Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Sloane left a note in her room. Just in case. She also spent the next few hours pacing while coming up with a plan.
Noah wanted to meet at the hotel bar. So she waited until six and then texted Noah that she’d meet him—but on her terms.
She chose a new location and said she’d meet him in the park in front of the pier house. It was well lit. Well traveled. And well located.
It took Noah about twenty minutes to get there. He’d probably had to retrieve his car from the hotel valet and punch in the GPS address. Curse a blue streak when he noted the location she’d chosen by the police station within shouting distance.
But he showed up, wearing a thunderous expression that told her exactly what he thought of his baby sister pulling the very puppet strings their father typically controlled.
But during her pacing, she’d realized it was past time she took control of her life since they had dictated her every move from birth until the day she’d run.
“Have a seat,” she said, slowing the swing where she sat so that he could lower himself beside her.
They were in full view of everyone taking an afternoon post-turkey stroll along the boardwalk and pier without being close enough to be overheard.
Still, she could scream and have a hundred witnesses. So there was that.
“Feeling pretty good about yourself, I see.”
She stared at the V of pelicans flying in the distance, wondering how such awkward-looking birds could be so graceful. “Catching onto your tricks, you mean? You should be proud. I learned them from you.”
Noah’s suit-clad arm touched her as they slowly swung back and forth. It reminded her of when they were kids, and they’d play together in the yard. The giant swings hanging from a massive tree much like the one that had killed their mother.
A shiver of fear and uncertainty coursed through her, and she shoved it away. “Why won’t you leave me alone, Noah? I can’t go back to Chicago, and you know why.”
“You don’t have a choice, kid. Father’s let you have your tantrum, but time’s up. He’s had enough. You are coming home with me. Make any excuse you need to for your friend, but it’s happening.”
“I’m twenty-six years old. I’m not a child you can boss around. How many times do I have to say I don’t want to be involved in that life? Why can’t you just accept that?”
Noah was a handsome man like their father. The kind of handsome displayed on yachts in Ralph Lauren ads. He stood tall and spent his due diligence in the gym to make up for the hours behind a desk or at a conference table, meeting with the very people she wanted to avoid at all costs.
But unlike in his younger years, Noah’s face and eyes held a hardness now that she didn’t like seeing. It told of the life he led, of the things he’d done to achieve and keep the power their family wielded. He wasn’t the boy she remembered but a man with dirty, perfectly groomed and bloodied hands.
“You follow the rules just like the rest of us, Sloane. It’s how we get by.”
“How we get by,” she said, repeating the words softly.
“You’re hardly scraping by and living paycheck to paycheck.
And I’d think you’d want better for me. You know Mama certainly would.
She wouldn’t want me to be a part of…what Father’s become.
What you and Jarrett have become because of him. You know I’m right.”
A muscle spasmed in Noah’s jaw, proof her words had hit home, so she continued speaking while she held his attention. “I’ve never officially worked for Harrington Financial as an accountant. Only as an intern. I’m nothing. Let me go. Please, Noah, let me go live my life.”
“You’re one of us, and everyone knows it.”
She knew exactly who he really referred to and fisted her hands.
“All I am is the kid sister and the flighty daughter who decided accounting wasn’t for me.
That’s what you told everyone. What father told them.
So tell them— Tell them you couldn’t find me.
Tell them I had an accident and can no longer do accounting work.
Tell them whatever you need to, Noah, but don’t do this.
Not to me, not to us. Just leave me alone. ”
Noah stayed quiet for long moments.
“Father’s being pressured, Sloane. We all are.”
A shiver of warning ran down her spine, like the winds suddenly shifted in an evil direction to force her to comply. “My answer is no.”
“It’s not that simple. Father’s being asked to prove himself by…powerful people. Clients.”
“Then he can do that. Whatever is going on doesn’t involve me.”
Noah shifted his gaze from the view to her.
“It does when you are the peace offering on the table.”
She sucked in a breath. “What are you talking about?”
“They want a stronger connection. Something more substantial to tie the firm to them. It’s a way to ensure we have more at stake.”
She shook her head, unwilling to go where this conversation seemed to be heading.
