River Road (11 page)

“Whoa.” Cecil held up a hand. “This is a birthday party. No business talk tonight. I can go over the pros and cons of the merger with Lucy some other time.”

“You’re right,” Ashley said. “Wrong place, wrong time. It’s just that the merger has been on everyone’s mind for the past few weeks. It was supposed to be a done deal. And now everything’s in chaos.”

Cecil took charge. He touched Ashley’s arm in a small, telling gesture. He was warning her to calm down, Lucy realized. Ashley’s tension was palpable.

“I think that’s enough for now, Ashley,” Cecil said. “Why don’t you go back to your other guests? You know Warner likes to have you by his side at events like this. I’ll explain the situation to Lucy at some other time.”

“Yes, of course,” Ashley said. She pulled herself together with a visible effort and gave Mason a glowing smile. “I’ll see you both later. Enjoy yourselves.”

She turned quickly and disappeared into the crowd.

“I apologize for Ashley,” Cecil said to Lucy. “There’s a lot of tension in the family—always has been. The merger offer is bringing things to the surface. Mary’s death and finding out that her shares went to someone outside the family has added another level of complexity. She left everything else in her estate to Quinn. Most of it was in the form of property in the area that she bought years ago, when land in wine country was cheap.”

“Any idea how Mary felt about the merger?” Mason asked.

“She never paid much attention to the business,” Cecil said. “But when there was division on the board she always voted with Quinn. For the most part, Quinn backs his father.”

“But not this time?” Lucy asked.

“No. Warner is still opposed to the merger for sentimental reasons. Colfax Inc. is his creation. He built it from the ground up. But he no longer takes an active interest in it. His passion now is this winery. I’m afraid that without him at the top it’s only a matter of time before Colfax Inc. loses its edge. It was Warner’s intuition for investments that made the firm so successful. Unfortunately, there’s no one in the family who can replace him. No one has his gut instincts for the market. Everyone involved realizes that.”

“What about you?” Mason said.

“I’m good,” Cecil said. He raised one shoulder in a confident, self-effacing shrug. “I’m very good. That’s why Warner put me in charge. But when it comes to surfing the markets long-term, Colfax is a genius. The problem is he’s just not that interested anymore, and that’s the sad reality. Without him at the helm on a day-to-day basis, the wheels will eventually come off. He’s a stubborn man, but he’s a realist. In the end, I know he’ll do what’s best for the family.”

“Which is to accept the offer?” Lucy asked.

“Right. The merger will allow Warner to get out on top of his career. His legend will remain untarnished. And everyone in the family—and you as well, Lucy—will walk away with a very nice profit. We’re talking multimillion-dollar payouts for each stockholder. But I’m breaking my own rule here, talking business at a party. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to sit down with you sometime at your convenience and walk you through the spreadsheets. That way you’ll have all the facts before you make up your mind.”

“All right,” Lucy said.

Cecil took out his phone and tapped it a couple of times. “Would ten tomorrow morning work for you?”

Lucy did not bother to take out her own phone. “No, I’m afraid I’m very busy at the moment.” She smiled. “The body in the fireplace has complicated things.”

Cecil winced. “I understand. Maybe later this week? I don’t keep an office here in Summer River. I’m staying in one of the guesthouses on the estate. But that doesn’t matter. All I need is my computer. Ashley mentioned that you are at the Harvest Gold Inn. We can meet there, if that’s convenient.”

“No,” Mason said before Lucy could respond. He looked at Lucy. “You won’t have any privacy there, not unless you use your room.”

He let that hang in midair. There was no need to fill in the blanks, Lucy thought. She did not need a reminder that it would not be a good idea to meet with Cecil alone in her room. She doubted that Cecil needed a lecture on the subject, either.

He cleared his throat. “I was thinking we could have coffee together in the square.”

She stifled her irritation and gave Cecil a bright smile. “That sounds fine. I’ll get in touch when I’ve got some free time to sit down with you and look at the numbers.”

Mason looked even less pleased. Cecil, on the other hand, was clearly satisfied.

“That will be ideal,” he said. He dropped his phone into his pocket. “A pleasure to meet you, Lucy.” He nodded, ever so slightly, to Mason. “And you, Fletcher.”

He turned and waded into the crowd with casual ease, pausing to chat here and there before disappearing into the tasting room.

“Don’t,” Lucy said firmly, “ever do that again.”

“What?” Mason asked. He was watching the doors through which Cecil Dillon had just vanished.

“Do not step in while I’m making a business appointment.”

