The sound of clapping surprised Cassie so much she almost dropped her glass. The woman a couple tables over was cheering for her. She stood, tucked her laptop beneath her arm, and walked over to Cassie’s table. Her light brown hair was cut in a shoulder-length bob. She was beautifully groomed from head to toe and exactly the kind of person Cassie would have thought her outburst would offend. “Do you mind if I join you?”
Shocked, Cassie merely shook her head.
The woman settled into a seat across from Cassie and held out her hand in greeting. “My name is Jacinda Pickett.”
Cassie shook her hand. “Cassandra Daiver. My friends call me Cassie.”
The woman smiled. “Wow, that was amazing. I come to the city several times a year for my job, but I prefer the suburbs. My husband says he worries about me, because I’m not tough enough. I don’t know what I would have done if that guy had grabbed my arm.”
Cassie swirled the lemon around in her glass with a straw and said dryly, “You probably wouldn’t have threatened to stab him.” The pale blue eyes across from her held no judgment, but Cassie judged herself.
Jacinda shrugged. “No, but I’m going to remember that line. It was really effective.”
Cassie looked down before meeting the woman’s eyes again. “Thank you.”
Jacinda studied Cassie for a long moment. “Do you want to be alone? I didn’t mean to intrude.”
“No,” Cassie said quickly. Jacinda was the perfect distraction. “It’s nice to have someone to talk to.”
“Are you on vacation or here for work?”
She was usually extremely protective of her privacy, but she doubted she’d ever see Jacinda again and talking about why she was there eased her growing inner panic. “I’m surprising my boyfriend with a visit. Well, I don’t know if he’s actually my boyfriend. We were together while he was on vacation. He came back to New York for family business, and I missed him . . . so here I am.”
“Seriously?” Jacinda asked, then whistled. “I officially now have a girl crush on you. You have guts.”
Cassie looked down humbly. “Not usually. But this guy is worth it.”
“That is so romantic,” Jacinda said with a deep sigh.
Encouraged by her comment, Cassie shared more. “I’ve never felt like this about anyone. He’s sweet but also sexy and strong. He listens to me, but he also knows what he wants. Perfect. I’m the one with the issues. We didn’t part on the best of terms, and I regret that.”
Jacinda looked toward the lounge entrance. “It’ll work out. Imagine if he charged in here and carried you out.”
Cassie held up her phone and pressed her lips together. “Not likely since he doesn’t know I’m here. And right now he’s not answering my call.”
“Oh,” the woman said sadly.
The lone man in the lounge closed his laptop. “What did you fight about?” Cassie and Jacinda turned to look at the man in surprise. He was an older gentleman with a friendly, relaxed expression. “My wife will want to know when I tell her this story tonight.”
The whole conversation felt unreal. Cassie said, “He said he needed to come back to New York because of something going on with his family. I offered to go with him. When he didn’t want that, I thought he was feeding me a line.”
“And was he?” Jacinda asked.
“I don’t know,” Cassie answered slowly and chewed her bottom lip. “I don’t believe he would lie to me.”
The older gentleman asked, “So, you’re here to find out if it’s the truth.”
“Yes.”
“Who is this guy?” Jacinda asked. “Not that I would know him, but what’s his name?”
Cassie hesitated then asked herself what the chances were that either of them would recognize his name. “Luke Andrade.”
“Did you say Andrade?” Jacinda asked in surprise.
“Yes. You know him?”
Suddenly sympathetic, Jacinda said, “Everyone in New York knows the Andrades. His family is worth billions. Oh, honey.”
“Billions?” Cassie asked, her voice rising as her nervousness did.
Jacinda shook her head and continued to look sadly at Cassie. “He and his brothers are New York’s most eligible bachelors. Although I hear some of them are engaged now. I don’t think he is, though.”
Cassie’s stomach did a painful summersault. “I hope not,” Cassie said. A comforting thought occurred to her. “He may not even be one of those Andrades.”
Jacinda opened her laptop and typed in something quickly. She turned her computer around for Cassie to see. It was a picture of Luke with his brothers at a restaurant. “Is this your guy?”
Cassie’s mouth went nervously dry. “Yes.”
“Then he’s the one I was referring to.”
Cassie stared at the photo of Luke with his brothers. Billions? A man with that much money wasn’t moving to Defiance, Ohio. Thinking of Luke as a successful surgeon with rich friends was bad enough. If he really was insanely wealthy, Cassie didn’t believe for a moment she was the type of woman he’d want to settle down with.
Which is why he’d agreed to a short vacation fling.
Of course, he’d dressed it up with talk of having feelings for me and wanting it not to end, but men tend to do that rather than be honest. I knew that going into this.
“It was nice to meet you, but I have to go.” Cassie stood, put down cash for her food, and gathered her things.
The lone man reopened his laptop and grimaced. “Do you have a way home if things don’t work out?”
“I didn’t mean to offend you, but . . .” Jacinda started to say by way of apology, but kept the rest to herself.
Cassie nodded once curtly, then walked away from both of them without looking back. She wished she’d stayed in her hotel room.
