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“What the hell you standing around for, girl?” Mason shrugged out of his denim jacket. “Go take the boy some coffee.”
“Let me have that, Heather.” Julianna set her packages down and took the tray. “Why don’t you take my things and put them away?”
Thankful for the opportunity to be anywhere but around her employer in a foul mood, Heather smiled at Julianna. “Thank you, ma‘am.”
Julianna sighed at Heather’s formal address. At twenty-nine, Julianna didn’t want to be a ma‘am. It made her feel so old. But then, a lot of things were making her feel old these days. A couple walking hand in hand, pictures of brides and babies, the sound of cheers from the Little League field at the edge of town.
All the things she would never have.
Shrugging off the thought, she followed her father to his office. He’d been negotiating with First Mutual Financial for the past two months and had been gloating ever since he’d finally signed the papers, puffed up with self-admiration that he’d finagled such a low interest rate. What First Mutual hadn’t known was that he’d been so anxious for the deal to go through he would have signed anything. After the drop in value of some stocks, and the rise in price of grain and the fall in beef, he’d desperately needed the loan to cover losses and raise operating capital. She knew that he’d also been quite full of himself at his successful manipulation of figures and falsified statements, had even laughed that Adam Cantrell, the loan representative, was too stupid to find his way out of a corral, let alone find a discrepancy in a profit-andloss.
Which was strange, because she hadn’t thought the man stupid at all, even though she’d only spoken with him a few minutes once or twice. If anything, he’d seemed extremely sharp.
It made no difference to her either way. The only thing that mattered, that had ever mattered, was her own five acres of land and house on the south edge of the Double H property. That was the one thing, the only thing, her mother had left to her when she’d died that her father hadn’t gotten his hands on. It had been almost a year since the funeral, and he’d managed to stonewall her from repairing and moving into the old house, but he hadn’t gained title. And she would do anything to ensure he never would.
Mason turned sharply at the door of his office and looked at Julianna. “Just serve the damn coffee, then leave us alone. Last thing I need is a woman underfoot when I’m trying to do business.”
Jaw tightly clenched, Julianna followed her father into his office. A man stood in front of the double French doors that led to the redwood deck stretching across the back of the house. He was tall, very tall, with broad shoulders. His black neatly trimmed hair touched the collar of his expensive tailored suit.
This was no errand boy.
She had no idea why she suddenly couldn’t breathe. She felt an energy in the room; so strong it nearly hummed. Frozen, she simply stared at the man, but she couldn’t see his face.
“Julianna.” Her father’s voice was low and sharp. Shaken, she turned away, moved to the bar in the far corner of the office to set down the tray... to remind herself to breathe.
She forced her attention to the coffee as her father boomed a cheerful, good-old-boy greeting and strode heavily across the shiny hardwood floor to shake the man’s hand.
“Sit, sit.” Mason gestured across the massive oak desk to a smaller version of his own burgundy leather chair, and the man settled across from him.
“So what can I do for you, young man?” With a creak of leather, Mason leaned back. “By the way, that fool maid of mine didn’t get your name.”
“Actually, Mr. Hadley, it’s what I’m going to do for you.”
His voice. Julianna’s hand tightened on the coffeepot. Once again, she couldn’t breathe. Not because she’d forgotten, but because she couldn’t That voice. Deep, rough, edged with deadly calm. Familiar, so familiar. The hum in the room increased with the tension.
“How’s that, son?” Mason, delighted at the prospect of a new offer, grinned.
“You have forty-eight hours to repay your loan to First Financial or vacate the property.”
Julianna, with the coffeepot still in her hand and the cup in midair, turned abruptly. The man sat comfortably, one elbow resting casually over the arm of the chair. To look at him, she’d have thought he’d been discussing a football game.
Had he actually said what she thought he’d said? First Financial was calling the loan?
Her father’s grin froze. His gray eyes narrowed in his coarsely lined face. “What the hell kind of a joke is this?”
“No joke at all. The loan is being called. The land, the house and contents, the cattle. Quite literally, Mr. Hadley, every single asset you own will be sold as collateral.”
“You’re insane.” Fists clenched, Mason rose slowly. “On what grounds would they call a loan where the ink hasn’t even dried on the damn paper?”
“I’ll start with fraud, based on the fact that the information supplied by you to obtain the loan was intentionally falsified. It not only invalidates the loan, it also happens to be illegal.”
That voice. She knew that voice. But her legs wouldn’t move, couldn’t walk the few feet across the room to see the man’s face clearly. She stood frozen, with the silver coffeepot in one hand, a white bone china coffee cup in the other.
“Just who the hell are you?” Mason roared, his face red with fury.
“You remember Thomas Blackhawk, don’t you?” The man stood, looked directly down at her father. “You stole the Circle B from him, all ten thousand acres, then had him falsely sent to prison. I’m Lucas, Mr. Hadley. Lucas Blackhawk.”
In the second before the coffee cup slipped from her hand, the second before the coffeepot followed, tune stood still....
She was nine years old. Standing in this very room, behind the drapes, terrified, watching her father and Thomas Blackhawk. The nightmare had been with her for twenty years. The loud voices... the gun... the explosion...
