01 - The Heartbreaker (27 page)

Rick shrugged. “What of it? I didn’t marry any old woman Mom shoved in my face. I married Kendall, the right woman for me, not Mom. So did Roman. But you, big brother, are still running.”

“That’s a crock of shit,” Chase muttered. “I haven’t run from a damn thing in this lifetime, starting with my responsibilities to the two of you.”

“Those are long finished, Chase. But they’re a damn convenient excuse for you to use every time you want to avoid thinking about your feelings for Sloane.” Roman cleared his throat. “And it’s those responsibilities you’re running from.”

“What was your major in college, again?” Chase asked, not hiding his sarcasm. “Because I don’t recall you taking psych.”

Roman rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t require a rocket scientist to figure you out.”

“Oh, boys!” Pearl’s high-pitched voice interrupted their conversation as she burst through the front door.

“I thought you were at Raina’s,” Rick said, watching as Pearl made her way up the stairs and into the kitchen.

“I am, but you had rushed me before and I forgot my plate of brownies.” She perched one hand on her full hip and wagged her free finger in front of Rick’s nose. “What kind of houseguest doesn’t bring a thank-you gift to her host? Raina’s putting up with me in her not-so-healthy condition, so I came back here for my brownies. Because I’m grateful,” she continued rambling. “And because Charlotte’s so very pregnant and craving chocolate.”

“So where are the brownies?” Rick asked, eyeing her empty hands.

Chase figured Rick was angling for food.

“In the car out front. With Eldin, who’s waiting.” Pearl
gestured outside. “But you should know, Samson’s gone. He’s not in the house where you told him he should stay. And when I realized he was missing, I didn’t want to be arrested for being an accessory to a crime, for not reporting his disappearance.” She nodded her head, certain she’d done the right thing.

Which she had, Chase thought. Even if her reasons made no sense and were completely skewed.

Rick placed an arm around her shoulder and started walking her toward the front door. “You did the right thing,” he assured her.

She nodded again. “There’s one more thing I should have mentioned earlier.”

Rick tipped his head to one side and stopped in his path. “What is it?”

“Samson’s been mentioning that someone keeps asking him for directions. The same man popping up in different places where he’s been. When we suggested he tell you, he said he wasn’t concerned. That the man had had many chances to
take him out,
if that’s what he wanted to do.” She twirled her fingers into her housecoat. “But Samson’s stubborn and doesn’t trust people to help him. He hasn’t for years.” Hanging her head low, she said, “I just thought you should know.”

Chase sucked in a deep breath, then forced a calm release. While Rick walked Pearl to the car, Chase was forced to admit two things. His brothers’ lectures had distracted him from watching the window and the guesthouse to make sure Samson didn’t sneak out on them. And with Samson on the loose, Sloane could no longer be alone. It wasn’t safe.

Because if her father went looking for her, Sloane, like Samson, would be a walking target.

The smell of fall permeated the air in the old tree house. Wood walls prevented the biting wind from whipping around, but a small window let a cold draft inside. And Sloane was freezing.
Not that it mattered. She had no place she could go, and so she’d been alone here for the last few hours.

Curling her legs beneath her, she shut her eyes and leaned back, when without warning, the sound of someone climbing the rickety ladder leading to the tree house took her by surprise.

So did her visitor.

Samson eased his body into the small doorway and sat down beside her. She eyed him warily, unsure why he’d seek her out after rejecting her earlier. Refusing to make any overture, she tightly hugged her knees and waited.

“You deserve better than someone like me to be your father.”

She clenched her hands at her sides. “It’s not up to you to decide what’s best for me. And besides, we don’t determine our gene pool. Fate does that.” And she’d take the man
fate
had provided for her.

He wore an oversize army-green jacket and wrinkled khakis. His straggly white hair was windblown and his bearded face possessed the ravages of a life that hadn’t been kind to him. But in his eyes, she saw a depth of emotion and caring she hadn’t noticed before. He was obviously a man who hid his emotions well, letting them out only when he trusted the response.

And since Sloane had already reached out to him, maybe he trusted her now.

