The Tycoon (64 page)

On the drive back to Camden, Shannon tried to sort out all that had happened since Tuesday—the desperate, possessive sex on Tuesday night, which had convinced her that something wasn’t right. She still wondered about it. But she had dismissed the question after they had two great days afterward. Then Heather Pennington showed up at dinner and he had changed again. He was a chameleon.

After Hawaii, like a silly ninny, she had been floating in the clouds, had switched
just sex
to
lovemaking
. Now she had to reverse that classification in her mind. If she couldn’t, she had no business continuing to fool around with Drake. Only a naïve and foolish woman would cleave to a relationship with someone whom she could see that other women constantly pursued. It wasn’t that she had no faith—or trust—in Drake, but he was only human. And after all, they had made no firm commitment to each other.

And into that stew dropped two new observations. Though he had always been charming, generous, affectionate and gentle with her, seeing him on this trip showed her a deadly serious and ruthless side of him. With her own eyes, she had seen him look Robert Pennington in the eye and demolish the man’s plans and perhaps his dreams.

For the first time in a while, her alter ego piped up:
He didn’t get where he is because he isn’t a slick guy who’s too namby-pamby to make the tough calls
.

Indeed. He had the same edgy killer instinct, that same play-to-win-at-all-costs attitude she had observed in a few other competitive and successful people. So far she had seen the latter applied only to his business or issues related to making money, but did it eventually carry over into his personal associations? If it was a part of his makeup, how could it not?

She believed she knew the answer. If he became tired of her or decided she was in his way, he wouldn’t agonize thirty seconds over dumping her. He would approach her in the same cold-steel way he handled his business. She could be the next Donna Schoonover. But at least Donna had the benefits of a fortune to fall back on. Shannon Piper would have nothing but a broken heart and a business that had gone to hell because she had ignored it. But for Drake, some new—or old—female would be, would
always
be, waiting in the wings.

As soon as she reached Camden, as had become a routine, before leaving her car, she sent him a text:
Home safe
.

As she was unloading her bags from the Sorrento, a text from him came back:
K
.

Sometimes
K
stood for “Kisses.” Sometimes it simply meant “Okay.” Today, she didn’t know which.

****

Drake shoved his phone into his pants pocket, glad to know Shannon was home safe. He had never liked her driving to and from Fort Worth alone to be with him. He preferred going down to Camden and picking her up himself, but she still didn’t want him to. Nor did she want him to send a car for her. The transportation situation was becoming oppressive.

He was tired. The trip to Lubbock had taken a toll on him. He hadn’t enjoyed the decision he’d had to make about Pennington Engineering. He flopped into a reclining chair in front of TV, pondering all that had gone wrong with the turbine manufacturing deal.

The fuck-ups had begun years back when he let his dick get in front of his brain. He had violated his one cardinal rule and let himself get too up close and personal with Heather Pennington. He still wondered how much that relationship had contributed to his ambiguity over the turbine manufacturing project.

His thoughts drifted to Heather showing up unexpectedly at dinner. Had she done that for spite? Had she known a woman was with him? Shannon was too smart not to have picked up that he and Heather had had a fling. Once, a long time ago, it had been almost serious between them. He had ended their affair because she had a willful streak and he couldn’t abide a woman attempting to exact what he had been unwilling to give.

He hoped not to hear from her. No point in rubbing salt into her and her dad’s wounds. But he knew her well enough to know that she would call him. She would try to make him change his mind because that was the way she was. But nothing she could say would cause him to invest family money into something his dad and brother didn’t like and in which he himself had lost more faith every day.

If it was me, I wouldn’t spend a bunch of money on something I wasn’t a hundred percent sold on.
Shannon’s words. And she was right. That blunt, one-sentence opinion had helped him clear his head. Good natural instincts were just one more thing he admired about her.

He picked up the remote and channel-surfed. He was rarely home during the day on a weekday, so he didn’t know what came on. TV programming didn’t matter because he couldn’t concentrate. Shannon kept popping in and out of his thoughts. She had become his focus much of the time—where he could take her, the things he could show her and do with her, what he could do for her. He loved being with her, loved bantering back and forth with her. She was so open he never had to guess what she was about. They thought alike. He had even started to listen to her ideas and opinions and be influenced by them.

He no longer questioned how he felt about her. Things had been a little out of sync in Lubbock, which he chalked it up to the tension caused by Tammy’s sudden reappearance in his life, followed by Heather’s appearance at dinner. Women. They drove him crazy. Then there was the stress of dealing with the Pennington deal. He would smooth it over the next time he and Shannon saw each other.

As all of those thoughts tumbled through his mind, his phone warbled and he keyed into his brother’s call. “Hey. What’s up?”

“How’d it go in Lubbock?” Pic asked.

Drake grunted. “Tell Dad that deal’s off. The wind turbine leases with TXE aren’t affected, but I pulled out of the manufacturing deal.”

“He’ll be glad to hear that. He was worried you were gonna plow ahead with it.”

“He knows better than that. He knows I won’t risk the family fortune. Or go against family opinions.”

