Hotel Ladd (4 page)

Ms. Devane hovered near the desk,
waiting her turn to speak with the receptionist. But there was no
need. Annie extended a hand. “Ms. Devane?”

Jillian noted the gesture with a
knowing smile, as though fully aware Annie had been forewarned of
her intentions. “Ms. Owens,” she purred in a heavy Spanish accent.
Her voice was smooth and sultry, and rather deep for a woman. As
they shook hands, Annie marveled at her slender grasp, fine-boned
yet firm in its connection. Her skin was silky in texture, her
nails professionally maintained. Annie knew from experience that an
older woman didn’t retain the supple skin tone of youth without
professional care. Gesturing toward her nail chair, she said,
“Thank you for coming.”

“
The pleasure is all mine, I
assure you.”

Annie didn’t doubt a word. She could
feel the woman’s claws sinking into her in a most visceral way. Ms.
Devane was here for the kill, there was no mistake. Second thoughts
flooded Annie’s gut. It was an attack she had invited with a single
phone call, a willing phone call. “My friend told me you were
asking about my daughter’s half of the property.”

“
Yes,” the owner of a hotel
empire replied, sliding her gaze around them as though making sure
the path was clear when she pounced, “I understand you are the one
in charge of the property.”

Annie cleared a rush of nerves from her
throat. “I am.” While she might be intimidated by this woman, she
wasn’t going to let on to the fact.

Jillian smiled and moved closer. “As
you know, I am in the owner of Eco-Domani, the number one hotel spa
company in the world where we pride ourselves on working in tune
with nature. It is my business to build hotels—fantastic, beautiful
hotels—that seamlessly blend with the land around them, allowing
guests to lose themselves in the luxury of nature.” She slowly
circled Annie, taking note of her white leather nail chair and
black ottoman, a line of shiny bottles filled with a broad spectrum
of nail enamels that comprised Annie’s nail station. “Your property
is incredible in its beauty and location, and I should like to work
with you on how to make it the number one destination in the world.
People will come from all over the world to visit your mountains
and woods, seeking to become at one with your land. By selling, you
will become wealthy beyond your wildest dreams.”

Ms. Devane dripped with extravagance
when she spoke, pulling Annie in with her lavish description and
promises, as she created a dreamy vision with her talk of lavish
hotels and land conservation. It was easy to see how this woman
could spin a person into her web, sucking them clean without
spilling the first drop of blood. Annie shook off the elaborate
images and asked, “Haven’t you already purchased property for your
hotel?”

Plunging into a shrewd
smile, Ms. Devane’s flinty eyes grew calculating. “So we don’t play
any games, okay?” She straightened her slim frame and stood
eye-to-eye with Annie. “I will tell you that I am still looking,
but I’m most interested in your property.” She tipped her head and
glanced askance. “I’m willing to pay you handsomely for it,” she
said, then dropped all pretense, pinning her with a hard gaze. “Am
I to take this meeting as a
yes
?”

Stunned by how quickly the cat turned
lion, Annie hesitated. She hadn’t decided anything because she
hadn’t heard anything! Darting a glance to the drips of blue
lighting overhead, she felt suddenly heated, despite the salon’s
contrived ambiance of calm. “What are you proposing?”

Jillian smiled. “What do you
want?”

Annie had no idea. She didn’t know what
the property was worth, other than what the tax assessor said. But
Cal had explained to her that the tax assessed value wasn’t the
market value, only the amount she was paying taxes on. If she were
to sell, the amount would be much higher—which made no sense to
her. How could there be more than one value for the same
property?

Staring at Jillian Devane, Annie felt
the hairs of doubt tickle her neck. She was out of her league,
swimming upstream and losing her kick. “I haven’t decided, yet,”
she said quickly, preserving an image of authority. She might not
know the value of the land at the moment but she certainly wasn’t
going to let this woman make her look like a fool.

“
I’m willing to offer you
five hundred thousand dollars for the entire tract of
land.”

Annie gasped.