“So you’re stuck with me.” He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and rocked in place.

“That’s one way to look at it.” Sloane’s lips lifted in a grin. Drawing a deep breath, she decided to extend the olive branch once more. “I prefer to think fate has blessed me with two different but very good men as father figures. You’ve just come to me later in life, that’s all.”

He tilted his head to one side. “Why are you being so nice about all this? About me?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? Besides the obvious reason that we share
bloodlines, we also missed out on a lot. I want to catch up. Get to know my real father.”

“And what a stand-up man he is.” Samson gestured to himself in disgust. “Can’t compare to the senator, can I?”

She shook her head, noticing yet again the self-deprecating way he spoke about himself, making her wonder about a life that had beaten him down so badly. But she also noticed his change in tone, manner, and speech. No longer the country bumpkin with incorrect grammar, he spoke to her like a more educated man would.
The kind of man Jacqueline would have been attracted to,
Sloane thought.

“I never thought to compare you to Michael any more than I like being compared to my sisters or my stepmother. We’re different people. I came looking for you and I’m not disappointed in what I found. Are you?” She met his wary gaze.

“Of course not.”

Giddy relief flowed through her, but she wasn’t about to ruin the moment by throwing herself into his arms. Yet. They still had too much to learn about each other. She’d discovered enough about Samson to know that if she got emotional, he’d bolt. So she decided to switch subjects.

“What’s with the country-bumpkin act? One minute you’re talking like you barely finished elementary school and the next minute you’re civilized and speaking to me like a proper gentleman.” She leaned toward him. “Why the cover?”

“It should be obvious,” he muttered. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out what looked like a pack of gum. “Want some?”

She shook her head. “No, thank you, and it isn’t obvious to me.”

“Your mother and I had dreams. We’d both finish school; she’d work until she got pregnant; I’d get a job with an antiques dealer until I could start a business of my own and support us.” He shifted, the nylon jacket he wore making a loud, crinkling
noise in the otherwise quiet tree house. “I was majoring in art history, you know.”

“I didn’t realize.” No one had given her his background or history and she hung on his every word.

“No reason you should. I gave up those dreams when I gave up your mother. The day her father arrived, proof that my father was indebted to a loan shark in one hand and the solution in the other.”

“What do you mean?” His last explanation had been in gruff Samson-speak. Sloane wanted to hear the truth now. All of it.

And Samson seemed willing to provide the answers. “He offered me a check to pay the loan shark off. My father agreed to sign the house over to me if I took the deal. What could I do? My mother wouldn’t live in fear of losing the roof over her head anymore. My father wouldn’t have his kneecaps blown off.” He shook his head and let out a rough rumble that resembled a laugh.

But Sloane didn’t find the story amusing and neither could he. “Nobody blows kneecaps off anymore,” she said.

“No, they just blow up houses.” He lifted his gaze from the warped wood floor. “You grew up sheltered, thank God. That’s one of the reasons I took the money and let Jacqueline go. To protect her from my family and my life.”

“Not to mention the fact that my grandfather made that one of his conditions, right? The money in exchange for letting Jacqueline go?” Sloane asked through gritted teeth.

“As it turned out, it was an excellent deal for your mother. She had a wonderful life. Short as it was.”

This conversation had turned more emotional than she’d planned. But Samson didn’t seem to be running away, so Sloane pressed her advantage. “How do you know Jacqueline wouldn’t have had a better life with you? The man she really loved?”

Samson shrugged. “She didn’t have a choice and neither did I. Your grandfather made it clear that if he didn’t supply the funds
to pay off the loan shark, my father would probably be found dead in an alley. The bank would take our house and we’d be out on the street.” He ran a hand through his already windblown hair. “Added to that, my mother had cancer. We couldn’t afford treatment and she was going downhill fast. I wanted to make her final days comfortable ones at least. I needed more money for that.”

Sloane swallowed over the lump in her throat, unable to believe the painful saga he was revealing. “Please don’t tell me you told my grandfather about your mother’s illness and he used that as leverage.”