***
Luke dragged himself into his apartment well past midnight. He was physically and emotionally drained. Even if his mother regained consciousness, he knew he and his brothers would never be the same.
When Gio had suggested broadening the range of the tests they had ordered for their mother, Luke had been certain it was a waste of time. He couldn’t wrap his mind around anything so heinous happening to his own family.
He was forced to reassess his stance, however, after covertly taking a sample of his mother’s blood into the lab himself and testing it. He’d expected to find nothing.
What he’d found had shaken him to the core.
Ricin. By the presenting symptoms, his mother had ingested it in small doses over a period of months. Slowly. Subtly. Low blood pressure. Seizures. Dehydration. Imminent liver and kidney failure. It all made sense when the cause was discovered. Luke had immediately begun treatments to flush her system of toxins and hydrate her. He poured over medical journals about how to treat victims of ricin poisoning. There was no antidote, but if Patrice didn’t suffer a systemic shutdown of organs, she had a chance of survival.
Who would poison his mother? Her doctor had to have been involved. There was no other reason for him to exaggerate her illness at first, then cover it up at the end and escape. No reason besides wanting his crime to be discovered too late.
As soon as his mother was stable, Luke had called Gio with his findings and suspicions.
“Did you tell anyone this?” Gio had demanded.
“Of course not, but we need to take this to the police.”
“No. We need to handle this ourselves. I’ve falsified enough documents that we could lose everything, and I could go to jail if an investigation dug deep enough into Cogent.”
“I could lose my medical license and end up in the cell next to you if someone discovers I didn’t report a poisoning, but that’s not the only reason I’m against doing it your way. It doesn’t feel right.”
“When it comes to protecting the family, I don’t care how it feels.”
“Are we protecting the family or ourselves?”
“There is no difference for me. I would do all of this for
any one of you. There was no loyalty in the generation before us. No love. No sacrifice. And where did it bring us? We decide the future of our family, and I’ll be damned if we’re all going to pay for something that woman did.”
“I’ll do it, but I don’t like it.”
“You can’t tell anyone, Luke, or everything we’re about to do will only make the situation worse. No one. If you’re right about the doctor, he won’t get away with it.”
“Gio, people might find out what happened. I’m not the only one working with Mother.”
“No one will find out because you are a respected surgeon showing interest in his mother’s health. No one would have a reason to question you. They’ll believe what you say.”
Resentment filled Luke. He didn’t want any part of this. “I’ve never been a good liar.”
“Well, this is where you become one. Because the alternative is ugly. What would the press do with this knowledge? Never mind the police. Can you imagine what this would do to our family? If we’re really as important to you as you say we are, this is where you prove it. Don’t tell Max or Nick. The less they know, the better it will be for them if this goes badly. It won’t though, Luke. We won’t let it. You and I are going to fix this.”
Coldness spread through Luke. “What are you going to do, Gio?”
“Don’t worry about me, worry about Mother. Do you think she’ll pull through this?”
Sarcastically, Luke had asked, “Suddenly you’re concerned with her health?” He expected Gio to defend himself, state he still loved their mother regardless of how he’d distanced himself from her.
Gio had fallen silent for a moment. “I don’t want to have to cover up a murder.”
Luke hadn’t pushed Gio for more than that. What was left to argue? He didn’t want to cover up a murder, either.
Stripping, Luke dropped his clothing on the floor as he walked to his bedroom. Never, even when he’d discovered his father had another family in Venice, had Luke imagined his life would come to this. That he would one day be using his talents and his influence, not to cure cancer, but to prevent a scandal unlike anything his family had weathered before.
Luke stepped beneath the hot spray of the shower and tried to wash away the day. He didn’t want to be in New York, battling the newest Andrade drama. A part of him loved his mother, even while he felt a growing coldness in his heart each time he thought of her.
Had she embezzled from their family’s company as Gio suggested? Why? And how did heading down that dark path align her with a doctor who wanted her dead?
I used to know the right thing to do. I don’t know anything anymore. Gio hid the truth about our father because he said he wanted to protect us. I hated him for that. I didn’t want to be kept in the dark.
Oblivious sounds pretty fucking nice right about now. No matter how much I don’t want to agree with Gio, there isn’t a better way to handle this. The police can’t be involved. An investigation won’t stop with the doctor and the poison. Questions will be asked. Questions that could land Gio in prison. End my career. Destroy what’s left of our family.
Thanks again, Mother.
I would have preferred to tell myself that I love you as I fight to save your life.
I hate that you took even that from me.
With his head pounding from the pressure of questions he didn’t have the answers to, Luke stepped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around himself, and headed back into his bedroom. He craved the sanity of Defiance, the loving arms of Cassie.
He needed to keep her out of this, especially if there was any chance the missing doctor had been working with anyone. And if the truth did leak out, things could quickly become legally complicated for everyone involved. Cassie had been through enough in her life. He wouldn’t expose her to the ugliness in his.
Thank God she’s not here.
