Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Nate
I'd kept my eye on Kane for most of the evening. He worked the room the way he always did, spending time with all the right people. He was good at schmoozing. I'd give him that.
Juliet had been magnificent when she told him, politely but in no uncertain terms, to get lost. I'd been ready to jump in if necessary, but she'd handled it herself.
She was done being afraid of him, and it pleased me to think I'd helped her find the confidence to stand up to him.
Though I had no doubt he would try to approach her again, I knew she'd deal with it better than she had before.
Among the items on offer at the silent auction were a weekend at a vineyard in Paso Robles and a private dinner for twelve at a San Francisco restaurant Juliet said she knew and liked.
There was also a coastal landscape by a relatively unknown painter that Juliet stopped and stared at with a look of longing on her face.
"Do you want it?" I asked.
"Yes, but I can't ask you to bid on it."
"Of course you can."
Juliet and I had not yet discussed her financial situation. Still cut off from her family's funds, she was relying on me for support, and I knew she hated that.
"Pay me back with the profits from the supper club."
Juliet laughed. "It will take years before we turn enough profit for me to pay you back."
I shrugged. "That's okay, honey. We have years ahead of us."
She snuggled closer to me. "Yes, we do."
I scribbled a bid five thousand dollars higher than the last one noted on the sheet. Juliet protested, but there was no force behind it. As I took her hand to lead her away, her gaze lingered on the painting. Something in it spoke to her; that was obvious.
We returned to our table, and I poured Juliet another glass of the Zinfandel we'd been drinking most of the night. It was decent but lacked depth. Laurel Crest may have been the preeminent winery in the region, but I had no doubt Mist Hollow would soon catch up.
Scanning the room, I couldn't locate Kane. Perhaps he'd slunk off back to the city, but I doubted it. By eleven thirty, he hadn't returned, and I was ready to leave. We'd made our point anyway. Juliet and I were together, and she wasn't afraid of him. I only hoped he'd got the message.
Before we left, I checked the silent auction table and discovered I'd been outbid. I added another, obscenely inflated bid that nobody in their right mind would counter. Then Juliet and I found our hosts for the evening, thanked them for a lovely night, and headed out to the parking lot.
Outside the air was cold and sharp. Only a few vehicles remained in the lot. Most people had left by now. As I'd instructed, Collins waited in his car at the far end. We walked toward it, Juliet's hand in mine. Realizing she was cold, I shrugged off my jacket and draped it over her shoulders.
We were within twenty feet of the car when Kane approached us, emerging from his limousine. Juliet's fingers tightened around mine.
"You've made a mistake," Kane hissed. "Both of you."
"Is that so?" I asked.
Ignoring me, he stepped toward Juliet. I blocked his path, pushing her behind me.
"You think you can dig into my life without consequences?" he sneered. "You imagine I can't bring you to your knees, the way I ruined your father?"
I didn't move, didn't speak. Shocked to my core, I just stood there in the cold of the parking lot and stared at him.
"What?"
"Leeds Hillside Investments ring a bell?" he taunted. "Your daddy sank everything into that venture, didn't he?"
My fists clenched at my sides as his words hit deep. Juliet squeezed my arm, a reminder both that she was there and that I couldn't lose it, not when we were so close to bringing him down.
I'd planned for this confrontation, but this was not how I'd expected it to go. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my security team gathering around us. Kane noticed them too. Like the coward he was, he slunk away, back to the safety of his limo.
As I watched his car pull away, I stood there, frozen to the spot, until Juliet stepped in front of me. She rubbed my arm in a soothing motion as if trying to calm a wild animal.
"Come on, Nate. It's cold out."
Nodding numbly, I walked her to the car, got in beside her, and said nothing the whole way home. Juliet didn't try to coax me into conversation. She'd heard what Kane said, same as I did, and gave me space to come to terms with that revelation.
She pressed herself against my side and hummed quietly, a tune I knew but couldn't place.
I kept my arm around her, stared out at the dark road, and considered what I'd learned.
My father had told me he'd lost everything because of a business partner who turned out to be dishonest. He'd never named him.
It never occurred to me for one minute that it had been Kane.
I didn't even realize he'd done business in England.
He must have hidden it well, otherwise Scott would have uncovered it by now.
When Collins pulled up at the house, it was quiet. Juliet stopped in the hallway and turned to face me, my jacket still over her shoulders, watching me carefully as if she feared I was about to crack.
"Go up," I said. "I'll be there shortly."
She curved her hand around my cheek, her palm soft and warm.
"Don't be long."
"I won't."
While she headed upstairs, I went to find Eileen. She was in the sitting room, legs curled up under her on her favorite armchair, reading a book. A cup of tea sat on the table next to her. She looked up and frowned when she saw my expression. She closed her book.
"Did something happen?" she asked. "Is Juliet…?"
"Juliet is fine." I dropped onto the sofa opposite her. "Kane told me something tonight. He said he was the one who destroyed my father's business."
Eileen was quiet for a moment. "Your father has never discussed business with me, Nate. You know that."
"Yeah, I know. He's never spoken to me about it either. I wish he had. I hated Kane catching me off guard like that."
"Will you talk to your father about it?" Eileen asked.
I shook my head. "There's no point dredging up the past with him. He's not interested in talking to me about his failures. Perhaps I'll send him some of the newspaper articles when Kane's empire is toppled."
A look of concern crossed Eileen's face.
She knew the collapse of my father's business was a difficult topic for me.
It had changed him. We'd never been close, but at least before he lost everything, I'd admired him.
Afterward I had to admit I'd been dismayed by the way he accepted his losses and never tried to rebuild.
It made me determined to walk a different path.
Eileen got up from her seat and sat on the sofa beside me. She pulled me into her arms and hugged me. As I rested my head on her shoulder, she ran her fingers through my hair, the way she’d done when I was a little boy. We stayed like that for the longest time.
"You'll never be like him," she said eventually. As always, she'd seen right to the heart of what bothered me the most. "When you have a child, you'll give them your all."
"You think I'd be a good dad?"
"The best." Eileen kissed my forehead. "Now get upstairs to that lovely girl of yours."
Taking her advice, I headed upstairs.
Juliet was in my bed, the lamp on the nightstand casting a low light across the room.
She'd let her hair down and removed her makeup and was sitting up against the headboard, her knees drawn up to her chest. Once again, she was wearing one of my shirts.
I didn't mind her borrowing them. She looked far better in them than I did.
She smiled softly at me when I came in and said nothing.
I undressed, got into bed beside her, and lay back, staring at the ceiling. After a moment, Juliet turned off the lamp and settled against my side, her head on my chest, a hand over my heart.
"I didn't know it was him," I said into the dark.
"I know," she said. "I saw how shocked you were."
We lay there quietly for a while. Outside the valley was still. I could feel the slight tension in Juliet's body. I'd learned that meant she had something to say and was choosing her moment.
"Scott will make sure he pays for all of it," she said eventually.
"Yes," I said.
She tilted her head up and looked at me in the dark. "Are you all right?"
"I will be," I said.
She held my gaze for a moment longer, then rested her head back on my chest. I pressed my lips to the top of her head and soothed by her presence, I slept.