“Lauren…I can’t…discuss this.”
“But—”
“I know you don’t believe me, but I loved Kirk. He is the only man I ever loved, and knowing I’ll never see him again—” Her voice broke. Her hand trembled as she set down her glass and covered her mouth.
Lauren hardened herself to the emotion. Jacqui was hiding something. The question was, what? “What about your husband?”
“That was an arranged marriage. My father promised to invest in Hightower Aviation if William married me.”
“And you agreed?”
“I was a bit of a…difficult girl. My father wanted me to settle down. He threatened to cut me off without a cent if I didn’t do as he ordered. William was quite a dashing pilot at the time. I thought I could grow to love him. I was wrong.”
But she was still married to the guy. “Where did my father fit into this triangle?”
“William’s only loves were flying and gambling. When my father died unexpectedly, I discovered my husband had gambled us into financial difficulty. I had to learn how to manage HAMC’s assets because my husband was too busy having fun elsewhere. Your father helped me. Our…friendship soon became more. I knew it was wrong. But I fell in love with Kirk, and he with me.”
Lauren shifted, not wanting to believe her father had knowingly slept with a married woman.
“When I became pregnant with you, your father gave me an ultimatum. Leave William and come to him or we were over. But I couldn’t. My father had written into his will that if I left my husband, I’d lose everything. My trust fund. My inheritance. My stock in Hightower Aviation. I had my other children to think of. I couldn’t leave them to be raised by that—their father.”
“You left me easily enough.”
“William pressured me into giving you up. Kirk insisted on adopting you. I agreed, but only if I could visit you. Your father’s stipulation was that we not tell you I was your mother. He didn’t want you to feel rejected.”
But Lauren had always wondered why her mother couldn’t love her and didn’t want her. “If you loved my father that much, how could you have been happy with only seeing him once a year?”
“That was all William would allow me. I lived for that week.”
So had her father. Lauren had experienced a love-hate reaction with Jacqui’s visits. On one hand while her mother was there, her father had been happier than she’d ever seen him, but every time Jacqui left he’d been devastated. And nothing Lauren had done had been enough to cheer him up.
She scanned the expensively decorated room. “Yes, it looks like you had a rough time. Living in the lap of luxury with servants at your beck and call when you weren’t with Dad and I must have been difficult.”
Jacqui cringed at the sarcasm in Lauren’s voice. “I would have been with you if I could.”
Lauren tried to work up sympathy and failed. Her mother had chosen financial security over a man who’d adored her and would have done anything for her. “So you don’t think my father committed suicide?”
Again, Jacqui flinched. “Your father had too much to live for to harm himself. He had such plans, such high hopes.”
Lauren wanted to believe her. But there was something fishy in the way Jacqui’s gaze kept flitting around the room and never directly engaging with Lauren’s.
The front door opened. Male voices bounced off the walls. Lauren stiffened. Gage and Trent. What had happened to their dinner plans? She looked at the archway, praying they’d pass by, but Trent’s scowling face glared back at her.
“Mother, I didn’t know you were expecting company.” An arctic chill radiated from his voice.
“You know Lauren is always welcome here.”
Gage said nothing, but his dark assessing eyes lasered in on Lauren. She had every intention of finding out what Jacqui was hiding, but she wouldn’t get her answers tonight. She couldn’t risk Trent overhearing the questionable circumstances of her father’s death. The charter jet business was a small and competitive one. One word to the wrong people and Falcon would be grounded. Permanently.
Lauren rose. “I was just leaving. Good night, Jacqui. Gentlemen, I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Any news?” Lauren asked the moment her uncle answered the phone twenty minutes later. She locked her apartment door and set her keys and bag on the nearby table.
“Nothing.”
She’d been frustrated by her lack of progress with her mother and needed to talk to someone who understood. “Why is this taking so long? Daddy’s been gone two months.”
“Lauren, sweetie, your father’s case may be number one to us, but it’s not to the rest of the world. To them he was just another pilot in an experimental aircraft. He wasn’t running from criminal charges or trafficking drugs or anything else that would make him a high priority.”
“But Lou—”
“The crashes that have happened since his are higher profile. When are you coming home?”
She unpinned her hair, trying to relieve the slight headache Trent and Gage always gave her. “I don’t know. Jacqui’s still playing the grieving lover role. I’ll try to call the investigators again tomorrow.”
“No point. I called today to make sure they had your correct address. They promised the report would be couriered to you as soon as it’s done. Just finish whatever it is you’re trying to do and get home. I need you here. And I miss you, baby girl.”
