“Me?” Surely, she’d heard wrong.

  “Yes, you,” he said. “You’re perfect. The way you’ve handled this place? Your understanding of politics? I think you’d quickly become a valuable asset to the island no matter the type of business here.”

  “What if I never agree to play with you again?”

  “Then I’ll forever kick myself for being stupid and letting you slip away, but I’ll be grateful for the two times you honored me with the gift of your submission.” He grinned. “And we’d still run the best resort/school/academy/retreat center/whatever the kink world has ever known.”

  “And what if one day I say yes?”

  His eyes locked on to hers, and he held her gaze with an expression containing no room for deceit. “Then I’ll spend my life, down to my last breath, making sure you have no reason to regret doing so.”

  His words were exactly what she needed, and though they made her heart swoon and seemed to have replaced her knees with rubber, it was much too soon to give in to him. Besides, she wanted him to have to work for her yes. Not only because she deserved it, but because he’d value it more that way.

  “We should go find Lennox,” she said.

  After a productive meeting with Lennox, who was thrilled to hear of Terrence’s interest, Veronica stayed in the kitchen with Andie, finding herself much too wound up to be in her office alone. She would say she was helping, but that would infer Andie was receiving some benefit from her standing nearby and peppering her with questions. Instead, Andie graciously answered everything Veronica asked while they waited for Terrence to call and discuss everything with his manager.

  “I don’t think his manager will be shocked at all to hear what Terrence is planning,” Andie said, looking up from the sandwiches she was packing for Fulton and the work crew. “Not that he’s said anything to me, but I don’t think he’s as content as he once was. He seems different this summer. More pensive, maybe?”

  Andie should know. She had known him longer than anyone else on the island. Before Veronica could ask her anything further, Terrence walked into the kitchen.

  Something had happened on the call with his manager. When he’d finished talking with Lennox, his excitement had been palpable. That excitement was now gone, replaced by a look of confusion and, possibly, anger.

  “Terrence?” Veronica asked.

  He shoved a frustrated hand through his hair. “The call didn’t go the way I thought it would.”

  “Obviously,” she said.

  “I’m going to take these down to the lighthouse.” Andie picked up the box she’d packed. “I plan on eating there as well. You two take as long as you need here.”

  Terrence hurried to Andie’s side and took the box out of her hands. “Let me carry this.”

  Andie rolled her eyes. “It’s not heavy, and I’m driving the golf cart which is parked right outside. I’m perfectly able to carry it that far.”

  “I know, but humor me,” he said. “Not only because you know there’s no way I’d ever stand by and let a pregnant woman carry a box while I watched, no matter how light it is, but also because you know Fulton would kick my ass otherwise.”

  Andie relented, and Terrence shot Veronica a quick glance. “I’ll be right back.”

  Apparently, Andie hadn’t been lying about having the golf cart right outside because Terrence made it back to the kitchen less than three minutes later. His expression hadn’t changed.

  “What happened with your manager?” Veronica asked. When Terrence glanced around the kitchen, she added, “No one’s here. You can talk.”

  He took a deep breath. “He thought it was a great idea. He knows I’ve been struggling for the past year or so and believes this would be a good opportunity for me.”

  So far, so good. Veronica braced herself for the but sure to come.

  “I gave him the numbers Lennox and I had been kicking around, and asked if he could find out how long it would take to get a transfer together. That’s when he found it.”

  “Found what?”

  He grimaced. “Inaccuracies in my accounts. He’s having his people look over everything to find out what’s going on, but most of the accounts have considerably less than they should.”

  “What’s considerably less?” she asked, and her eyes bugged at the number he gave her. “How could that much money be gone and you don’t know how it happened or where it went?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m sure as hell going to find out.”

  “Where does this leave your purchase of the island?” she asked, afraid she knew the answer already.

  “On hold until I can figure out what’s going on.” He placed his hands on the countertop and dropped his head. Sadness filled his eyes when he looked back up. “I can’t believe someone on my team has been stealing from me. That I’ve been played by someone I trusted.”

  She wanted to tell him that maybe he’d discover it was a clerical error or a miscalculation and everyone working for him was as trustworthy as he’d always thought. Unfortunately, life experiences had proven to her over and over the exact opposite. Some people weren’t trustworthy, and most of the time you wouldn’t find out just how untrustworthy they were until it was much too late and the damage had already been done.

  She knew Terrence had relatively low turnover rates with those employees who worked the closest with him. That had probably been one of the reasons why he’d been so hesitant to fire his agent. If his accounts were being mishandled by one of his employees, odds were it was one of those employees closest to him. Not only did that make the betrayal much more painful, but it also meant whoever it was could have possibly been stealing and lying to him for years.

  Her heart ached for him, and she hoped against hope they were all wrong about his accounts.

  “If there’s any good news to be found in this entire mess,” Terrence said. “It’s that Lennox hasn’t gone public with the selling of the island and academy, so at the moment I’m not competing or in a bidding war with anyone.”

