ScandalandSin (17 page)

April 25, 1937

Laura avoided me for most of the
weekend. We both had to work in the store Saturday, so stayed very busy. She
spent the night with Mary Ann Saturday and attended church with Mary Ann’s
family. She came home after church, yet still managed to avoid being alone in a
room with me until it was time for bed. She couldn’t avoid me then.

But despite my almost begging her to
confide in me, she turned away from me in her bed and said she was tired and
wanted to sleep.

I’m so scared he’s done something to
her. Or is about to.

* * * * *

Rye never expected to see Rufus Olinghouse
walk through the front door of Stevens House.

Rufus strolled toward Rye, wide smile
exposing the perfect white teeth that no doubt cost Bella several thousand
dollars. “How’s it going, Rye?”

He offered a hand, which Rye accepted even
though he wanted nothing to do with the man. “Good. How about you?”

“Can’t complain.” Setting his hands on his
hips, Rufus gazed around the demolished living room. “Hard to imagine this
place will look good in a few months.”

“It will. I promise that.”

Bella’s grandson continued his visual
inspection. Rye knew Rufus had made a shitload of money in real estate. He
would probably inherit Bella’s estate when she passed away since he was the
only one of her seven grandchildren to stay in contact with her on a regular
basis. Rye had always believed Rufus stayed close to Bella to ensure he got all
those millions to add to his personal fortune someday.

Rye had heard through the grapevine that
Rufus and his third wife had recently divorced. He wondered if Rufus was on the
lookout for wife number four. “Are you in town on business or to visit your
grandmother?”

“Both. I’m checking out some property in
Johnson County.” His gaze had continued to move about the room while he
answered the question. Now he looked back at Rye. “So where’s the young lady
who bought my grandmother’s place?”

“Working on the top floor.”

One dark eyebrow arched over Rufus’ eye.
“Working? She owns the place and she’d doing physical labor?”

“She enjoys it. She wants to be involved
with every aspect of the remodeling.”

“Sounds like an ambitious lady.” Rufus
smiled. “I’d like to meet her.”

Rufus’ smile reminded Rye of a wolf. If
Rufus thought he could sink his capped teeth into Alaina, he would soon learn
that wouldn’t happen. Rye would make sure of that.

Since he didn’t know for sure that Rufus’
visit wasn’t simply out of curiosity, Rye knew he had to be civil. “Sure. This
way.”

Rye led the way to the attic. Alaina was
almost finished sanding the window seat and had planned to complete that
project this morning before she moved on to something else. She’d asked him if
some of the shelves in the library could be salvaged, that she’d love to keep
them if possible. He didn’t doubt she’d be in that room, sanding tool in hand,
as soon as she finished the window seat.

“Alaina.”

She turned her head with a “come hither”
smile on her lips. The smile slipped a bit when she saw he wasn’t alone. Her
gaze snapped from Rye to Rufus. “Hi.”

“Alaina, this is Rufus Olinghouse. He’s
Bella’s grandson.”

“Oh.” She stood and wiped her hand on her
T-shirt before offering it to Rufus. “It’s nice to meet you.”

He smiled that wolf’s smile again. Rye had
to concentrate to keep from using his fists to knock out some of those pearly
white teeth. “It’s nice to meet you too, Alaina.”

“Hey, Rye,” Griff called out from
downstairs. “You got a minute?”

He’d rather stay here and make sure Rufus
didn’t say or do anything to upset Alaina, but couldn’t ignore his brother if
Griff needed him. “I’ll be right back.”

“Take your time,” Rufus said. “We’ll be
fine.”

A tight, uncomfortable feeling drew up the
skin on the back of Rye’s neck. He wasn’t sure why it bothered him so much to
leave Rufus alone with Alaina, yet something deep in his gut told him this
visit wasn’t simply on a whim.

Rye found his brother in the dining room,
taking a bottle of water out of the cooler. “Want one?” Griff asked.

“Yeah.”

Griff tossed him a bottle. He unscrewed the
cap on his while sitting down. “What’s Rufus doing here?”

Rye opened his bottle after joining Griff
at the table. “He said he’s here to check out some property in Johnson County
and to visit Bella.”

“You don’t believe that?”

“I have no reason to think he’s lying.”

Griff motioned toward Rye’s abdomen with
his bottle. “Except that feeling in your gut.”

“Yeah.”

“Where is he now?”

“With Alaina. He wanted to meet her.”

Griff stopped with the water bottle raised
halfway to his mouth. “You left him alone with her?”

“You called me down here.”

“What I need can wait. You’d better get
back up there and stop Rufus from sniffing around your woman.”

Rye laughed at Griff’s choice of words. “
My
woman
? Isn’t that a little caveman?”

“I know she goes home with you every night.
A woman hasn’t spent the night with you since…”

His voice trailed off, so Rye filled in the
rest of the sentence. “Since Alesia.”

“Alaina is nothing like her sister. She
wouldn’t trample on your balls the way Alesia did.”

No, she wouldn’t. Rye believed that or he
would never have gotten so close to Alaina. He trusted her, and that hadn’t
happened with a woman in a very long time.

Griff made a shooing gesture with his
bottle. “Go. We’ll talk after Rufus leaves.”

Rye bounded up the stairs to the second
floor. He stopped halfway to the attic stairs when he heard footsteps coming
down them. Rufus appeared, a smile on his lips.

Rye didn’t like that smile at all.

“She’s charming,” Rufus said. “And
intelligent.”

“Yes, she is.”

Rufus glanced at the fancy gold watch on his
wrist. “I have an appointment in Cleburne in an hour, so need to go.” He
slapped Rye on the shoulder. “Good to see you again.”

