The Bargain (3 page)

“So, what … I’m not a Kingston anymore? And here I thought family was supposed to be everything to you. Or maybe that’s only when you’re campaigning.”

“Don’t pretend to care about family now. It’s too little too late.”

Michael thrust the article at him. “Drew, this is a mistake — ”

Drew snatched the article from his brother’s hand and crumpled it up. “That’s not your call to make.”

A new voice interrupted them. “Excuse me — ”

Everyone turned to see a beefy man in a security guard uniform standing in the hallway.

He cleared his throat pointedly and adjusted the belt from which hung a substantial-looking nightstick. “Is there a problem here, Mr. Kingston?”

“Not anymore, Lucas. This gentleman was just leaving. Maybe you could help him find his way out of the building, though?”

“Drew, we have to talk about this!” There was something else besides anger beneath Michael’s words, something so faint that Shannon wondered if she might have imagined it. Desperation, maybe? She didn’t think Drew noticed it.

“We’re done talking,” Drew returned coldly. “We were done a long time ago. Now, please, Lucas?”

The security guard nodded. “Absolutely, sir. Right this way, please.” He reached for Michael’s arm.

Michael shook him off. “
Don’t
put your hands on me.”

Lucas curled one hand around the handle of his nightstick.

For a moment Shannon thought Michael was going to hit either Drew or Lucas, but a tiny gasp from Clarissa seemed to remind him where he was and just who was around him. The fist he was starting to form slowly relaxed.

“I’ll find my own way out.” With a final glance at his brother, Michael turned and stormed out of the room. Lucas followed him out.

Drew turned to Shannon and shook his head with a rueful sigh. “I’m sorry, Shannon. You shouldn’t have had to deal with any of that. Are you all right?”

She nodded, self-conscious again as he focused his attention on her.

“It’s not that Michael’s dangerous or anything, not really. He’s just impulsive. Says what he wants, does what he wants, without giving much thought to the consequences. You know what I mean?”

Another nod. Could she not think of two words to say to him?

“Again, I’m sorry.” He turned as if to go back into his office.

Shannon finally found her voice. “Are
you
okay?”

He paused and then ran a hand through his hair, leaving it slightly mussed but still boyishly charming. “Oh, sure. Just caught me off guard, that’s all. He’s been trying to call me at home recently, but I never dreamed he’d actually come back to town. Seeing him out of the blue like that … ”

“How long has it been?”

“Years. Not since our parents’ funeral. We didn’t exactly get along then, either.”

“Sorry,” she offered awkwardly but sincerely.

He waved it off. “It is what it is. Michael’s always been one for trouble, and I suspect he always will be.”

“Do you think he’ll come back here?”

Drew frowned, but not at Shannon. “Not here, he won’t. I’ll speak to the security staff about him. Hopefully he’ll get the hint and leave town quickly.” He gave a humorless chuckle. “It’s what he’s best at.” Then he glanced at the clock on the wall. “I’d better get to that meeting. Let’s just try and forget this morning’s unpleasantness, shall we?” Retrieving a handful of papers from his desk, he smiled at Shannon a little too brightly and disappeared down the hall.

As soon as he was gone, Clarissa hurried over to Shannon. “What on earth was that all about?”

“Something about the youth center, apparently.” Shannon sat down behind her computer again determined to follow Drew’s advice and forget about Michael Kingston’s visit. Easier said than done. Her pulse was going faster than it usually did.

“I didn’t even know Drew
had
a brother.”

“He says they’re not close.” She thought back to high school. “I’m not sure they ever have been.”

The older woman raised her eyebrows. “Wait a minute. Did you used to know him or something?”

“Who, Michael?” Shannon shrugged, disinterested. She brought up a new file on her computer, only half-involved in the conversation. “I knew
of
him, that’s all. Back in school.”

Clarissa sat on the edge of the desk. “Spill it! I love a little gossip. What was he like?”

