Wild Hawk (32 page)

“Then don’t say who you’re talking to. I don’t know what his game is, but he’s up to something.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll tell you the rest later, but have you ever heard of North Pacific Marine Services?”

“No.”

“Well, if you were anywhere near Seattle, you would have,” Alton said, sounding a bit morose. “They’re one of the biggest marine supply, repair, and salvage operations in Puget Sound. They supply parts, repair everything from engines to sails, and salvage what can’t be repaired.”

Kendall forced herself not to look at Jason. Was this where he had gotten the corporate card? Oh, God, was he in trouble? Had he taken it without authorization or something?

“The owner started out with just a small diesel repair shop,” George said, “then added the salvage operation, and built it up from there over the last fifteen years.”

“So?” Kendall said carefully.

“So, it seems that the owner of the company is also worth a mint because a couple of years ago he came up with some new desalinization process that makes small-scale conversion of salt water to fresh twice as efficient and four times as fast.”

Kendall took a deep breath. “And?”

“And that owner who’s worth millions just happens to be Jason West.”

She hung up without another word, and turned to stare at Jason.

Chapter Twenty-two

“NO WONDER YOU weren’t worried about going to jail.”

“Kendall—”

She ignored him. “Nobody would believe you’d perpetrate a fraud for twenty-five million dollars when you’re worth twenty times that.”

“Not quite.” He smiled, although he looked a little wary. “But not bad for a kid with a GED, huh?”

She ignored that, too, except for vaguely registering that somewhere along the line he’d gotten his diploma after all. She ignored everything, except the gnawing pain that had settled somewhere between her heart and her stomach. She wrapped her arms around herself, as if that could ease the distress. It had no effect at all. She sank down on the edge of the bed. Jason took a step toward her, but halted when she drew away from him.

“But you just let me blunder along,” she said. “Did you enjoy watching me worry myself sick about seeing that you got Aaron’s bequest? Did it amuse you to hear that Aaron worried about how you were living, whether you were in need? Did you—”

“Kendall, stop.”

“Stop? All right, I’ll stop. As soon as you tell me what the
hell
is going on.”

“Exactly what I told you,” Jason said. “I’m going to take Alice down.”

She stared up at him, seeing in his face more implacability and ruthlessness than she had ever seen in Aaron’s. It made her shiver. Had she been blind?

No. She’d seen it in him before. She just hadn’t wanted to believe that’s all there was in him. For her own foolish reasons. But right now, she would swear there was nothing in him but determination and single-mindedness. She’d known the desire for revenge against Alice for his mother’s death was part of what was driving him. She had accepted that, could even understand it. She just hadn’t understood it was his sole motive. But now, looking at his eyes, fierce with hatred, she couldn’t doubt that it was.

“Losing what Aaron left you will hardly ruin her.”

“I know.”

Her stomach knotted even tighter. She stared at him. It was impossible to believe this was the same man who had made such sweet, passionate love to her, who had held her so tenderly, the man who had laughed with her just yesterday. There was nothing of sweetness or tenderness or laughter in this man, and the only passion she saw was a passion for vengeance.

“But you’re going to . . . take her down.”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“It doesn’t matter. But rest assured I will do it.” He turned and walked away from her then, to stop and stare out the window of the room. “I’ve been planning this for years.”

Kendall got to her feet. “Years? You only just found out she killed your mother.”

“It’s a small matter of . . . adjusting my sights.”

She looked at his back; even from here she could see the rigidity there. “You’ve been planning for years,” she repeated slowly. “Whatever it is, it was originally for Aaron, wasn’t it? What is it, Jason? What are you going to do?”

He looked over his shoulder at her. “And if I tell you? What will you do?”

She stared at him. “You think I’d help Alice?”

“No. But what would you do for Aaron?”

“Aaron?”

“Leave it alone, Kendall. You did your job. You’re out of it now. Stay that way.”

She surged to her feet. “That’s it? ‘You’re out of it’? I’m supposed to walk away?”

“You’ll be better off. Trust me.”

“Trust you?” She stared at him. “How can I trust you, when I don’t even know who you are?”

