A Secret Life

CHAPTER THREE

ANTHONY WAS TOO GRATEFUL to finally have Joan alone to care what Heather might do or say to Samuel.

“That man will sue us for royalties,” he said, pulling out his cell phone, searching his memory for the direct number of the Prism legal department.

“Then he’ll win,” Joan returned, gliding her fingers through her thick, brown hair as she moved toward the breakfast bar.

“I don’t need you talking like that.” Anthony gave up on his memory and punched in the number of the main receptionist.

Joan lifted her long-stemmed glass. “Talking like what?” She pivoted back toward him. “Oh, you mean telling the truth?”

“You don’t get to decide the truth. A judge gets to decides the truth.”

Joan scoffed at that and finished her martini. Then she promptly refilled it from the shaker.

“Whoa.” Anthony snapped his phone shut and moved toward her. Though he could relate to the impulse, a drunk Joan would only make matters worse. “Slow it down there.”

“It’s weak,” she said as he drew close. “The ice has melted.”

“What is it?”

“A cosmopolitan.”

“There’s no such thing as a weak cosmopolitan.”

She ignored him, draining a second drink. “You want one?”

“No, I don’t want one.” Well, actually he did. But he was exercising restraint.

She waved the empty glass in the air, walking around the end of the breakfast bar and into the kitchen.

“You shouldn’t drink when you’re upset,” he pointed out.

“Why would I be upset? Just because you’ve trashed my reputation, ruined my family and probably got me kicked out of Indigo?”

“I’ve already told you I can fix it. If you’ll just listen-”

“Don’t you think you’ve done enough?” She popped the silver lid off the martini shaker.

“I wasn’t the leak.”

“Right.” Her voice turned sing-song. “It was some mysterious mole with the secret files.” She poured in a few ounces of vodka and reached for the cranberry juice.

“The confidential files. Every business has to keep them.”

“Whatever.” She capped the shaker and swished it from side to side.

He rounded the breakfast bar and commandeered the shaker. “Getting drunk is not going to help.”

“Who’s getting drunk?”

He popped the lid with one thumb and dumped the martini mix down the sink.

“Hey!”

“Read my lips-”

“No, you read mine.” She mouthed a pithy curse.

“I can’t believe you just said that.” Anthony had never imagined a word like that forming in Joan’s brain, never mind coming out her mouth.

She reached for the shaker. “Believe it.”

He snagged her wrist. “Oh no, you don’t.”

“Let go of me.”

He didn’t. “We need to focus here, Joan.”

Her green eyes sparkled in the sunlight streaming through the window. “I am focused.”

“Not on cosmopolitans.”

“I was talking about the tea.”

“Well, I’m focused on how Samuel is going to sue us.”

She moved a little closer, her perfume wafting around him. “Done deal, Anthony. Samuel’s already won.”

“Because you’ll feel compelled to confess to the judge.”

“Exactly.” She compressed her lips. “I tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

Anthony paused. “Say that again.”

“Huh?”

He had an idea. It was a wonderfully simple, yet brilliant idea. “You’re going to stand up and tell a judge Bayou Betrayal is based on an Indigo murder scandal?”

“Yes, I am.”

Merry Christmas, Anthony.

His grip loosened on her wrist, and he had to fight himself to keep from turning it into a caress. This wasn’t the time to think about her soft skin, the scent of her perfume, the sweet puff of her breath or the rounded curves beneath her tailored clothes.

He took a step back. “I know how we can skip the judge part.”

“We write a big fat check?”

“You tell it all to Ned Callihan.”

Her coral lips pursed, and for a split second he imagined kissing her. It was a fleeting, intense fantasy, where he pulled her flush against him and tasted that tender mouth for the very first time.

“From the News Network?”

Anthony nodded, tamping down his inappropriate reaction.

“How would that-” Her eyes went wide, and she took a step back. “Oh no, you don’t.”

“You tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth to Ned on camera. Five minutes. Then whiz, bang, we cut Samuel a check.”

She shook her wrist out of his grip. “I can’t believe you would suggest that.”

“It would solve two problems.”

“You have no soul.”

While that was probably true, it didn’t mean this wasn’t a great idea. And he sure wasn’t giving up on it without a fight.