Shannon hesitated. They were treading on dangerous ground here. Talk about Michael could very easily lead to talk about Drew. If she wasn’t careful, she might let something slip about her feelings for him. “I don’t know. Probably not so different from the way he is now. Tall, dark, and entitled.”

“Oooo, but he is easy on the eyes, isn’t he?”

“Clarissa!”

“What? I’m married, not dead. And I’d have to be dead not to notice a man like that.” She fanned herself with her hand. “My goodness! And a bad boy to boot. Every woman’s kryptonite.”

Not every woman’s, Shannon thought. Some preferred nice, polite politician types.

“I’ll bet girls chased after him like kids after an ice cream truck.” She lowered her voice slyly. “So did he let them catch him?”

“I wouldn’t really know.”

“Oh, come on,” Clarissa pleaded hopefully. “Are you sure you don’t know any juicy stories?”

“Sorry.”

The blonde sighed with disappointment before returning to her desk.

It was funny, Shannon thought as she started typing. You would think two men who were brothers would have a little more in common, but these two hardly even looked alike. There were some similarities, she supposed. The noses, the chins … But Drew’s hair was straight where Michael’s was curly. Drew’s eyes were a warm shade of blue while Michael’s were — She struggled to remember. Brown, maybe. Almost black. Definitely dark.

The note she had written to remind herself to make dinner reservations for Drew and a date caught her attention, and she decided the smart thing to do was to stop thinking about Drew’s eyes.

• • •

Michael peeled off his much-scuffed leather jacket and tossed it onto the ground beneath a large oak tree using more force than was necessary. Taking a seat on the shady grass beneath its overhanging branches, he turned stony eyes to the door of the building in which his brother worked.

That could have gone better. Well, it was hardly the first time he managed to screw things up, and it was a safe bet that it wouldn’t be the last time, either. He ought to know better than to let his emotions plot the course instead of his head, but knowing and doing were two very different things, weren’t they?

The security guard was ever so helpful in making sure he did indeed find the exit all right and even took the time to explain in no uncertain terms that Michael would not be seeing the inside of Drew’s building again anytime soon. So now not only could he not get Drew to take his calls at home — and the doorman at his brother’s high-rise apartment complex was about as helpful as that carrot-topped battle axe in the office — but now his work was closed off to him, too. Wonderful. He was fast running out of options through which to reach Drew and fix this mess that the younger Kingston was in the process of creating.

Michael sank back against the trunk of the tree and rubbed eyes that were weary from too many hours on the road and not enough caffeine. He had lost his temper in there, a stupid thing to do. It was hardly the best way to get Drew to see his point of view. Granted, the exchange with the secretary hadn’t exactly helped his frame of mind, but that was only a small part of it. His head hadn’t been right ever since he stumbled onto that article about the family home and the highly touted youth center Drew planned to make out of it. Drew must have been astonished that Michael had seen it. He would probably be even more shocked if he knew that his older black sheep of a brother actually checked up on his former hometown every once in a great while. It wouldn’t occur to him that Michael would care. But there were a lot of things that Drew didn’t know about him anymore and probably wouldn’t believe. Like the regrets.

If he could just get Drew to listen to him with an open mind for two minutes …

Not likely. Michael chuckled bitterly under his breath, startling a matronly passerby. He flashed her a quick smile of apology, and she blushed before smiling back and ducking her head to continue past him.

Now
she
would have let him in to his brother’s office, no doubt about it. Too bad she hadn’t been the one to intercept him in there.

But what was done was done. If he couldn’t get his brother to listen to him, maybe he could get through to someone else to make them reconsider things. Now if there happened to be a female on the committee involved in this project, he might stand a chance. Desperate times, and all that. A man used whatever weapons he had in his arsenal.

He remained in the shade of the tree for quite awhile as he mused over possible strategies, maybe even hoping to catch his brother coming outside, when the doors to the building opened and a familiar figure emerged. His jaw tightened.

The battle axe.