Jillian smiled, a gesture that never
reached her eyes. “But of course,” she rolled out, “you need time
to consider your options.”

Five hundred thousand
dollars? The amount staggered Annie, ringing in her ears like a
church bell on Sunday afternoon.
Five
hundred thousand dollars
. All hope for
sounding fancy and sophisticated shot clear out the door. “Yes,”
she stammered, her jelly-boned legs threatening to collapse beneath
her. She balanced herself with a hand to her nail chair and said,
“I have other things to think about. Can I call you
tomorrow?”

“
Yes. As a matter-of-fact
I’m enjoying myself in your country town and will be here for a few
short days. After that, I must close the deal on my
other
property,” she said
pointedly. “Once I do, I’m afraid there will be no more room for
discussion with you.”

Annie felt the punch. She’d been put on
notice. Hurry up or Eco-Domani money goes elsewhere. “Yes,” she
said, fumbling for self-control, confidence, anything to shake the
tremor in her voice! “I understand.”

“
I hope that you do.”
Jillian smiled richly. “I’d hate to see you miss out on the
opportunity of a lifetime.”

A cell phone rang and after a brief
moment, Annie realized it was hers. Jillian watched with interest
as she answered the call. “Hello?”

“
Annie, do you know where
Casey is? She hasn’t shown up for work yet, and the dinner crowd is
already shuffling in.”

“
I’m sorry, Aunt Fran.” Fran
Jones was Annie’s aunt and the owner of Fran’s Diner, a staple in
town. She’d given Casey a job—one the girl obviously didn’t
value—and was now looking for her. Annie eyes dodged those of the
appraising Ms. Devane, embarrassed by her daughter’s lack of
responsibility. “I’m sure she’s on her way. Can you give her a few
more minutes?”

“
Well, she’d better get here
quick. I’m short a hand tonight, because Jimmy called in
sick.”

Candi’s nephew. He also worked at
Fran’s Diner and minus the two of them Annie knew the kind of pinch
it would put her aunt in. The commotion of the kitchen in the
background, the usual din of a busy restaurant, sounded as though
the Friday night dinner rush was already in full swing. “I’ll run
by the apartment and see if she’s home. Maybe she forgot her
shift,” Annie defended weakly.

“
She better start
remembering ‘fore I fire that child!” Fran hollered into the
phone.

“
I understand,” Annie
replied, feeling a flush at her neck and cheeks. She’d never been
late for a single day of work in her life. Not at Trendz and not at
the salon before it. The fact that Casey was skirting her
responsibilities ground Annie’s last nerve into the pavement.
Ending the call, she said to Ms. Devane, “If you’ll excuse me, I
have to go.”

The woman’s face lit up with a smile.
“Of course. I understand the stress of raising a child by
yourself,” she said thickly, her accent mumbling through the last
word.

Annie didn’t think Jillian had
children, let alone the first clue about struggling. By the looks
of the jewelry hanging from her body and the money she was throwing
around, it was clear Ms. Devane had the resources to pay other
people to worry about her troubles. Suddenly irritated, Annie said,
“I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“
Yes. Tomorrow.”

Annie raced home as fast as she legally
could, anger building with every mile she drove. If Casey was at
home, the girl was going to wish she was at the diner—Annie was
gonna string her up by her toes! She and Casey had been going
through a rough time, but to put Fran in a bind when Casey knew
she’d been nice enough to give her a job in the first
place?

It was completely
inexcusable. Banging a fist to the dashboard, Annie jabbed at the
lighted arrow for the vehicle’s heat. She’d dashed out of the salon
so quickly, there was no time to warm up the car and it was cold!
Cold as a cast iron commode in the winter, she thought. Cold as Ms.
Devane’s intentions as she tried to force Annie’s back against the
wall.
I’d hate to see you miss out on the
opportunity of a lifetime
. Beneath her
fancy sympathetic words lay a lizard tongue. That woman was slick
in her manipulation and Annie didn’t care for her one bit. But the
money she was offering couldn’t be ignored. Half a million dollars?
Did that woman know what Annie and Casey could do with that kind of
money? They could live comfortably, buy a decent car. Maybe with
her share, Annie could afford the down payment for a salon. Candi
had been dying to get her own place. They could be partners! Candi
would take care of the hair, Annie would take care of the nails.
Why, she could even afford to send Casey to college if the girl
would screw her head on right and stop battling the world. Casey
had her entire future to look forward but instead she was stuck in
the past.

