Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
I couldn’t leave him there, alone, carrying all that pain. I closed the space between us, sliding my hand into his. This wasn’t about sex. I’m not even sure it was friendship. We weren’t friends, exactly. I didn’t know what we were. But I’d known Finn Sawyer since we were children, and I couldn’t stand there and not reach for him.
My fingers closed around his, and I squeezed. Finn glanced down, the blank expression wiped from his face as he took in my tears. “Hey, Savannah, don’t cry.” Looking up, he saw Hope’s tears and grimaced. “I’m okay. No one needs to cry. Really.” Now he sounded a little panicked.
Dropping my hand, he paced to Griffen’s desk and snatched a few tissues from the box by the monitor. Shoving them in Hope’s hand, he grabbed a few more and pushed them at me. “Seriously. It was a long time ago. Dad was a massive asshole, but we already knew that. And I ended up okay. Chef Guérard helped me out. I worked, I learned, I even went to Cordon Bleu. I’m fine.”
So he had gone to cooking school. That answered the question of where he learned to cook. I had a million more questions, but now wasn’t the time. Finn studied my face until I dried my tears, balling the damp tissues in my fist.
“What I don’t get,” he said, “Is why there’s a file about my kidnapping in that briefcase with those contracts.”
“You were kidnapped because of those contracts.”
I turned to see Cole Haywood, Ford’s defense attorney, standing in the doorway of Griffen’s office.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
FINN
Cole Haywood stood just inside the doorway. I hadn’t seen him since he delivered the news that Ford was taking a plea bargain for Prentice’s murder.
He looked the same, in that every time I saw Cole was like the first time. Cole Haywood was one of those people who was so good-looking you couldn’t quite believe they were real. I don’t pay a lot of attention to what other men look like, so that tells you all you need to know about Cole. With his chiseled jaw and prominent cheekbones, blue eyes, and dark hair, he looked like one of those models in high-end magazines. He looked like the kind of guy who never wore sweatpants. I wondered if he slept in that suit.
I didn’t know him well. He’d had some kind of business with my father going way back. I’d always had the impression that he was a connection of Harvey’s. I can’t say I was his biggest fan. The way he’d pushed Ford to take the plea bargain didn’t sit right with me. With any of us. But at the moment, I wanted to know what Cole knew about my kidnapping. And what he’d had to do with it.
Hawk stepped in behind Cole. To Griffen, he said, “I texted you. I figured you wouldn’t mind me letting Haywood in.”
Griffen looked at Cole. “Is Ford all right?”
Cole nodded. “As far as I know.”
“What do you know about this?” Griffen turned the briefcase to Cole.
“May I?” Cole asked. At Griffen’s nod, he picked up the file folders, scanning them rapidly, flipping through the pages with no reaction, as if he already knew what he was reading. As he moved from folder to folder and then finally to my ransom letter, he shook his head. When he was done, he handed the folders back to Griffen and turned to me.
His eyes dark with remorse, he said, “I’m sorry, Finn. You were never supposed to see any of this.”
Of course I wasn’t. Because I was supposed to be dead. Bitterness flooded me. Cole Haywood could take his remorse and shove it up his ass. I didn’t want apologies; I wanted answers. Instead of demanding them, I kept my mouth shut. If I jumped into angry accusations, Cole would go straight into covering his own ass. I needed to know what he had to say if he thought I was buying all of his bullshit.
Cole turned his remorseful expression to Griffen. “I don’t know everything. This was one of the first times I worked with your father, and I didn’t get involved until after they took Finn.”
His eyes cut to me, then back to Griffen, who asked, “What do these contracts have to do with Finn’s kidnapping?” Griffen sounded like he had a tight leash on his temper. His jaw was hard, his eyes fierce.
I rarely believed people. People lied all the time. But looking at the rage and anguish on my oldest brother’s face, I believed he hadn’t known about my kidnapping. And more, I believed Hope hadn’t known either. But here was Cole, someone who’d been there, and he knew. I would have thought I’d be angry. I’d been angry for so long. And I was. But now that I was face-to-face with someone who was there, I understood it was a cold anger, and alongside it was curiosity.