HEATHER HAD NO IDEA where to find Samuel. His blue pickup truck had turned the corner of Cypress Street two minutes ago, but by the time she got there, he’d disappeared. There were no tire tracks, no dust, nothing.

She slowed her rented Audi to a crawl and checked out the parking lot of the general store and scanned the streets around the town lawn. Then, just when she was about to give up, she caught a glimpse of a blue tailgate. The truck was tucked beside the old Indigo opera house.

She shifted into second.

The man might run, but he couldn’t hide from Heather Bateman. She followed the crescent around the town lawn, pulling into the opera house parking lot. She shut off the engine and set the park brake, exiting into the sharp sunshine and deep humidity of the Indigo afternoon.

The pillared front porch of the old building was covered with building materials and equipment-a circular saw, two-by-fours, a box of hand tools and bundles of cedar shakes. A machine chugged away on the gravel at the corner of the building, with a hose that wiggled all the way up the white siding. Loud, rhythmic cracks came from somewhere on the roof.

Looking up, Heather maneuvered carefully across the uneven gravel in her new Etienne Aigner heels. A leg came into view up on the gabled roof, and she recognized Samuel’s faded blue jeans and leather, steel-toed boots. She stumbled but quickly righted herself as she moved from the parking lot onto the lawn.

“Samuel?” she called over the thwacking noise of the machine.

No response.

“Samuel?” she called a little louder, making her way to the bottom of the ladder that stretched up two and a half stories.

Nothing.

Either he couldn’t hear her, or he was deliberately ignoring her. She had to admit, it was comforting to know he’d gone straight back to work. She had visions of him heading for the nearest pay phone to make a deal with a newspaper.

It was bad enough that her parents had to deal with twelve-twelve-of Joan’s novels coming to light. If they had to cope with a salacious murder connection on top of it, they’d faint dead away.

“Samuel!” she tried one more time.

Nothing.

Great.

She glanced from side to side across the emerald lawn. There was nothing but houses and small businesses in the distance. She could try to find someone to help-maybe that Anthony guy would climb up and get Samuel for her. Or she could wait it out down here in this steam room of a yard until Samuel was finished.

She glanced at her watch. Two o’clock. The man could be up there for hours. Asking Anthony pain-in-the-butt Verdun for help wasn’t a particularly appealing choice, either. Besides, he’d probably refuse just to spite her.

Fine.

She took a deep breath and reached for the nearest rung, reminding herself her family’s honor was at stake. The ladder was painted a cool, smooth gray, thank goodness. Splinters would have added insult to injury. She was careful not to damage her ruby manicure, and she placed her shoes just so on each rung so that she wouldn’t break a heel or scuff a toe.

She glanced down once, blinking away vertigo, but was happy to see there was still no one beneath her. It wasn’t the greatest day to be wearing a thong. But then it was a hundred degrees out here.

Three more rungs.

Two more.

Finally, her head came up above the roofline.

Samuel had his back to her, about twenty feet away, up the pitch of the shake roof. He was on his hands and knees punching nails with a deafening air gun.

Heather climbed up two more rungs, then carefully maneuvered her leg around the side of the ladder, placing her knee on the rough shakes. Good thing she wasn’t wearing stockings. She glanced at the surrounding buildings one more time. She was about to flash any Indigo residents within a hundred yards.

She put a hand on the rough roof, gritted her teeth, and inched her other leg around the ladder.

There. She’d done it.

She crawled a few feet from the edge, then stood up, straightening her clothes.

“Mr. Kane,” she called between cracks of his nail gun. “Samuel.”

He jerked his head around. “What the hell?”

She walked closer. “I need to talk to you.”

He came to his feet. “We’re nearly three stories up.”

“I tried calling.”

“Are you a lunatic?” With the advantage of the roof pitch, he had an awful lot of height on her. She was reminded all over again what a big man he was.

His faded blue jeans clung to his slim hips, but his chest and shoulders tapered out like a football player’s. His biceps strained against his thin T-shirt sleeves, and the muscles of his chest were delineated against the damp fabric.

His face was attractive, in a rugged, dangerous kind of way that sent an unexpected shiver up Heather’s spine.

“You shouldn’t be up here,” he growled.