“You know all you need to know. Stay out of it,” he repeated. “And don’t worry about Alice’s threats. I’ll take care of that. I won’t let her do anything to you.”

“No side-by-side jail cells after all?” She hated how bitter she sounded, but she couldn’t help it. “There go all my foolish, romantic notions.”

Jason’s eyes narrowed. “I warned you.”

“Yes. Yes you did, didn’t you?” She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. “What are you going to do, Jason?”

He shook his head. “There’s too much riding on this.”

“So I’m supposed to trust you, but you won’t even trust me enough to tell me what’s happening?”

His jaw tightened. “I’ve already trusted you more than I’ve trusted anybody since I was sixteen.”

“And you barely trust me at all,” Kendall whispered. “My God, you really are Aaron’s son. In mind as well as blood.” She gestured, a little wildly, at the bed. “And what was this for, Jason? Did you enjoy . . . taking me to bed, knowing I had no idea who you really were? Or was this some kind of twisted way to strike at Aaron? You couldn’t hurt him, but—”

“It wasn’t like that—”

“Wasn’t it?”

“Let it be, Kendall. If you push anymore, you may not like what you find.”

She was sure she wouldn’t. She wanted to run. Somewhere. Anywhere. To get away from this pain. A pain she somehow sensed was only beginning. Whatever he wasn’t telling her, it was going to hurt her even more. But there was nowhere to run to.

I don’t want to run.

Remember you said that
.

Her promise and his reply echoed in her mind. He’d known they would come to this. He’d never believed anything else.

“Stay out of it, Kendall,” he said for a third time.

He glanced at his watch, then back at her face. For a moment she thought he was going to say something else, but then he turned and walked away from her. Kendall stared after him, shaken, watching the door swing shut behind him as he strode out of the room. She stood there for a long time.

She supposed everyone had to be a fool at least once in their life. And she was feeling like a pretty sizable one right now, after serving as a no doubt continuous source of amusement for Jason for four days. She couldn’t bear to think of it, not here in this room, where she’d lain in his arms and let him do anything he wanted to her, and done things she’d never imagined to him.

Hastily she finished dressing. She stuffed the few items she’d acquired into her purse, slung it over her shoulder, then picked up the box that still held Aaron’s letters and the extra copies of the codicil. And the book.

Stay out of it, Kendall.

She set the box down.

All right. Stay out of it she would. She’d put up with Aaron Hawk, and Alice Hawk, for ten years. She’d put up with—and fallen for—Jason Hawk for four days that seemed liked ten years. She’d had a bellyful of Hawk arrogance, of all kinds. And she was through. Jason could do whatever it was he was so set on doing to Alice, and he could do it alone.

Leaving the box behind her, she left the room without a backward glance.

She would have to rent a car, she thought as she rode down, trying not to remember the moment when she and Jason had come perilously close to making love in this very same elevator.

Having sex, she corrected herself brutally. That’s obviously all he thought it was. Not that he’d promised anything more; as he said, he’d warned her. It was her own fault for thinking it was more, her own fault for deceiving herself into believing he thought so, too. Her own fault for believing that the gentle, tender man had been the real one, and the ruthlessness a facade he’d adopted for self-protection.

Why? Why on earth had she gone against the practices of a lifetime, acting totally against character, falling into bed with a man she barely knew, a man she knew so little about? Was it simply because he’d affected her in a way she’d never known? Was that all it took, a man whose touch set her aflame?

The elevator door slid open. She stepped out, glad to be out of the confined space that was full of memories. She’d been safer, she thought, when she’d thought of him simply as Aaron’s son.

Aaron’s son.

God, was that what had happened to her? Had she been primed to fall for him? Had she had an instinctive soft spot for this man who so resembled his father? Had she never really had a chance?

The door slid shut behind her with an audible thump, snapping her out of that particular useless pit of speculation. She would get a car and get out of here, she repeated to herself as she walked across the lobby with precise and determined strides. Then maybe she could think. She had to think, to decide what she was going to do next.