“He intended that business appointment to take place in your bedroom,” Mason said.

“I doubt that very much. You leaped to a dumbass conclusion, admit it.”

“Dumbass?”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake. He’s the CEO of Colfax Inc. You heard him, there are millions of dollars on the line. He wants to talk me into voting for the merger. That’s all he has on his mind.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because of the money, of course. Trust me, when there’s that much cash involved, money is usually all anyone is thinking about.”

“Usually?”

“What?”

“You said when there’s a lot of cash on the line, money is
usually
all anyone is thinking about. Are there exceptions to the rule?”

She hesitated and shrugged. “Sometimes people will let emotions overrule their own greed. Doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. Not in this case, though.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Dillon is not a member of the family. The only thing he has at stake here is money. I’m sure the merger offer includes a very fat bonus for him.”

“So all he cares about is seeing that merger go through?” Mason asked.

“Yes. But I suspect he cares a
lot
about that.”

“So he’ll lean in hard to convince you to either sell the shares back to Quinn or vote in favor of the merger.”

“I can handle myself. I’ve been in high-pressure situations before. I have testified in court as an expert witness, and I have been confronted with irate heirs who didn’t think they got their fair share of an estate. Trust me, no one gets angrier than an heir who feels he’s been stiffed. I’m not sixteen years old anymore.”

Mason winced. “Sorry.”

“I know, you just can’t help yourself.” She patted his arm. “I realize you mean well.”

He looked down at her fingers on his arm. When he raised his head, his eyes were charged with a dark warning. “In exchange for not setting up the venues for your business appointments, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t pat me like a dog.”

She yanked her fingers off his arm. “Right. Sorry. Does it strike you that we are snapping at each other?”

“I noticed,” Mason said.

“We’re both a little tense tonight. The last thing we should be doing is quarreling.”

A man’s low, derisive laughter interrupted Mason before he could respond. Quinn Colfax strolled out of the shadows of a vine-draped trellis.

“You call that quarreling?” he said. “That’s nothing compared to what goes on in my family. You haven’t seen a family feud until you’ve witnessed a Colfax family fight.”

The words were ever so slightly slurred. Lucy knew the glass of wine in his hand was not the first or second one he’d had that evening. He’d started early. But Quinn managed to walk a fairly straight line.

He had not changed much in the past thirteen years, she thought. Everyone said he took after his mother, not his father. The first Mrs. Colfax had bequeathed him dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a narrow, fine-boned face that made Lucy think of an early-nineteenth-century portrait of an artist. She remembered something else that people had said about Quinn Colfax—he wasn’t made for the cut-and-thrust of the business world.

Mason glanced at the half-empty glass in Quinn’s hand. “How long have you been eavesdropping?”

Quinn shrugged. “Long enough to hear Cecil and the bitch make their pitch.” He grinned. “Hey, that rhymes, doesn’t it?” He looked at Lucy. “Dillon will try to close the deal with you as soon as possible, you know.”

“Do you have a problem with that?” Lucy asked. “I got the impression from Jillian that you and she were both in favor of taking the offer.”

“Just to clarify—when Jillian speaks, she speaks for herself, not me. Same with Cecil and the bitch. We’ve all got our own agendas.”

“What’s your agenda look like?” Mason asked.

Quinn smirked. “Do you really think I’m going to tell you, Fletcher?” He turned and started to walk away, but he paused and looked back over his shoulder. “Tell you what. For old times’ sake and because you seem to be concerned with Lucy’s well-being, I’ll give her a little free advice.”

“What’s the advice?” Lucy asked.

“Sell those Colfax shares back to the family as fast as you can and put Summer River in your rearview mirror. You do not want to get involved in what is going down inside Colfax Inc.”

“Is that a threat?” Mason asked.

“No, it’s not a threat,” Quinn said. He sounded unutterably weary. “Just some free advice. Take it or leave it.”

“Thanks,” Lucy said.

Quinn looked at Mason. “You know, I always figured that you were the one who got rid of Brinker. Always wanted to thank you. And now it turns out that I should have thanked Sara Sheridan instead. I’m sorry I didn’t do that while she was still alive.”

Quinn walked off again. This time, he did not look back.

There was a short silence. Lucy set her barely touched wine down with great care on a nearby table. For some reason, her fingers were trembling ever so slightly.

“You know,” she said, “I think I’ve had about all the fun I can stand at this party tonight. I’m ready to leave now.”

“So am I.”