Another shiver. “I need to talk to you.”

“I’m off work at six.”

Oh, no. She wasn’t leaving him alone until six o’clock. She wanted this deal worked out before he had a chance to contact anyone else. “I need to know what you’re going to do with your story.”

His dark eyes narrowed, and his hands went to his hips. “I assume you’re talking about my parents’ murders?”

“Anthony seems to think there’ll be a lot of publicity around Joan’s book.” Heather was hoping Anthony was wrong, but she couldn’t afford to take any chances.

“So?” asked Samuel.

“So, I can see how a guy like you might be-”

“A guy like me?”

“Yes.”

“What exactly am I like?”

She gestured to his clothes with her hand. “A…uh…working man.”

He stared at her in silence, a grim tightness to his full lips. Chip on his shoulder or what?

She fluffed her sweaty hair, deciding to get right to the point. “I’m prepared to make you an offer.”

His brows went up.

“Ten thousand dollars.” She hoped that was enough. Surely ten thousand dollars was a lot to a carpenter in Indigo, Louisiana.

“For?”

He hadn’t struck her as slow.

“Keeping this whole business to yourself, of course.”

He laughed then. It was a deep chuckle of disbelief that rumbled through his broad chest but definitely didn’t meet his eyes.

Damn. She’d insulted him. “Twenty thousand?”

“To keep my mouth shut?”

“I’m sure you can see-”

“What gave you the impression I could be bribed?”

Anybody could be bribed. “It’s not a bribe.”

“The hell it’s not.”

“Thirty thousand.”

“Get off my roof.”

“Forty?”

He gave her an insulting once-over from her breasts to her toes and back again. “Listen, lady. I talk to who I want, when I want. And no spoiled brat’s checkbook is going to change that.”

Spoiled brat? She drew herself up to her full five foot four and crossed her arms over her chest. “There’s no need to get insulting.”

“You started it.”

“I’m not insulting you.”

“You just offered me forty thousand dollars in hush money.”

“You don’t want forty thousand dollars?”

“I’m not for sale.”

“Listen, you-” Heather just barely stopped herself from delivering the scathing retort. Joanie was what mattered here, Joanie and the Bateman reputation. She swallowed her pride and reframed her offer. “In consideration of the money you could likely make selling your story to the media, I’m prepared-”

Samuel took a step closer, peering down at her. “What have I ever said or done that would lead you to believe I’d sell my parents’ murders to the highest bidder?”

Heather opened her mouth. Was he saying he wouldn’t go to the media? Was he insulted because she’d suggested he would? She searched his expression, trying to decide if this was about a moral code or upping the ante.

“You’re not going to tell your story?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“So you are going to sell the story.” Just how high was she going to have to go?

His expression flickered no more than a millimeter. “I’m going to throw you off this roof in a minute.”

Heather felt a reluctant smile forming on her lips. “Well, that is one way to solve your problem.”

His brown eyes glinted ever so slightly. “Isn’t it, though?”

“I could write you a check right now.”

“Goodbye…”

“Heather.”

“Goodbye, Heather.”

“I can’t leave.”

“Sure you can.”

She shook her head. “Not without your assurances that you’re not going to hurt my sister.”

He stared at her in silence. “My word good enough?”

Heather hesitated. “You tell me.”

He paused and seemed to think for a moment. “I’m not interested in money. But if I have a chance to prove my father’s innocence, I don’t care who I hurt.”

“If you want to hurt Joan, you’ll have to go through me.”

Samuel’s sharp nod told Heather he was confident he’d prevail. And, though she hated to admit it, she had a feeling he was right. She might have money and power on her side, but there was something about Samuel that intimidated the hell out of her. He wasn’t a man she’d want to cross.

“Fair enough,” said Heather. Joan had made it pretty clear her novel didn’t contain new evidence that would help Samuel. And if he was after money, he’d have been wise to say yes to the forty thousand.

Heather turned to go. But as she focused on the lawn below them, she experienced a sudden, overpowering wave of vertigo. She steeled herself and took a step forward anyway. She wasn’t afraid of heights. And they weren’t that far off the ground. She and Joan had had a tree fort when they were kids. Ladders were nothing.

She kept going.