Dressed in boxers and lounge pants, Luke flipped on his television and lay across his bed on top of the sheets. He picked up his phone and listened to his messages.
Chapter Fifteen
“He’ll call,” Bonnie said over the phone.
Cassie plopped back on her bed. She’d used the time while waiting to hear from him to give herself a manicure, a pedicure, and a shave. She had so much time she’d even shaved areas she’d only trimmed before. “Sometimes you just have to face that you’re not a size eight anymore.”
“You lost me. I’m talking about Luke.”
“I am, too. This feels like when I kept trying to squeeze my ass into a size eight pair of pants. I wasn’t a size eight. I was a ten. But I didn’t want to admit it to myself. I told myself one pair had always been tight. Another had shrunk in the wash. Eventually I couldn’t deny it anymore.”
“You think Luke doesn’t like you because you’re a size ten? I’ve seen him with you. I don’t think he cares.”
Cassie rolled onto her side and played with the edge of the pillowcase. “I’m saying he’s not going to call me back, Bonnie, and sitting here praying he will isn’t going to change that.”
“He’s going to call. You said he was texting he missed you.”
“Well, maybe when I didn’t answer those texts he moved on.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“Or, maybe, his mother really is sick, and he’s by her side, not checking his phone.”
“I really want to believe that’s true. Not that I want his mother to be sick. You know what I mean?”
“I do. Hang in there. You’ll know soon enough.”
Cassie stretched out an arm and picked a card off her bedside table. She rolled onto her back and held it up in front of her. “Remember I told you about Luke’s cousin, Maddy? She slipped me her number before she left. I couldn’t imagine ever calling it when she did, but now I’m tempted. I don’t want to go home without knowing the truth.”
Sounding doubtful, Bonnie asked, “You really think she’d tell you if her cousin is seeing someone else?”
Cassie thought back to the conversation she’d had with Maddy. “She has a husband and children.”
“What does that prove?”
Cassie threw the card down beside her on the bed. “Nothing, I guess. I’m just going crazy waiting. I want to do something.”
“Stalking a billionaire will probably get you arrested.”
“I’m not going to stalk him, and stop calling him a billionaire. I feel like I’m going to throw up every time you say that.”
“I can see how his financial status would make it seem like this is less likely to work out.”
Cassie groaned and covered her eyes. “You’re not helping.”
“Sorry.”
Cassie’s phone beeped with an incoming call. She checked it and almost dropped her phone when she saw who it was. “It’s him. It’s Luke.”
“Well, what are you waiting for? Take the call.”
“What if he doesn’t want me here?”
“Then he’s an idiot, and there are plenty more billionaires in the sea. Well, not billionaires maybe, but men with jobs. Go. Before he hangs up.”
Cassie sat up in her bed and switched over. “Hello?”
“I miss you, Cassie.” Luke’s voice was deep, pleased, and heavenly. Cassie closed her eyes and sank back into her bed, savoring the joy that filled her at the sound of her name on his lips.
“I miss you, too.” She let out a shaky breath. “Sorry I didn’t answer your texts.”
“It doesn’t matter, Cupcake.”
“Yes, it does. You deserved better than that. I don’t trust people easily, and when you said you were leaving, I panicked. Then I didn’t know what to say.”
“It’s okay.”
“You kept talking about wanting us to have more than a casual thing. I overreacted when you said you didn’t want me to go to New York with you. I shouldn’t have told you to leave.”
“I needed to get back here anyway.”
There was something in Luke’s voice
, a deep sadness that made Cassie want to reach through the phone and hug him. “How is your mother?”
“She’s stable, but she’s not in the clear yet. The next twenty-four to forty-eight hours will be pivotal.” His voice lowered. “It’s not easy being away from you, Cassie, but I’m glad you’re not here.”
Cassie’s hand tightened on her phone. “So, now isn’t a good time to tell you I’m in New York City?”
“You’re where?” His voice rose with an emotion akin to anger. It was the first time Cassie had heard him sound anything like that.
Is that how a man sounds when he’s afraid his regular girlfriend is about to discover how he spends his vacations?
“I flew in this afternoon.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said in obvious frustration. “Where are you staying?”
Cassie’s breath caught in her throat. He was coming to see her. He might not like surprises, but they’d work it out. “I’m at the City View Hotel.”
“I’ll send a driver for you in the morning. He’ll take you to the airport.”
“You want me to leave? Just like that? Without even seeing you?”
He sighed. “What I want and what needs to happen are not at all the same right now.”
“What are you afraid of? Are you engaged? Or living with someone?”
“I need you to trust me, Cassie. Once this family situation is resolved I’ll come back to Defiance, and I’ll explain as much of it to you as I can. But you have to go home in the morning.”
She wanted to trust him, but he hadn’t actually denied seeing anyone else. “Don’t send anyone. I have a ticket I can use. I don’t need you. But I still can’t believe you don’t even want to see me. I’m such a fool.”
With a pained sound, Luke said, “You’re not a fool, Cassie. I meant everything I said to you in Ohio. It’s killing me not to come to you tonight.”