L
ucy was still shivering a little when she slipped into the car and fastened the seat belt. Adrenaline, she thought, and nerves. She clasped her hands together very tightly in her lap and waited until Mason got behind the wheel and drove out of the winery parking lot.

“Quinn was scared of Brinker, too,” she said.

Mason turned onto River Road. “I’m starting to wonder who wasn’t scared of him.”

Her phone chirped. Absently, she took it out of her purse, deleted the message about the latest match and returned the phone to the little evening bag. She snapped the bag shut.

There was a long silence from the other side of the front seat.

“Think you’ll ever give marriage a try?” Mason asked after a while.

There was something odd about his tone of voice, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“I don’t know,” she said. “The older I get, the less I’m willing to compromise. I’ve been told I’m becoming way too picky.”

“Who told you that?”

“The last guy I dated,” Lucy said. “And Dr. Preston, my therapist.”

“The last woman I dated said I was too dictatorial and that I didn’t share my emotions very well.”

That surprised a small, tight laugh out of her. “We sound like a couple of real losers, don’t we?”

The corner of his mouth edged upward. “Gives us something in common.”

“You may be right.”

“Moving right along: what’s your take on the situation back at the Colfax den?”

She considered that briefly. “Quinn may have a drinking problem.”

“I’d say that’s a good bet.”

“I’m sure he expected to take his father’s place at the head of the company, but that never happened. Instead, Warner Colfax hired an outside CEO who may or may not be sleeping with the second Mrs. Warner Colfax.”

“Ah, you got that impression, too?” Mason asked.

“Something in the atmosphere between Dillon and Ashley.”

“Not a lot to go on,” Mason said.

“No.”

“But I’m inclined to agree with you.” Mason changed gears, slowing the car. “Anything else?”

“There appears to be a certain amount of desperation among those in favor of the merger. But as I told you, that’s not uncommon in these situations. The older generation builds the empire and rakes in millions. The younger generation wants to take the money and run.” She broke off in surprise when she realized that Mason was turning onto a side road. “Where are we going?”

“Someplace we can talk.”

He eased the sleek car along the narrow gravel road. They drove through the trees until they reached a small clearing. The car’s headlights revealed the dark river. Mason killed the lights. The almost full moon took over.

“I spent a lot of time in Summer River when I was young,” Lucy said. “But I don’t remember this spot.”

“Deke found it years ago. He brought Aaron and me here to teach us how to fish.”

She was not sure what to say next, so she let the silence lengthen. With each passing beat of her heart, the aura of intimacy in the darkened front seat grew stronger. She wondered if she was the only one who felt it.

She was trying to think of a way to break the tension when Mason opened the door.

“Let’s get out,” he said. “It’s not cold.”

She opened her own door, unfastened her seat belt and slid out of the front seat. Mason was right, the night air was not cold, but there was a chill. She pulled the wrap around her shoulders and went to join Mason at the front of the car. Together they made their way to the bank of the river.

“What did you want to talk about?” she asked.

“Damned if I know,” he said. “I’m not a good communicator, remember?”

“Oh, right, I keep forgetting. Well, I’ll give you a hint. You probably brought me here because you want to give me my marching orders.”

“Marching orders?”

“You think I should sell the shares back to the Colfax family and stop trying to find out if the car accident that killed Sara and Mary really was an accident, don’t you?”

He took so long responding that she finally turned her head to look at him. In the darkness she could not read his expression, but she sensed that he was coming to a decision.

“Logic and common sense tell me that dumping those shares and leaving town would be the smartest thing you could do,” he said eventually. “If you keep going along the path you’re on now, you’re going to make some enemies in the Colfax clan.”

“I think I’ve already got a few. What can they do to me?”

“I don’t know. That’s what has me worried. If you’re right about Sara’s and Mary’s death, you could be in danger.”

“Do you really think that whoever killed them will come after me now? But that wouldn’t do him or her any good. I’ve got a trust, and believe me, it’s tight. In my profession, you find out real fast that a badly drawn-up will or trust can be a disaster for the heirs. I’ve left everything to my parents. The murderer can’t just go on getting rid of everyone in my family one by one in hopes of eventually getting hold of the shares. Someone—you, probably—would be bound to notice.”

“Oh, yeah,” Mason said, his voice lethally soft. “I’d notice if anything happened to you.”

She shivered again, but not from the chill in the night air. Mason’s vow scared her, but it also gave her a strange confidence. If anything happened to her, he would tear the Colfax family apart.

“So I think I’m relatively safe, at least for now,” she said.