Five more steps and she was at the edge of the roof, her trepidation rising by the second. She could do this. She would do this. She’d climbed up that ladder, and she’d climb back down again. She gripped one of the rails, and the ladder shifted along the gutter.

Everything inside her froze.

Samuel swore behind her, and she heard his footsteps on the cedar shakes.

“It’s easy,” he rumbled.

“I know.” She took another baby step. “I’m fine.” She put her hand gingerly on the top rung. She’d slide her leg around, just like she’d done when she got off.

She glanced at the ground, and it swayed crazily to one side.

“You’re shaking,” said Samuel.

“I am not.”

He sighed, and moved up beside her. “I’ll hold it steady.”

“There’s no need.” Her voice came out raspy against her dry throat.

He pointed. “Grab right here.”

She did.

“Now put your leg on the rung.”

She tried to move her foot, she really did. But for some reason, it was frozen to the roof.

“How the hell did you get up here?” Samuel muttered.

Heather didn’t answer. She was afraid it would come out as a whimper. Maybe she could make a call. Maybe they’d come and get her by helicopter.

“You okay?” asked Samuel.

“Fine,” she breathed.

“You afraid of heights?”

“No.”

“You going to get on that ladder?”

She didn’t answer.

“Heather?”

“What?”

“Just how scared are you?”

She tightened her grip on the ladder and inched herself forward, refusing to let him know she was nearly paralyzed. Careful not to look down, she hooked a toe on the gutter and transferred her weight.

The gutter started to give way, and she shrieked.

Samuel’s arm was around her in a split second, yanking her back against his body. “Damn,” he muttered above her head.

“I’m fine,” she insisted, but her voice was shaking.

He loosened his grip. “Don’t move.”

“Okay.” That one she could do.

He slowly let her go. Then he effortlessly swung himself out onto the ladder and backed down a couple of rungs. He let go of the ladder with one arm and held his hand out to the side, making a space for her.

“Hang on to the top of the ladder and step around on this side,” he said. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll grab you.”

Heather nodded, swallowing as she assessed the situation.

“Do not look down,” he warned.

She nodded again. It didn’t seem nearly as scary with Samuel’s big body between her and death.

His voice went softer. “Piece of cake.”

She took a step.

“Grab on right there,” he coaxed. “And turn around.”

She did, and the ladder felt solid beneath her hand. She breathed in, daring to move backward toward the edge. It was stupid, but now she couldn’t help thinking about his angle and her thong. “Can I trust you to be a gentleman?” she asked.

“Not even a little bit.”

She shot him a glare over her shoulder.

“If I have to grab you, I have to grab you. I’m not gonna be careful about the target.”

“I wasn’t…” Oh.

“What?”

She studied his expression. “Forget it.” She faced the roof again. Nothing to do but get this over with.

With both hands on the top rung, she inched her toe onto the ladder. When one foot was solid, she moved the other, breathing a sigh of relief when Samuel’s arm locked her in.

“You actually thought I would check out your underwear?” he rumbled.

“It had crossed my mind,” she confessed.

He moved down a rung and waited for her. “What the hell kind of men do you hang out with?”

She carefully stepped down, her muscles clenched, her damp palms inching along the painted rails. “There’s nothing wrong with the men I hang out with.”

He moved again. “There is if they’re all looking up your skirt.”

“They don’t look up my skirt.” At least not without an invitation.

“Then why did you think I would?”

“It was an overreaction, okay?”

“First, you try to bribe me,” he grumbled. “And then you accuse me of being a Peeping Tom.”

Heather took another rung. “Get over it, will you? How was I supposed to know you were a paragon of morali-” Her foot slipped. Her heart went to her throat.

His arm closed tight around her waist, and he was a solid wall behind her. “You’re fine. I’ve got you.”

“Damn,” she muttered, adrenaline thrumming through her body.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded, searching for the rung with her foot.

He didn’t immediately let her go. Which was perfectly okay with her. If she had to stumble on a ladder twenty feet off the ground, Samuel was definitely the guy she wanted hanging on to her.

His broad palm was splayed across her stomach, and his solid abs were pressed against her rear end.

“I’m not much of a paragon at the moment,” he said.

“You just saved my life.”

“Yeah. But now you’ve got me thinking about your underwear.”