“That’s not why I called. They arrested a kid named Billy Barrett for Kate’s fire. Ever hear of him?”

“No.

“Some wealthy woman in Dallas put up his bond money.”

 “Hunh,” Drake said, confused.

“I don’t know what they’re thinking. They’re looking into his connections now and even into the idea that he might be involved somehow in harassing our whole family. Did you get a chance to make a list of incidents like Blake asked?”

“I haven’t had time.”

“Take time, will you? Blake really wants it. He wants us all to sit down together.”

“I’ll make a list tonight, get back to you tomorrow.”

After more short conversation, they disconnected. Drake sat back in his chair. Now his musing took a different turn. He searched his memory for the name Billy Barrett, but came up blank. He thought back to his various projects over the past few years, trying to target things that had happened that had caused him to spend unplanned money.

Reconstruction of the Millennium Bank building had taken more than two years. He recalled an elevator falling five floors. The one passenger, an electrician, had been seriously injured, but survived. The insurance company had been satisfied the fall was an accident and had settled. Other incidents and accidents had occurred on that job, but none that struck him as unusual. Hazards were inherent in rebuilding a skyscraper.

Soon after Lockhart Tower had opened, he had bought the old six-story Sears building just a block from the city center. He had gutted it and just begun reconstruction to turn it into apartments when a fire had broken out on the third floor and threatened the whole building. The Fort Worth cops had investigated as well as the fire department and the insurance company. It was declared an accident although no one ever established conclusively how the fire had started. Then there was Buzz’s truck accident.

Could those incidents have been planned?

He called Pic back. When his brother answered, he said, “Is Rafferty going to be around tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Pic answered.

“See if you can round him up. If his theory is legit, we need to get to the bottom of it. I’m going to fly down there. Pick me up at the airport in a couple of hours.”

He got to his feet, called the airport and requested the plane be readied to fly. Then he re-

packed his duffle and headed out.

****

Shannon was back in her office mid-afternoon. All but Chelsea were out in the field, hopefully getting listings or making sales or at least trying to do both. She chatted briefly with Chelsea, then closed herself into her office. She sat at her desk, preoccupied with all that was going on in her life. She wondered if Drake had heard from Heather Pennington.

She stared at the calendar. The end of the workweek.
Symbolic
, she thought, of her affair with Drake. She didn’t know when, or if, she would hear from him again. No dates were planned and so far, he hadn’t been one to call up and chat. She was so distressed over the Lubbock trip, she didn’t know if she cared whether he called.

On Saturday, she fell back into her routine, played catch-up in her office all day. She took Grammy Evelyn to church on Sunday morning and worked in her office on the files in the afternoon. The only extraordinary occurrence was getting a call from Colleen wanting to know about the trip. Now she wished she had never told Colleen and Gavin Drake’s name. No telling what they would do with that information.

Chapter 38

Drake stayed at the Double-Barrel five days, during which he rode with Pic and Dad and helped with their various chores around the ranch. They had talked extensively about who could be out to inflict revenge on the family, but come to no conclusions.

He had been sobered by the meetings with Texas Ranger Blake Rafferty and his partner. They had convinced him of the revenge angle. What had been an arson-caused barn fire had morphed into something bigger and more insidious. So far, damage had been done only to property. But were any of the family members in personal danger? If the weather hadn’t been cold, wet and lousy most of December and January, Drake might be persuaded the mysterious villain was responsible for his problems on Lone Star Commons.

But who hated the Lockharts so much? The cops didn’t know, but Drake knew that with the family’s history, the list could be long. Through the years one Lockhart or another had stepped on many toes.

From Drinkwell, he had arranged to beef up security on everything he had anything to do with and Dad and Pic now had ranch hands patrolling the pastures at night, hoping to prevent harm to the cattle. Drake and Pic had personally moved some of Kate’s horses back to Will’s secure barn and some to the Double-Barrel’s horse barn, where someone would be watching twenty-four/seven.  Above all, he had to guard against paranoia.

He pondered what to do about Shannon. By association with him, was she in danger? Should he warn her?

The threat of incoming bad weather and more possible delays on the Lone Star Commons project recaptured his attention. Just when he was considering it was time for him to return to Fort Worth, a call from his assistant came on his Blackberry.

“Are you coming back soon?”

 “I was just thinking about flying back today. What’s up?”

“Mail you should take a look at, I think. It’s personal.”

For her to call him about something personal on his Blackberry that had numerous security features, it had to be something highly confidential, thus important. And it was most likely something he didn’t want to discuss in the presence of his brother and father. “I’m finished here. I’ll be up there soon.”

Soon after lunch, Debra sat patiently across from him while he perused a thin sheaf of papers that included a young man’s picture that looked like a mug shot. The report in his hands was a summary of an investigation conducted by Pruett Security Services. He hadn’t used the company himself, but he knew someone who used it regularly—Don Stafford. He was certain that neither the security company nor Stafford would have sent this information anonymously. The more he read, the angrier he became. A few bits the information jumped out at him as being similar to what his mother had said a few days ago.