“They want a marriage, Sloane. And you are the pretty, yet loose, string that needs to be tied up.”
“You want me to be a trophy wife and collateral to people who’ll what? Use me to keep you in line? Is that it? I’m a person, Noah. Are you kidding me?”
She stared at her brother in horror and noted he had the grace to look ashamed.
“Father has angered more than a few of people over the years, and these guys hold grudges. They want to make sure Father does as he’s told.”
Yeah, she knew exactly how he’d angered them, but…did her brothers know? “Noah, how can you think any of this is okay? Even if I was open to the idea—which I’m not—why would I be okay with marrying someone trying to blackmail—”
“Keep your voice down,” he said, taking a glance around them.
She forced herself to do as ordered but only because she didn’t want to draw attention to their conversation any more than he did. “Someone willing to blackmail you,” she said. “Do I really mean so little to you? Am I that disposable? I’m your sister.”
“Sloane—”
“No, don’t use that tone like you actually care about me when you’re just trying to save your own skins.
Answer me honestly. Do I really mean so little to all of you that you’d offer me up like a-a harem girl or a prostitute?
What if you had a family? If they wanted your daughter? Would you just hand her over to them?”
Noah ran a hand over his mouth and face, and she noted the differences between Noah’s soft, well-manicured ones and Gage’s rougher, calloused work hands. To compare them might be ridiculous, but she’d take Gage’s real-life work hands over the dirty softness of Noah’s any day.
“I didn’t say I liked it or agreed with it, Sloane. Father is trying to get out of it, but they have him cornered.”
“Because of something he did.” She was surprised it had taken his clients so long to figure out what was happening or how deep her father’s fingers had delved into their secret coffers. “What was it? What did he do that he’s so willing to sacrifice one of his children?”
Noah shook his head and stared down at her. “I don’t know.”
She arched an eyebrow and gave him a look of disbelief. Could he really not know?
“I have an idea, but I don’t know for certain,” he repeated. “He insists we need you because it’s the only way to fix the issue.”
Noah could be lying. But he also could be telling the truth, and as she stared into his gaze, she realized her brother didn’t seem to know what their father had done, which, if true, left him as vulnerable as she was.
But could Noah be trusted?
She knew the answer even as the question sounded in her head. Noah was all about making their father happy. He was their father’s “fixer” and would do or say whatever he needed to.
Pain seared her. It was one thing to hear that her family needed her where she could pretend it was out of concern or love. Quite another to discover her father planned to use her as a pawn to save his own skin from his underhanded business dealings.
He also used her brothers as well—if they didn’t know the truth—to bring her to heel.
Of her two brothers, Noah was…friendlier. The guy who charmed and won people over. Her brother Jarrett? He was the silent, stoic but short-tempered type.
Maybe she should consider herself lucky her father had sent Noah to try again. Grant Harrington was as manipulative as he was charming, but he was still trying to verbally coerce her through Noah rather than physically force her to return home. At least so far.
Had her father always been that way? Growing up, she supposed she viewed him through a child’s eyes, one innocent of his corporate dealings.
The rose-colored glasses had fallen off once she’d been sent to boarding school as a teen and she was exposed to kids who repeated things they’d heard their parents say.
Things about her father and his business. His ruthlessness.
But what about Jarrett? When had he changed? She remembered a quiet, too-serious boy when he was young, but on her first trip home after she’d been sent away to boarding school, he’d seemed far more intense than she’d remembered.
What had happened in the time she was gone? What had happened to her brothers to make them…this?
“You know you can’t keep running,” Noah said softly. “You’re only making life harder on yourself. Sleeping in your car? Working as a maid and a salesclerk? That’s beneath you, Sloane.”
The huff that escaped her chest revealed every ounce of her derision. “Feels more like freedom to me. And I’d much prefer the freedom of scrubbing toilets than what you have in mind for me back in Chicago.”
Noah swore softly. “You can’t be serious. What will it take? Huh? Surely there’s a compromise to be had here.”
“Oh, so now we’re, what? Negotiating my forced marriage? Really, Noah?”
“Sloane! Incoming!” a woman’s voice called.