Her chest tightened. Lou had been a second father to her. Moving to Knoxville on the heels of her father’s death was almost like losing both of them. “I miss you, too, Lou.”
“Call the minute you get the report.”
“I will. Keep your cell phone on.”
“I’ll try to remember.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t try. Just do it. Love you. I’ll call again soon.”
And hopefully, by the next time she called she’d have the answers they all needed to be able to get back to life as usual and focus on getting Falcon Air back into the black.
“She’s done it again.” Trent’s angry voice barked through Gage’s wireless cell phone earpiece late Wednesday afternoon.
“Who’s done what?” Gage’s grip tightened on the steering wheel of the sedan he’d rented.
“My mother withdrew almost two hundred thousand dollars from one of her accounts today.”
Gage’s breath whistled through his teeth. Jacqueline Hightower had always liked her expensive toys. “Has she been car shopping again?”
“I doubt there’s a dealership on the island of Anguilla. That’s where Mother is now. She flew out early this morning. I’ll bet that little leech is connected. Why else would Lauren have been at my house last night? Is she with you now?”
Gage pinched the bridge of his nose, hoping to ward off the tension headache taking root between his eyes. The CEO he’d spent the day with had been difficult and defensive. In the end, Gage had refused the job and walked out.
Turning down work was still difficult for him. He wanted the security each job put in his investment account, but his time was short and the list of clients requesting his expertise was long enough to allow him to choose the ones who truly wanted his help and were ready to accept it rather than deal with the ones who fought his suggestions each step of the way as this one would have.
“No. I just left the job site. I’m on the way to the airport now.”
“Tell Lauren to report to my office as soon as she’s locked down the plane.”
Gage scanned the dense fog outside the windows of his rental car. His headlights barely penetrated the near whiteout. “Check the forecast. Unless she’s going to fly blind I don’t think we’ll be home tonight.”
A moment later Trent’s curse rang in his ears.
“Don’t sweat it, Trent. This could work in your favor. The weather will keep your sister out of town overnight while you track the money trail. I’ll use the time to see if I can find out anything relevant to your situation.”
It wasn’t as if he’d be befriending Lauren. He was simply protecting Trent’s interest and digging for facts—something he did every day in his job.
Gage refused to stand by and let someone else’s greed derail Trent’s years of hard work. Loyalty to his friend wouldn’t allow it.
Lauren shifted in the passenger seat of the rental car, glanced down at her HAMC uniform and then up at the restaurant looming out of the fog.
Not again. Why did life keep throwing men who seemed determined to prove she couldn’t fit into their world at her? It was probably a good thing her last relationship hadn’t worked out. If she’d married Whit—not that he’d asked—she would have struggled against a lifetime of being a misfit. Ditto trying to fit into the Hightower clan.
“Can we go somewhere less…?”
Gage glanced her way as he pulled into the valet parking lane behind three other cars. “Less what?”
“Highfalutin. I realize you’re accustomed to places like this, but I’m more interested in a filling meal than swanky presentation and having to worry about which fork to use.”
No matter what her half brother ordered she should never have agreed to have dinner with Gage. But being grounded at a small rural airport by heavy fog had limited her options. Gage hadn’t requested in-flight meals, so there hadn’t been any food stashed on board, and the airport didn’t have a restaurant. She hadn’t wanted to waste money on a taxi.
An elegantly clad couple exited the brass-and-glass etched doors and headed for the valet stand, confirming her opinion. “I’m not dressed for this.”
Gage inched the car forward. “What makes you think this is my kind of place?”
She flipped a wrist, indicating his tailored suit. He still looked as GQ fresh as he had when he’d met her at the terminal sixteen hours ago in the misty morning light. “You’re buddies with Trent, which means you were probably born in a suit and carrying a silver spoon. Correction. You probably had a nanny on standby to carry it for you from the moment you took your first breath.”
Gage’s eyes crinkled with amusement. Lauren jerked back, her breath and heart hitching in tandem. Wow. The man was seriously gorgeous when he flashed those pearly whites.
Too bad he was taboo.
But even if he weren’t, her life was too complicated for a relationship right now. Besides, Gage had the money thing going, and, compliments of Whit, she’d sworn off rich guys forever. Their sense of entitlement and belief that less-fortunate people had been put on this planet for their use rubbed her the wrong way. Her new family only reinforced that point.
Gage’s smile faded. “I wasn’t born to money, Lauren. I earned everything I have. But I appreciate a good meal and superior service.”
She searched his face in the glow of the dashboard lights. Could he possibly be telling the truth? If not, he lied flawlessly. “Your parents weren’t loaded?”