Samson nodded. “He added to the check without blinking and told me to stay the hell away from Jacqueline. What else could I do except take it?” Samson rolled his shoulders in a nonchalant gesture, as if the story were old news, but the ravaged look in his eyes and his life history told her he’d never gotten over his decision.

“You said earlier that you went back for Jacqueline, in a manner of speaking. What did you mean?” She wiggled her ice-cold fingers, trying to get the blood flowing again. Her entire body had grown cold.

“At first I didn’t go back. Didn’t look in on her at all. I had my hands full with my mother’s illness and I needed every last penny your grandfather had given me. I couldn’t afford to rile him. And then my mother passed away.”

“I’m sorry.” At the mention of a grandmother she’d never met, Sloane swiped at the tears falling from her eyes. So much of her life she’d never known about and would discover only second-hand.

All because of one man’s selfish need to control everything around him. She wondered if her mother’s father ever had regrets for altering and playing with the lives of everyone around him.

But nothing could change the facts, so she turned back to
Samson. “So what happened then? Your mother was gone and your father—”

He cleared his throat. “Had disappeared anyway. He wasn’t one for taking care of people, in sickness or in health. He bailed on my mother in her last days.”

She opened her eyes wide. “He had a funny way of showing gratitude, considering what you’d done.”

“He thought creating me meant I owed him.”

She shook her head but knew words of sympathy would be meaningless. “So your parents were both gone. Why didn’t you go back for Jacqueline?”

“Your grandfather was a senator and a very smart man. He made me sign a loan agreement. I had to take the bastard’s word that he wouldn’t come after me to pay him back. Unless I went after Jacqueline.” He shook his head, dejection and regret evident in the slump of his shoulders and the raw pain emanating from him in waves. Pain for things he’d done—and not done. “And let me tell you, that was one whopping sum of money I took. I wouldn’t have been able to pay it back in ten lifetimes.”

Sloane exhaled, realizing for the first time her breath came out in visible puffs.
Drat the open window
, she thought, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. Not even her jacket made a difference now.

“You need to know that money threats couldn’t have kept me away from Jacqueline.” Samson seemed focused on their conversation, oblivious to the chill. “But when I went to check on her, she was married. She looked happy and I knew she was well cared for. All things I couldn’t give her. Not anymore.” He, too, wiped his eyes with one sleeve. “So I came back home.”

“And withdrew from life.” Sloane understood him now. Understood everything about him and why he’d turned into a recluse.

“It was easier not to be around folks in this town.” He slashed his hand through the air, as if cutting people out of his life. “But
they persisted. Pearl brought brownies by and Izzy and Norman sent food after my mother died. But I didn’t want their sympathy. And when polite manners didn’t do the trick, I started turning them away with gruff, rude talking.” He jutted out his chin. “It worked too. Pretty soon, everyone left me alone.”

Despite the pride in his voice, Sloane sensed how false his words sounded, how hurt he must have been to have lost Jacqueline first, then his entire family.

“You must have been lonely.” She tipped her head to one side, waiting for him to protest his independence and need for no one and nobody.

The man was a recluse who didn’t want emotion given to him, nor did he desire to provide any in return. But his next words surprised her. “It was a life I wouldn’t wish on anybody,” he muttered, and stood pacing just past the window. “But I got by and I’m fine. Darned if I’m not.” He straightened his shoulders, ever the solitary man he presented to the outside world.

“I know you’re fine, but at least admit you could be better.” Sloane followed his lead and rose to her knees, grateful for the excuse to move and get her circulation flowing again. “You’ve got family now and you’re stuck with me,” she said, echoing his earlier words.

He would learn Sloane Carlisle wasn’t a woman easily deterred. Samson might not want tender emotion, but he was going to get some anyway. Sloane was his daughter, the only flesh-and-blood person he was connected to in this world. It was time he acknowledged her in an embrace. And she intended to enjoy her first real father-daughter hug.

Standing, she moved forward, past the open window, and turned to reach for Samson at the same moment a loud noise sounded from outside and a burning sensation seared through her left shoulder. The impact propelled her against the wall as she cried out in surprise. She grabbed for her shoulder while white flashes and bursts of light circled around her.