Sloane turned her head just in time see Hershey’s goofy smile and floppy ears as he bolted for her from across the grass.
Sloane laughed as Hadley’s overly friendly dog arrived with a rush of energy and whip-wagging tail as he propped his paws atop Sloane’s knees, breathing his doggy breath in happy-to-see-you pants.
Sloane cooed and petted and fussed over the dog while making sure to snag his leash and hold it until Hadley and the others she was with crossed the grass to join them.
“Who’s this?” Noah asked tightly.
“My new family—and no one you need to know.”
“Hey! Sorry about the sneak attack,” Hadley said, smiling as she made it the last bit of distance to them. “Hershey sensed you and yanked away before I could stop him. You are officially one of his favorite people.”
Sloane inhaled and realized Hadley and Hershey’s companions included Sophia and Dawson Blackwell, whom she’d met while prepping the homes and businesses for the hurricane, as well as a few others.
“I believe we’ve met. Noah Harrington, right?” a man asked. He stood beside a beautiful blond woman pushing a baby in a stroller, and behind them was a man who gave off the vibe of… bodyguard?
Noah stood and extended his hand. “That’s right, Mr. Drake. It’s a pleasure to see you again.”
“Likewise. Though I’m surprised to see you here of all places,” the man said, his gaze sliding over to Sloane with blatant curiosity.
Sloane gently shoved Hershey aside and got to her feet, uncomfortable and on edge, as Hadley introduced Everett Drake and his wife and the rest of those gathered.
Things slowly clicked in Sloane’s brain.
During one of their many talks, Gage had said his little sister worked as a nanny for the billionaire Drake, and his wife, Isabel, who was one of Sophia’s sisters.
Sophia was married to Dawson Blackwell, and Brooks Blackwell was married to Allie, the third sister.
“A family matter,” Noah said with a smile.
“Family?” Drake asked, though with the single word they now had everyone’s rapt attention.
“You and Sloane?” Dawson’s eyebrows lifted in surprise.
“Yes, my baby sister and I needed to talk and patch up an old argument that’s gone on for far too long. I’ve come to Carolina Cove to make amends and escort her home.”
Old Sloane would have stayed quiet because they were in public and one didn’t argue in public or share family grievances.
The old Sloane was stupid. “But like I told Noah, I’m not ready to return to Chicago. We were just saying goodbye so he can get back to work,” she told them, just in case she disappeared without warning.
Tension filled Noah at the public renouncement, the force of his anger seeming to still the ocean breeze and keep it from blowing.
“I haven’t convinced her yet,” Noah added, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and giving her a side hug like a loving older brother would, “but I will. Chicago is home and always will be.”
Sloane felt someone staring at her, and when she shifted her gaze through the crowd around them, she found Dawson watching her closely. Much too closely. She couldn’t hold his gaze and quickly glanced away.
“Brothers think they rule the world,” Sloane said, rolling her eyes playfully to try to diffuse the desire to slug Noah in the ribs.
“Well, we should let you two talk while we walk off all the food we ate today,” Hadley said. “Sloane, it was so good to see you. And we hope your brother doesn’t steal you away from us, though I suppose we’ll have to understand if that’s the case.”
“We missed you at lunch today, Sloane,” Dawson added. “But I’m pretty sure Gage took home plenty of leftovers for you to have for dinner.”
“That’s great news,” she said, managing a smile. “I’m starving now that my headache has let up. I’ll walk with you to the parking lot and head that way now.”
“Sloane.”
She pulled away from Noah’s hold but not before she felt his grip tighten on her shoulder. That was going to leave a few finger bruises, though to be honest, she bruised easily.
Once out from under his arm, she turned to give him one last look. “Go home, Noah. You have my answer.”
“Not yet,” he countered. “If you insist on staying here, I certainly can’t leave without meeting this Gage person.
” Noah flashed a winning smile toward the group.
“I need to make sure he’s treating my sister right.
You know what I mean? I’ll follow you back, and maybe you’ll share some of those leftovers so we can celebrate Thanksgiving together.
It’s only right after I came all this way to see you, isn’t it, sis? ”