabloid reporters.”

      “Nevertheless, I need to have my phone back.” She shifted beside him, running her palm over the expanse between them and drawing his focus to her left hand that bore no ring. Not even a lingering tan line. “My followers will think something happened to me after my video cut off in the middle.”

      “Then they seriously underestimate your resourcefulness.” They’d met the year before he’d taken his first company public. Back then, the tech start-up offering network privacy tools had been the sole focus of his life. Elena had been working for a rival firm, and she’d quit her job because she believed in his product more.

      She’d shown up in his office to tell him so, offering her services as an influencer to a younger demographic. At the time, she’d had a homegrown following for her beauty and fashion tips, and he hadn’t understood how that could help him. She’d single-handedly taught him the value of never underestimating a target market, making a clever video that brought him fifty thousand converts to his network security product overnight. He’d given her a percentage and a job. In the end, he’d lost more than a woman he loved when they parted. He’d lost a hell of a team member since she’d handed in her resignation the same day they broke up.

      “Then what will it take to recover my device?” she pressed, a hint of agitation creeping into her tone. “Let’s open the negotiations so we don’t take up any more of each other’s time.”

      She reached for the bourbon on the rocks he’d poured her, and then, as if thinking the better of it, she returned her hand to her lap.

      “For starters, be honest with me about what you’re doing in Montana.” He rose from the couch and returned to the wet bar, pouring her a glass of ice water. Delivering it to her, he noticed how carefully she took it from him. Somehow, the absence of contact only ratcheted up the awareness between them as he reclaimed his seat.

      “Thank you.” She took a long sip before setting the glass beside the first one. A hint of lipstick on the crystal distracted him for a moment. “And I was honest with you. I’m going to get answers about Alonzo Salazar’s ill-gotten gains and where the proceeds from his book went. I’m not leaving the ranch until I either find out or have a solid lead that points somewhere else.”

      Gage already knew from his exchange with the investigator April Stephens that she’d found answers to that same question. But he wasn’t going to point Elena in her direction since he didn’t want to aid her in her quest.

      Alonzo’s secrets were tied up with his own. His former mentor had been privy to the nuances of a boarding school tragedy that involved all six of the ranch’s owners, something they’d taken pains to put behind them for good. So his primary objective was to keep Alonzo’s past on lockdown. For starters, he sure as hell wasn’t letting the woman seated beside him anywhere near April Stephens tonight. Thankfully, the investigator would be leaving Mesa Falls Ranch in the morning.

      “So you’re just here for a story,” he concluded, willing to capitalize on their past affair to maneuver her if it came down to that. He happened to know her very, very well. “Not out of any desire to see me again.”

      He could tell he caught her off guard by the slightest hint of her shoulders straightening. Was it in awareness of him? Or was she just squaring up for the next round of battle?

      “You’re safe with me, Gage. I promised your father you would be, after all.”

      They settled back into sparring roles, and if he were being honest, he was more comfortable seeing her as the enemy than a woman СКАЧАТЬ