“Are you all right?”
She felt his hand on her arm, realized that he’d moved beside her. How had he done that, so quickly, so quietly? Breath held, she raised her gaze to his. Those eyes, eyes that could see not through a person, but into them, into the darkness, into the truth.
She couldn’t find her voice, couldn’t find the words to answer him. They stood there, eyes locked, her heart pounding so fiercely she knew he could hear it.
Lucas Blackhawk. Here. In Wolf River.
“Get the hell away from my daughter.”
Her father’s shout brought her back. Spilled coffee, still steaming, pooled around her feet, stained her khaki pants and leather pumps. She bent down, reached for a piece of broken china. His hand was still on her arm as he bent down, as well, and righted the coffeepot.
“I said get the hell away from her, you half-breed bastard,” Mason continued to rant. “Your kind ain’t fit to be in the same room with civilized people.”
Shamed and humiliated by her father’s outburst, Julianna looked away.
“You’re hurt,” Lucas said quietly, ignoring her father’s continued verbal assault. “Let go, Julianna.”
She glanced at her fisted hand, saw that it was bleeding. Lucas gently pried her fingers open, removed the jagged piece of china she’d clutched tightly in her palm. His fingers were long, his hands large and callused. She shuddered at his touch, then quickly drew her hand from his.
“Keep away from me, Lucas.”
A hard, cold glint shone in his eyes. The strong, square line of his jaw tightened. Though it was less than a fraction of a second, she felt and saw the intensity of his anger and rage. It terrified her, and yet at the same time she welcomed it.
She deserved it.
Then, just as quickly, his expression was blank, replaced by indifference. “Still the Ice Princess, Julianna, or is it Queen now?”
His words cut more sharply than the broken china, but she deserved that, too. She’d earned her title well, had sacrificed and struggled to maintain it all these years. How else could she survive? How else could she manage to live through the nightmare, other than to pretend she didn’t care, when the truth was she did care. She cared too much. Too damned much.
Lucas rose and turned to face her father again. “As I said, Hadley, you have forty-eight hours to pay off the loan or clear out. And since we both know you haven’t a snowball’s chance in hell of coming up with that kind of money, you may as well start packing.”
“You can’t just come in here and make ultimatums, boy. I have a reputation in this community, I know people.” Mason slammed both fists on his desk, rattling his phone and knocking over his silver pencil holder. “I’ll see you fired from First Financial before this day is through. You‘ ll never work again.”
“Your reputation does precede you, Hadley,” Lucas said coldly. “As does the stink from a skunk. And the only people you’re going to know from now on are creditors, lawyers and the district attorney’s office. Oh, and I guess I forgot to mention it, First Financial is one of several subsidiaries owned by Blackhawk Industries, which just happens to be my company. We’ll be bulldozing this house and the house by the creek. Maybe build a resort or a business center.”
The house by the creek? Dread curled in Julianna’s stomach, then tightened her chest.
“The house by the creek is mine.” She struggled to keep the panic out of her voice. “My mother willed it to me.”
Lucas turned to her, his black eyes dispassionate. “Your father’s name is on the title. That makes it mine.”
She looked at her father, and even through the rage on his face, she saw the truth. He’d taken her house. Somehow he’d stolen the one thing, the only thing, that had ever mattered to her.
An icy chill seeped through her, and she clutched the neck of her sweater, not caring that blood still dripped from the cut on her palm. She wanted to scream at her father, knew that she should, but all she felt was numb. Defeated.
A business center? Dear God, she closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. When she opened them again, Lucas was watching her, his mouth a hard, thin line.
She couldn’t let him see her like this. Couldn’t let him know that in his thirst for revenge he’d not only destroyed her father, but herself, as well.
And why would it matter to him, anyway? Mason Hadley had taken Lucas’s father from him, had murdered Thomas Blackhawk as surely as if he’d put a gun to his head. He’d destroyed a young boy’s childhood, his family, his dreams.
And she’d done nothing to help.
Dimly, she knew that her father was shouting obscenities at Lucas, but Lucas ignored the insults. Instead he kept his eyes on her, staring at her, into her, as if he knew the truth.
“Put something on that hand, Julianna,” he said without emotion, then turned and walked out of the room.
Her father was shouting into the phone now, as the Ferrari’s engine roared to life, then shot out of the driveway.
Lucas Blackhawk had risen from the past like a demon from hell. Full of hatred and vengeance, he’d come to even an old score. He had every right, and deep in her heart, no matter what the cost to her, she was glad. Because she admired him, because she respected him.
Because she loved him.
Two
A cold wind blew in dark, angry clouds from the south. Lightning streaked silver against the black sky, and thunder shook the windows of the Four Winds Hotel suite. Rain, which had started only moments ago, already drenched the streets in town, not to mention any poor, unfortunate soul caught out walking in the downpour.
Thankful to be out of the monkey suit he’d had on earlier, dressed now in a pair of faded jeans and his favorite, though well-worn, chambray shirt, Lucas stood on the small, covered balcony of the hotel room and listened to the steady pound of the storm. The scent of rain was heavy; the charge of nature’s electricity alive in the evening air. A Texas storm was always a force to be reckoned with, respected and never underestimated.