  “Plus,” she added, “from what I’ve gathered, it’s not as if he’s in a rush to sell. He doesn’t have to, after all, so I’m willing to bet it won’t be a problem for him to wait and give you the time needed to figure this all out.” She rested a hand on his shoulder. “Based on how happy he was earlier today when you discussed buying from him, he doesn’t want anyone else to have the property.”

  She expected him to say something in response or at least to agree with her. But he was silent, almost dumbstruck, and she couldn’t figure out why.

  Finally, when several long seconds passed and he still hadn’t said anything, she asked, “What? What’s that expression for?”

  He looked down to where her hand still rested on his shoulder. “That’s the first time you’ve ever touched me first.”

  His words made her want to jerk her hand away, but she left it where it was. “That can’t be right.”

  “It is. Trust me, I’d remember otherwise.” His lips were so close to hers if he leaned down just a bit or if she stood on her toes, they’d be kissing.

  She wanted so badly to kiss him. She closed her eyes.

  Her phone rang and she backed down with a curse, recognizing the ringtone. “Fuck. It’s my dad.”

  Chapter 27

  VERONICA

  Veronica reached for the phone. “I have to take this.”

  “I wasn’t aware that you and your father were on speaking terms,” Terrence said.

  Her heart pounded in her ears. “We’re not, so it must be something major.” Preparing for the worst, she answered, “Hello?”

  “I was wondering if you’d have enough nerve to answer when I called,” her father said. It’d been years since she’d heard him, but his voice hadn’t changed at all. He still sounded as if he’d been chewing on rocks all day.

  “What can I do for you, Father?” she asked. There was no other way she knew of to reply to his nonexistent greeting.

  “Since when have you ever concerned yourself on what you could do for me?” he asked. “But since you asked, how about this? How about you keep your clothes on and your knees together so I don’t have to deal with the derelicts of society trying to blackmail me?”

  “What?”

  “If I’d had any idea you would turn out to be a trollop whose favorite pastime was seducing anything with a dick, I’d have sent you to a nunnery when you were in grade school.”

  She made herself swallow his rejection and judgment, somehow managing to sound calm when she replied. “That would have probably backfired on you, seeing as how we aren’t Catholics.”

  “Do you think this is funny?” he nearly yelled.

  “Not at all,” she said, still managing to sound disinterested in the conversation. “Just pointing out the obvious.”

  “What’s obvious to me is you have no regard for family loyalty or respect for my position in this country.”

  “It’s taken you this long to figure that out? I thought I made my feelings known on those matters five years ago when I left your house and dropped your name.”

  “That’s enough, Veronica,” he was pissed now, and she didn’t care. “I called you because I wanted you to know I’m not going to allow myself to be blackmailed because you decided to fornicate in front of a window and ended up getting photographed. I’m going to let the bastard print whatever he wants about you. It shouldn’t affect me anyway. Like you so eloquently stated, we don’t even share the same last name.” And with that, he disconnected.

  The adrenaline that had been rushing through her body while arguing with her father began to level off. She closed her eyes and told herself she was not going to cry. Not over that man.

  “Ronnie?”

  Terrence. Damn it. She’d forgotten she wasn’t alone. Mentally, she pulled herself together. Or at least enough to attempt to ease Terrence’s mind. He looked worried.

  “It appears as if your agent wasn’t the only person to receive that photo of us in the window,” she said.

  Understanding crossed Terrence’s face, and he flinched. “Your father? Fuck, Ronnie. I’m so sorry.”

  “There’s nothing to be done about it now, and let’s face it, I’d already hit rock bottom in my father’s eyes. It’s not like the photo could make me sink lower than I was.” She shook her head. “He was just letting me know he wasn’t going to give in to the blackmailer. He’s going to tell him to print whatever the hell he wants.” She paused for a second. “Maybe I should start making sex videos. I mean why not? Pretty soon everyone will have seen me naked anyway.”

  “This isn’t over yet,” Terrence said. “And I have a feeling whoever has those photos isn’t going to stop just because your father didn’t give in to his demands. In fact, he might have gotten the reaction he expected.”

  “That my father would tell him off?”

  “Yes, because he wanted your father to call you.”

  Pieces started to fall into place. “He knew my father would call me to gloat over the fact that he wasn’t going to do anything to stop him. He wanted me to know my father basically gave him permission to do anything he wanted with those pictures.”

  “Yes,” Terrence said. “And I can guess where they will pop up next.”

  “Here,” she said. “He’ll send them to us and threaten us with blackmail.” She frowned. “But why me? I don’t have any money. What could I possibly have that he wants?”

  “I don’t think he wants your money,” Terrence said. “I think he might want mine.”

  Another piece fell into place. “Or more of it,” Veronica said.

  “More of it?” Terrence wrinkled his forehead. “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t you think it’s a bit coincidental that you finding out about a possible thief on your team happens around the same time this photo’s going around?”

  “I have to view it as coincidental,” he said. “I can’t imagine how the two could possibly be related.”

  “That’s because we haven’t found the common thread yet, but I bet it’s there. And I bet we’ll find it if we look. We’ve both been around the block enough times to realize that very little in this world, whether you’re talking about politics, Hollywood, or John and Jane Doe living on Main Street, is actual coincidence.”