Walking to the window that overlooked the
front yard, Rye watched Rufus climb into his luxury car and drive away. Once he
determined that Rufus wouldn’t return, Rye headed toward the attic stairs.

He found Alaina gathering up her tools and
supplies. “All through?”

“Finally.” She wiped the sweat from her
forehead with the back of her hand. “Now I can tackle the library shelves.”

“You’d better hold off on those until my
cabinetmaker looks at them.”

“Who’s that?”

“George McGettis. He’s building new
bookshelves at the mayor’s house now.”

Frowning, Alaina plopped down on the window
seat. “The mayor’s remodeling certainly messed up my plans.”

“Sorry, but that was scheduled before you
bought this house.”

“I know. I just…” She sighed heavily. “I’m
impatient. I want everything finished
now
.”

“Yeah, I know you do.” Rye sat beside her.
“What did Rufus want?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll find out tonight at
dinner.”

Rye stared at her, sure she hadn’t
mentioned Rufus and dinner in the same sentence. “What?”

“He said he wanted to talk business with me
and invited me to dinner. I agreed to meet him at the restaurant where Emma
works.”

“You agreed to have dinner with Rufus?”

“Yeah. Is that a problem?”

“What kind of business could he want to
discuss with
you
?”

She frowned and Rye knew he’d made a bad
choice of words. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I meant he just met
you. I don’t know what kind of business he could want to discuss with you.”

“I don’t either, but I thought it would be
polite to hear him out. I told you this morning that I’m going home tonight, so
this works out perfectly.”

“I don’t know why you think you have to go
back to Dallas.”

“Rye, I have to do laundry.”

“I have a washer and dryer.”

“I know that, but I need more clothes and
some other things from home. I need to check my mail. I’m sure there’s a stack
of bills I have to pay. Plus I have to go to the bank and transfer funds into
my checking account. I’ll be back tomorrow morning.”

She’d told him over the weekend about the
five million dollars she’d inherited from her grandfather when he died in
December. She said Kelcey had convinced her to invest half of it for the
future. She’d put the other half in savings and drew on it only when necessary.
It wouldn’t take two-point-five million to fix up this house, but it would cost
a chunk.

Something still gnawed at Rye’s gut, a
feeling that something bad would happen if Alaina left Lanville today. “I’d
like to see where Emma works. How about if I go with you?”

Both of her eyebrows shot up at his
suggestion. Then she chuckled. “No. You aren’t tagging along on my dinner with
Rufus.”

Rye looked down at the floor between his
feet. He wasn’t into guys, but he knew Rufus was a handsome man. All the money
he would probably inherit from Bella had to be attractive to a woman who would
spend a large portion of her inheritance on fixing up this house. What woman
wouldn’t be attracted to a rich man?

Blowing out his breath, Rye lifted his head
and looked back at her. “I don’t want you to have dinner with Rufus.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “Why not?”

“I don’t trust him.”

Smiling, she touched his hand. “You trust
me
though.”

He had, until she told him she was having
dinner with Rufus. He couldn’t understand why she would plan to see Bella’s
grandson even though he objected to it.

Her smile faded. “Rye? You do trust me,
don’t you?”

Not knowing what to say, Rye hesitated. His
hesitation must have been enough for she drew her hand away from his. “Well, I
guess that answers my question.”

“Alaina—”

She stood and headed for the stairs. Rye
caught up to her before she descended the first step. He took her arm, but she
jerked it away from him. Her eyes flashed with anger.

“I have nothing more to say to you.”

“Alaina, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I
just—”

Her humorless laugh cut him off. “For
someone who didn’t mean to hurt me, you did a poor job.”

“Look, I told you I don’t trust Rufus. He’s
recently divorced and probably looking for wife number four.”

“Do you think I’m going to fall at his feet
over dinner?”

Put that way, Rye had to admit his
disapproval of her dining with Rufus seemed extreme. “No, of course not. But
Rufus is filthy rich and will be even richer when Bella dies. You’re sinking a
lot of money into this place and—”

“And you think I’m looking for a rich man
to replenish my bank account?”

“It’s what Alesia would have done.”

Pain flashed through her eyes now. She
looked away from him, but not before he’d seen the sheen of tears. He knew it
wasn’t fair of him to mention Alesia, yet he couldn’t help seeing the
similarity. Alesia would have gone after Rufus in a heartbeat. Alaina’s
acceptance of his dinner invitation seemed to follow the same path as her
sister.

“I’ve told you I’m nothing like my sister.
You can’t seem to understand that. Well, understand
this
.” She dropped
her tools and supplies on top of his feet. They didn’t hurt him because of his
work boots, but he still jumped back in surprise. “I quit. You have your
father’s blueprints and my ideas. I’m outta here.”

She turned and hurried down the steps. Rye
didn’t catch up to her until she’d almost run down the stairs to the ground
floor. She tripped on the bottom step and would have fallen if Dax hadn’t caught
her.

“Whoa!” he said, laughter in his voice.
That laughter soon vanished when he looked at her face. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Ask your stupid brother.”

Without looking at Rye again, Alaina pulled
away from Dax and turned toward the back of the house. Rye stood next to Dax
and watched her storm out the back door. She revved the engine of her car, the
tires spewing gravel and dirt as she sped away.

Dax faced Rye, hands on his hips and a
scowl on his face. “What the hell did you do to her?”

Rye didn’t need his brother jumping down
his throat too. “Why are you assuming I did anything to her?”

“Because she was crying. A woman doesn’t
cry for no reason.”

“Who was crying?” Griff asked, walking up
behind them.

“Alaina. Rye did something to hurt her.”

Griff turned to Rye, a scowl matching Dax’s
on his face. “What did you do?”