When she nearly ran over an elderly lady in the lobby, she realized she’d better do a little more thinking about what she was doing now. She apologized profusely, then started for the doors again, this time watching where she was going. And this time, seeing the man who stood by the end of the registration counter, enthusiastically shaking hands with someone with his back to her.

Paul Barker, she realized with a little shock. She hadn’t seen him since the annual board of directors’ meeting last year, Aaron’s last. Alice must really have called for that emergency meeting, if he was here already. Although why he was here at this hotel instead of at the house, where the directors usually stayed in the guest wing—an old-world style courtesy Aaron had always said cost him little and gained him much—she couldn’t imagine.

She started toward him; she’d always liked Paul, and they had gotten along well in the seven years since his investment group had acquired enough stock to warrant that seat on the board.

“Kendall?”

She smiled as Paul looked up and saw her coming toward him. He seemed startled, then, oddly, nervous. His gaze flicked to the man he’d shaken hands so familiarly with, the man Kendall had barely looked at in her surprise at seeing Paul. But she looked now. And he half turned to look at her as well.

It was Jason.

Her steps faltered, her smile vanished, but she steadied herself and kept going.

“Paul,” she said with a nod.

“Kendall, it’s good to see you. I’m sorry about Aaron. I know you were close.”

“Yes,” Kendall said, “we were.” She nodded toward Jason without looking at him. “You two . . . know each other? From Seattle?”

Paul glanced at Jason. “Er . . . yes, you could say that.”

She looked at Jason then, expecting to see nothing but that cool, distant expression he’d worn when he’d left her. It was there, his features a mask of detachment, but the effect was marred by his eyes; they were watching her intently, almost warily. And in them she sensed a touch of reluctance, as if he were facing some task he found distasteful somehow. Or perhaps it was her he found distasteful now.

She looked back at Paul. “Why are you here instead of the house?”

“I . . . That is, because . . .”

His voice trailed off, and he looked at Jason again. One of the reasons she’d always liked Paul was because she’d sensed he was an honest man. He wasn’t acting like one now.

“He’s here,” Jason said, “to meet with me.”

Her gaze flew back to Jason’s face, startled. “You? Why?”

“Let it be, Kendall,” he said again, as he had upstairs.

If you push any more, you may not like what you find.

The rest of what he’d said came back to her; as it replayed in her head it sounded even more ominous. The implication, that she might learn a truth she wouldn’t welcome, was clear. But she’d faced unpleasant truths before in her life. She’d always thought it better than foolishly believing a lie. And she’d already played the fool enough in this little charade of Jason’s.

Her head came up determinedly. Jason sighed, as if he’d read her intent in just that movement.

“Go ahead and get settled, Paul,” he said. “I’ll see you and the others as planned, before the meeting tonight.”

Seeming grateful to escape, Paul gave Kendall an apologetic look and walked hastily away. She was vaguely aware of him dodging someone who had just walked in through the front doors of the hotel, but her attention was already returning to Jason.

“Why would Paul Barker be here to meet with you? What’s your connection with him?”

“Business.”

“What business do you have with a member of the Hawk board of directors? It’s part of what you’re planning to do, isn’t it? What, Jason?”

He shook his head. “No, Kendall.”

She knew it wasn’t an answer to her question but merely a reiteration of his refusal to tell her. She suppressed a shiver. Or tried to; she knew she was trembling, but couldn’t seem to help it. Nor could she help the plaintive note in her voice.

“You really don’t trust me, do you? Even after—”

She bit back the rest of the words, unwilling to humiliate herself quite that far.

“I can’t,” Jason said. He didn’t sound particularly happy, but he did sound utterly determined. “I’m sorry, Kendall. I trust you as much as I’ve ever trusted anyone, but I can’t risk you messing up out of some misguided sense of loyalty to Aaron. I’ve worked too long and too hard.”

“Aaron’s dead!” she exclaimed.

“But his company isn’t.” Kendall whirled, startled, as George Alton spoke from behind her, clearly the man Paul had nearly bumped into in his haste to escape the awkward situation. “At least not yet. But you’re going to do your best to see that changes, aren’t you, Mr. West?”

Kendall’s gaze flicked to Jason; he had gone rigid. She looked back at Alton.