A fitting end to the day.
A slow, tight smile curved Lucas’s mouth. He could still see the shock in Hadley’s face, the fury in his eyes. Lucas had waited twenty years to see that look. Twenty years to watch Hadley’s recognition dawn, then grow as he realized that the crimes of his past had finally caught up with him. That it was time to pay, and payback was definitely a bitch.
The fact that Julianna had been there, as well, had only been an added bonus. To see her lose her composure had been a surprise. He’d watched the color drain from her beautiful face when he’d taken her hand in his, felt her shake at his touch.
Heard the disgust in her voice when she’d told him to keep away from her.
His jaw tightened. Twenty years had certainly changed nothing for Julianna Hadley. She still thought herself too good for him, probably for any man. Why else had she never married?
Of course, he’d never married, either, but that was a different matter entirely. He’d had a goal, one goal only, and a wife would have been an encumbrance. Very few women would have tolerated the eighteen-hour, seven-day weeks for long. In the few relationships he’d had, he’d made it perfectly clear from the start there was no wedding ring in sight, no children, no happily-ever-after. The few who’d thought to change that had been sorely mistaken. They’d quickly learned that tears and tantrums had no effect on him. If anything, they only irritated him.
But maybe now was the time to consider changing his marital status, he thought. It wasn’t that he was thinking of settling down exactly. It just might be easier to know where he’d be parking his boots at night, and would certainly erase the necessity of finding a partner in bed.
He wondered briefly who, if anyone, parked his boots under Julianna Hadley’s bed at the moment. Wondered if that bed was as cold as the woman.
A knock at the door brought his head around. He’d ordered dinner from room service, preferring the quiet of his room to the noisy restaurant downstairs. He’d wanted to be alone tonight. To think about Hadley. Savor his victory.
So why, then, had he been thinking about Julianna?
And why, when he opened the door, was she standing there?
Her light blond hair was damp, pulled back into a severe ponytail. Rain glistened on her sculptured cheeks and dark, thick eyelashes; drops clung to the shoulders of her long tan trench coat. The black turtleneck underneath emphasized her pale skin and big blue eyes. The effect was stunning, and his gut clenched at the sight of her. A woman like this knew how beautiful she was, knew the effect she had on men. He wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of anything but cool indifference.
Chin raised, lips pressed tightly together, she clutched a small black purse. “May I come in?”
He looked down the hallway. It was empty, quiet. No lights on the elevator signaling anyone else was coming.
“I’m alone,” she said. “But if you’re not, if you have company—”
“What are you doing here, Julianna?”
“I need to speak with you, Lucas. I have to—”
“I’ll just bet you do.”
His hand snaked out, dragged her inside the hotel room and pushed her back against the now closed door.
“Is this when you start screaming?” he asked roughly. “Maybe someone with a camera breaks the door down? Or another ‘guest’ just happens to be walking by, someone who will claim I attacked you?”
Eyes wide, she shook her head. “I’m alone,” she said breathlessly. “And you have attacked me. Now let me go.”
He smiled slowly, kept his hands firmly against the door, holding her trapped between his arms. He saw the fear flicker in her blue-gray eyes, but she didn’t fight him, didn’t push him away.
He told himself it was to intimidate her, not please himself when he leaned in closer. She’d brought the storm in with her. He smelled it on her, resisted the urge to dip his head lower and press his lips to the pulse beating rapidly at the base of her neck. “Has your father sent you to seduce me, Julianna? Convince me to change my mind?”
He saw the anger now, the subtle narrowing of her eyes, the tight press of her tempting lips. “My father doesn’t know I’m here.”
His laugh was dry. “You’re good, Julianna,. Real good. I almost believe you.”
“It’s true. No one except Lily at the front desk knows I’m here. I told her we had a meeting, that you were expecting me.”
“Lies come easy to the Hadleys, don’t they?” She was a head shorter than him, but still tall for a woman, and she kept her gaze steady with his. “I wouldn’t mind if you seduced me, Jule. I’ll bet when the Ice Princess steps off her throne, she heats up fast.”
Her eyes closed, but not before he saw a shimmer there. Certainly not tears, Lucas thought. Not from Julianna Hadley.
A knock at the door had them both jumping. Her eyes flew open in panic.
“No one knows you’re here, huh?” He took her chin in his hand. “Don’t you need to tear your clothes or something, mess that perfect hair, cry?”
“Room service,” a young, enthusiastic voice boomed from the other side of the door.
She glared at him, knocked his hand away, then turned her back and stepped out onto the open balcony.
Dammit. Lucas jerked open the door, bit back the urge to yell. What the hell, he thought, tolerating the young man’s cheerful greeting and food setup. Maybe he did need a minute to compose himself, to control the unexpected and unwanted response he’d had to Julianna. In fact, maybe he needed two minutes.
Julianna forced herself to take slow breaths. She focused on the curtain of water falling from the canopy over the balcony, told herself it was the moist cold that had her shaking, not Lucas’s manhandling. His behavior was no less than she’d expected, certainly no less than she deserved. After what her father had put him through, why wouldn’t he hate her, too?
