One
Ransom
The Present
“You’re here!” she squealed and threw her arms around my neck with so much force that I had to brace myself.
“It’s your lucky day,” I drawled as I patted her on the back.
She released me and stepped back so I could come inside her twenty-five-hundred-square-foot apartment overlooking the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia.
The wall of floor-to-ceiling windows not only gave you a sweeping view of the water, but an excellent view of Washington, DC.
The white ceramic flooring was given splashes of color in an aqua blue with rugs she’d placed in a few areas.
I liked her place. Fuck knows what Dad had paid for it, but it was safe, and it made her happy. Those were his only concerns.
“I can’t believe you’re here. When you called, I was at my Pilates class, so my phone was on silent,” she explained.
I had known that. We had a constant tracker on her.
Several actually. I could see her exact location at all times, as could my dad and Than.
We all kept a close eye on her. Having the only female in our family living almost a thousand miles away wasn’t easy.
But Opal had pleaded to be sent off to boarding school near here when she was thirteen, and she’d never wanted to come back.
She’d made her life here, and we, in return, had become excellent stalkers in order to ease our minds and keep her safe.
“Had to make the delivery of whiskey. Dad has some other shit going on. I offered since, one, I wanted to see my sister, and, two, our brother is so far up Montana’s ass that he can’t be too far removed from her or he acts like he needs to be admitted to the psych ward.”
That disgusted me, and it was clear in the tone of my voice. Not that I didn’t like Montana. I did. But damn if a woman was going to make me act like a fool. Ever.
Opal’s eyes danced with excitement; she didn’t agree with my take on things. “I can’t wait to meet her. The idea that a female could hook one of the Carver men is just mind-blowing. I didn’t think any of you would ever settle down. That includes Dad. I love him, but I am aware he’s a whore.”
I scowled. “You are one to talk. When was the last time your ass dated anyone more than once or twice?”
She shrugged, then bit back a small grin. “I have a secret. I mean, not about a man, but kinda, maybe potentially, but that’s not the secret.”
Shit. Not her too. Was I going to be the only sibling with fucking brains?
“I’m listening,” I told her.
I followed her down the steps that led into the wide-open living area with her white leather sofas that also had the aqua-blue color mixed with other bright colors on throw pillows that were perfectly placed, as if she were set up for a photo shoot.
Opal had always been a perfectionist.
She stopped at the sofa and plopped down on it with a happy sigh before crossing her legs and waiting for me to take a seat. “Oh, do you want a drink? The bar is well stocked.”
“I do, but first tell me about this man.” Because I needed to do some research on him. Check him out. Make sure he got to live.
She shook her head. “The secret isn’t about a man. He’s just in the mix. Anyway, I wrote a book. It’s fiction, a thriller; there is some romance in it, but it’s more of a twisted relationship. All set in the wealth and power of Washington, DC.” She wiggled her brows at me.
“Wait, you can write?” I asked, confused.
She tilted her head and cocked one pale blonde eyebrow at me. “Yes, I can. Well enough, in fact, that a publisher wants to publish it. A big publisher. In New York. They are going to give me an advance on it too.”
“Do you even read?” I mean, didn’t one need to read a book to write one? I was sure that Noa had said something once about that.
“I started reading in high school, thank you very much.”
“Huh. Didn’t know that.”
She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, the editor who my agent sent the book to and who wants it is a guy. An attractive, intellectual kind. Nothing like the dicks I work with who are full of shit. I want nothing to do with a man in politics. I know too much. And tonight, I am having drinks and dinner with him at one of the best clubs in the city. He wants to introduce me to one of their biggest authors. She’s romance and …
” Opal paused and scrunched her nose, looking unimpressed.
“He’s warned me that she’s a bitch. Very demanding.
The diva sort, but she’s been successful with them, and his boss told him to take the two of us to dinner.
I feel bad for him. Having to deal with her.
And I don’t want to have dinner with her, but I do want to have dinner with him. ” She shrugged. “So, I’m going.”
“The one night I’m here, and you’re ditching me for a guy and a bitch?” I asked, slightly disappointed. It wasn’t often I got to spend time with my sister.
“No, I texted Arden, my editor,” she added with a small glint of excitement in her eyes, “and told him you’d stopped by for a surprise visit. He wants to meet you too.”
As much as I didn’t want to go to dinner with some diva bitch and strangers in general, I did want to meet this man.
The more I got out of him, the more I’d be able to research him.
I needed to have a thorough background check on the man once I had his last name.
If he was using my sister in any form, he’d be taken care of.
But she knew that, and she was taking me to meet him anyway.
So, she might have done her own checking up on him.
She was a Carver after all. Just because she didn’t have a dick didn’t mean she wasn’t one of us.
In fact, she might be the most lethal of us all.
She had the beauty to distract a man before she struck.
“Have you read the bitch’s books?” I asked her, standing and heading over to the bar.
“Yes,” she sighed. “And there is a reason she’s a massive success.
She’s kept me up all night more than once.
The only issue I had was getting past the hero in her first three books.
It was weird, reading the spicy stuff, because, oddly, the description of him was …
you. I mean, he even had a cleft in his chin.
And the way he talked, down to his mannerisms and expressions …
well, I could see you. I had to mentally form another man in my head and stop reading the descriptions of him.
The one thing that helped was, he had eyes the color of a golden sunbeam and the richness of autumn leaves. Yours are hazel.”
I frowned, trying to imagine eyes the color of a sunbeam or leaves. Did they glow? That sounded alien-like. Women were fucking weird in the shit they read.
“Anyway, she’s a big deal now, and it’s all gone to her head. Arden is stuck having to make her happy. It’s unfair, if you ask me.”
I poured my drink, then looked back at her. “What do you know about this Arden?” I asked, wanting a last name so I could shoot Levi a text.
She did a girlie wag of her eyebrows and pursed her lips.
“Enough. He’s hot, and he has this sexy swagger about him.
Brilliant editor and sought after. He’s not even thirty yet either.
He graduated from Yale. His parents live on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania.
He grew up there, and his older brother is taking over the farm when his dad retires.
Arden never wanted that life though. He has always loved reading, books, creating. ”
Fuck. She liked him. Her eyes lit up as she spoke about him. I hoped he wasn’t fucking with her. I’d hate to see her heart broken when he went missing. Wouldn’t keep me from killing the son of a bitch if he was though.
“Does he have a last name?” I asked casually.
She narrowed her eyes. “Why? So you can run a background check on him?”
I smirked. “You’ve given me enough that I could find out his last name easy enough. I was just saving a step.”
She blew out an irritated breath. “Can I not have a relationship with trust? Must you invade his privacy?”
I said nothing but stared at her as I took another drink. She knew the answer to this. She wasn’t a normal female. She never had been. She’d been born into the family, like we all had.
“Neilson,” she bit out. “His last name is Neilson.”