“Maybe,” Mason agreed. He sounded reluctant. “If someone did murder Mary and Sara, he or she miscalculated. But that doesn’t mean the killer won’t try other tactics.”

“Such as?”

“Intimidation? An offer you can’t refuse? Hell, I don’t know. But if you sold the shares back to the family, you would take that issue off the front burner.”

“The shares are the only cards I have to play.”

He watched the moonlit surface of the water, not speaking. The leaves overhead rustled.

“I have to do this,” Lucy said finally.

“I know.” This time he sounded resigned to the inevitable. “In your shoes, I’d be doing the same thing.”

“Well, actually, you are doing the same thing,” she pointed out. “In a way.”

“Guess it’s just who we are.”

“Yes,” she said. “But I’m sorry for dragging you into the situation.”

He moved then, one hand closing around her shoulder. Deliberately, he turned her to face him. He gripped her other shoulder and tugged her closer.

“Whatever you do, do not say you’re sorry,” he said. “I’m doing this for my own reasons.”

She managed a misty smile. “I know. You’re doing it because you can’t help yourself. You’re a guardian angel by nature.”

“No, I’m doing it at least in part because I’ve got a few questions about what really happened to Sara and Mary, too. But I think I should make something very clear.”

“What’s that?”

“Mostly I’m doing this because of you.”

She was not sure how to respond to that, but it didn’t matter, because he kissed her then, and she was stunned into speechlessness.

The kiss was not a teenage girl’s fantasy come true. It was so much more, because she was a woman now and she knew something about kissing—enough to judge Mason’s kiss. It was not the kiss of her girlish dreams. There was nothing sweet or romantic or gently seductive about it. This kiss was all about primal masculine desire and fiercely controlled passion. This was the kind of kiss a man gave a woman when he set out to make it clear that he wanted her.

She knew intuitively that there were only two possible responses to such a kiss: she could return it with interest or she could break free and walk back to the car. There was no middle ground. There never would be, not with Mason Fletcher.

For the first time in her life she realized that there was no middle ground for her, either. She went all in, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him back with a sensual hunger she had never before experienced. Excitement sent adrenaline sparking through her.

By the time he freed her lips and moved his mouth to her ear, she was hot and cold, breathless and a little shaky. She clutched him, savoring his scent and the hard feel of his unyielding body. When she kissed the warm skin of his throat, he exhaled deeply. It could have been a sigh of pleasure or surrender or exultation. She could not be sure. But his breathing was harsher now.

He used one finger to raise her chin. His mouth came back down on hers in another intense kiss. She could feel the heat of the fire that smoldered just beneath the surface.

He shuddered, took a deep breath and held her slightly away from him. In the moonlight his eyes were darkly brilliant. Fascinated, she touched the side of his jaw. He turned his mouth into her hand and kissed her palm.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming,” he said, his voice rough and edgy. “Because I sure did.”

“I saw it coming,” she admitted. “But it still caught me by surprise.”

“Same with me,” he said. “I didn’t think I could still get surprised like that.”

She smiled. “Thirteen years ago, I had a terrible crush on you. But you were barely aware of my existence.”

He speared his fingers through her hair, pushing it back from her face. “You were just a kid.”

“Who needed rescuing. Yes, I know. But I’m not a kid anymore.”

“I noticed.” He brushed his mouth lightly across hers. “Definitely not a kid. I’d give a hell of a lot to take you to bed tonight, but it’s probably too soon and there’s no bed.”

It wasn’t a statement, she realized. It was a question.

“I’m sure the problem of a bed could be handled,” she said. “But you’re right, it’s too soon.” She slipped lightly out of his embrace and started back toward the car. “Which makes it time to leave.”

“Hey, you could have at least argued with me about the timing thing,” he said behind her.

She laughed, suddenly feeling more lighthearted than she had in a long while. She was awash in a delicious sense of anticipation. Mason laughed, too. He caught up with her, kissed the tip of her nose and opened the car door.

“I’ve got to tell you, all things considered, this date turned out a lot better than it looked like it would when we started out tonight,” he said.

“Yes,” she said. “It did.”

He closed the door, went around the front of the car and got behind the wheel. He did not start the engine immediately. He sat quietly for a while, watching the river, very intent, very serious now.

“How will you know when the time is right?” he asked.

She smiled, serenely confident in her newfound feminine power.

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you,” she said.

He flashed her a wicked grin and fired up the engine.

“Promise me you won’t forget,” he said.

“I won’t forget.”