Because of Jeremiah.

Casey had been so angry to learn he was
her father, she’d rejected him outright. The minute Annie revealed
the news, Casey screamed and cried and pitched a fit—none of which
Annie could blame her for. Shame skulked in, coursed through
Annie’s veins. She didn’t much care for Jeremiah either, regretting
she ever slept with the man in the first place, though she didn’t
regret having her daughter. Casey was the only bright spot from the
affair. A wave of ambivalence washed through her. Just because they
were having their difficulties at the moment didn’t mean she didn’t
love the girl. She did. Casey was the most important person in
Annie’s world. She only wished they had an easier go of it, but
Casey was troubled.

Annie’s sister Lacy was fast becoming a
crucial part of her life, too, but it was slower going. Getting
over Lacy’s betrayal with Jeremiah had been difficult. It wasn’t
until Annie let go of the hate, realizing her sister had been a
mere child at the time, that she was able to begin the process of
forgiveness. At the time Lacy ran away, she was younger than Casey.
Headstrong and free-spirited, she had yearned to break free of her
small town and see the world. Unfortunately, she thought Jeremiah
was her escape route.

Lacy had been wrong. Like Annie, she
had chosen the wrong man to hitch her wagon to and paid the
consequences. When Annie learned the details of Lacy’s life since
leaving Tennessee, her heart split in two. Her sister might have
made some poor decisions, but she didn’t deserve to be abandoned by
Jeremiah in a big city like Atlanta. Annie shuddered, and this time
it wasn’t from the chilly temperature. Lacy had it rough yet she
bounced back and bore hardly a scar. A smile pulled at her mouth.
In that regard, her sister was amazing.

Thoughts of forgiveness diluted Annie’s
anger. Expelling a sigh, she turned onto the road for her apartment
complex. Casey was young and headstrong, too. Her rebellion stemmed
from choices she didn’t make, situations and circumstances beyond
her control. Remorse twisted Annie’s insides. Most of what Casey
rebelled against wasn’t her fault. It was her mother’s.

They were facts Annie couldn’t change.
She could only move forward and do the best she could. Thinking
back to her conversation with Jillian Devane, Annie wondered what
the right thing to do would be in her current predicament. Cal said
the logging could bring in a quarter of a million dollars. Ms.
Devane offered double that amount. Excitement flitted across her
breast. Would a sale on the open market bring even more?

She didn’t know, but these
were definitely things she needed to discuss with Casey. After all,
it was
her
property. The decision rightfully belonged to Casey, though it
was crazy how quick a mind could get infected when tempted with big
dollar signs. Big dollar signs. Huge. Half a million dollars would
change their lives. Pulling into her assigned parking space, Annie
cut the engine and wrapped a thick scarf snug around her neck.
Stuffing the rising tide of greed back into its corner, she
tightened the belt around her coat, braced against the chilled damp
mountain air and hurried up the stairs. Cold metal keys jangled in
her hand as she tugged them from the door. Flipping on a light
switch she called out, “Casey, I’m home!” Closing the door, Annie
surveyed the contents of her apartment. Sofa, table, television,
all were clear, the room silent. She walked farther into the living
room, dumping her purse on the dining room table.
“Casey?”

No answer.

Surprised, Annie walked down the
hallway to her daughter’s bedroom, an uneasiness setting in. Casey
had attempted an overdose once before. Had she done so again? Her
pulse jumped wildly out of control as Annie yanked open her
daughter’s bedroom door. “Casey?”

Annie’s heart leapt into her throat.
There was nothing. No Casey, no nothing. Had she gone to work? Had
she gone out?