  “I can’t decide if I want you to be right or wrong with that statement.”

  “That’s because you’re only in the beginning stages of experiencing the worst of people, whereas I’ve had over five years to live with it.”

  “Does it get any easier?” he asked, although she had a feeling he’d known the answer before he asked the question.

  “I wish it did, but no.”

  Chapter 28

  TERRENCE

  Terrence wasn’t sure what his next course of action should be. In his perfect world, it would place him one step ahead of whoever held the photos of him and Ronnie. Without any details other than they’d contacted both his agent and her father, however, it was impossible to get in that position. At the moment, he felt their only option was to wait for the unknown entity to contact either him or Ronnie and hope they were able to find something that would point them in the right direction.

  He’d just finished saying as much to the MacLures and the Matthewses. He and Ronnie had asked them all to meet together in his villa, and they were currently sitting in his living room. The hope being that between the six of them they’d find something, some overlooked detail, offering a hint of who they could be dealing with.

  “I admit,” Terrence said, “I’d rather do just about anything other than sit here and wait. We’re fairly certain whoever it is will reach out to one or the both of us. I’d like nothing more than to uncover the bastard before he has a chance to get that far.”

  “Let’s start with what you know,” Fulton said. “The first time you noticed anything out of the ordinary was when you were at the cottage and Veronica saw the men outside. What we’re missing is how they knew you were going to be there in the first place.”

  “From what I was told, no one knew it was Terrence and Veronica; they just knew it was someone,” Lennox said. “But the more I think about it, why would that alone be enough to convince four men to drive here and basically camp out, waiting for something to happen?”

  “What are you suggesting?” Terrence asked.

  “I’m saying that I believe whoever called my contact in Seattle knew exactly who was here.”

  “But how did he know?” Fulton asked.

  Lennox grimaced. “That’s the part I don’t know.”

  “What’s the possibility of whoever alerted your contact to have more evidence than an overheard conversation? What if they followed us?”

  “I’m not sure how that could happen,” Andie said. “They would’ve had to have been following you for some time that day. Think about it. You weren’t even driving your car. You were driving mine.”

  “True.” Ronnie looked more defeated than Terrence had ever seen her, and it killed him knowing he carried most of the blame for that look. “Someone would have had to have been waiting at the dock’s garage and watched us.”

  “You were driving my car,” Andie repeated in a whisper.

  Terrence wondered why she felt the need to repeat the sentence. He wanted to ask Ronnie—

  “Andie!” Fulton yelled. “What’s wrong?”

  Terrence turned to find Andie sitting pale as a sheet. Other than the pallor though, she didn’t appear to be in any harm.

  “I’m fine,” Andie assured Fulton. “It’s only I can’t believe I didn’t realize it before now.”

  “Realize what?” Fulton asked. He still had his arms around her.

  “My car.” Andie looked up at him. “The one you installed a rear view camera on a year ago, after I was rear-ended and the guy ran off.”

  “You have a camera showing the back of your car?” Terrence asked, trying not to allow himself to get excited at the potential.

  “Yes,” Fulton said, digging in his pocket. “And everything it records is stored digitally for six months. Hold on a second, and I’ll pull up the file from that day.”

  Five minutes later, Fulton had connected his phone to the large screen television in the villa, and they were all sitting around and watching. Terrence didn’t recognize the car appearing behind them not long after he and Ronnie departed from the garage where Andie kept her car while on the island. He certainly didn’t recognize the driver.

  But as the car he was driving on the screen slowed down to make the turn into the children’s home, the car behind them drew closer before passing. For a fraction of a second, the sun hit the driver’s hands, and while he didn’t recognize the car, and the video had no clear shot of the driver, the sunlight illuminated the one-of-a-kind ring the driver wore.

  “That fucking bastard,” he said, and then to Fulton added, “Stop it and run it back a second or two.” The car on-screen reversed and then went forward again. “Pause it right there.”

  “What is it?” Ronnie asked.

  “The ring,” he said. “It’s an alexandrite cat’s-eye.”

  Fulton took a step closer to the screen. “You’ve seen one like it before?”

  “No,” he answered. “I’ve seen that one. There’s only one.”

  Five pairs of eyes stared at him in shock, but no one said anything, so he answered their unasked question.

  “Ken. My agent.”

  Ronnie was the first one to talk. “That explains why he dropped you. I bet he was afraid you’d find out.” Her eyes widened in surprise. “Holy shit, it was me!”

  Terrence raised an eyebrow. “What was you?”

  “He called the day before we went to the children’s home. I told him to try to call you the next day because we’d be on the mainland, and you might have better reception. Fuck.”

  “Did he know who you were?” Andie asked.

  “He knew the name Veronica Fair, but it’s not like I kept anything about my real identity secret. All anyone would have to do is a quick internet search, and they’d find the name Ronnie Lewis. It’s only that no one ever searched. Until now.” She chewed her bottom lip, staring at him with apologetic eyes.