She looked deceptively mild at the moment, from her plain, thick braid to the tips of her sensible shoes. Even the purse slung over her arm looked mild, a simple and unembellished brown thing. Just went to show you, Michael thought, appearances really can be deceiving. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman spoke to him the way she did. Maybe not since grade school. Give her a ruler, and she would probably rap his knuckles.

He wondered if she really would have kicked him.

If he’d kept his head instead of arguing with her, laid on a little charm, things would have gone very differently, he was sure. She might have swung the office door open wide instead of growling at him like a mama bear protecting her cub. This was obviously not a woman who cared to hear anything negative about the perfect Drew Kingston.

He remembered then the blush that came to her cheeks when his brother appeared. The way she clammed up, suddenly shy. One side of Michael’s mouth curved up in a smile of dawning comprehension. Ah, that explained quite a bit. The battle axe had a thing for his brother. Michael might not be the classically educated university man that Drew was, but women were his favorite subject, after all, and he knew them very well. This woman clearly had a crush on Drew. He knew his brother well, too, and it was equally obvious to him that Drew had no clue about her feelings for him.

An idea began to take shape in his mind, and Michael leaned forward to watch the secretary — no, she preferred to be called assistant, didn’t she? — walk down the sidewalk. Sure, it would take some sweet-talking at first after what happened this morning, but he was good at that. He had never met a woman yet who wasn’t at least partially susceptible to his charms, especially when he turned them on full force. They had gotten him out of more than one bind in the past. An apology for this morning, some mild flirtation, and once she warmed to him, he would make a proposition he doubted she would refuse.

Hope flickered to life. Getting to his feet, Michael slung his jacket over one shoulder and followed her.

• • •

Eleven o’clock was a little early to be taking her lunch break, but Shannon’s stomach had been growling since about five minutes after finishing that sad, little breakfast bar. There were a number of cozy coffee shops and undiscovered little eatery gems within easy walking distance of the office, and today she headed for one of her favorites, a charming little Italian place whose warm and rustic colors had done much to inspire her kitchen remodel. Brown-bagging it would have been more practical and definitely cheaper, but since she planned to finish the tiling tonight, it seemed fitting to celebrate by eating at the same place where it all began, inspiration-wise at least.

Her favorite table was available, a secluded corner spot beneath a lovely fresco. She let her purse fall gently onto the table and then sat down. “Iced tea and minestrone, please,” she called out as a familiar waitress waved in greeting.

“Make that two,” said a voice that made her stiffen, and she looked up to see Michael Kingston sliding into the chair across from her. “Hi.”

She stared at him with wide eyes, bewildered first and then annoyed. “What are
you
doing here?”

“Eating lunch. And trying to apologize.” He smiled at her, a slow, boyish smile that invited her to join in his good humor. She chose not to but only stared at him in cool silence. “Look,” he continued when it became clear she was not going to thaw out that quickly, “clearly we got off on the wrong foot back there, and I know that was largely my fault.” He paused and looked at her as if waiting for her to reassure him that was not the case.

Then he would be waiting a very long time, she thought, still staring at him with undisguised hostility.

Apparently he realized that because he finally shrugged and went on. “I was upset with my brother, and I took it out on you. But family can make everyone a little crazy sometimes, right? That’s just the nature of — ”

“What do you want?” she asked bluntly.

He raised his eyebrows. “Direct, aren’t you?”

The waitress appeared with their soup and iced tea, and she bestowed a particularly sunny smile on Michael. He favored her with one in return before giving his attention back to Shannon. Probably can’t even help himself, she thought, unimpressed.

“I want your help,” he said finally.

“
My
help?” Was he kidding?

“You’re Drew’s sec — personal assistant,” he corrected himself before she could. He paused to taste his soup and possibly consider his next words. “And I’m sure you have his ear, at least to some degree. You’re like the gatekeeper between him and everyone on the outside. I need your help in getting through to him.”

“Is this a joke?”

“No joke. Drew’s about to make a big mistake, and I want you to help me stop him — Hey, this is really good soup. Aren’t you going to try yours?”

Shannon left her food untouched, incredulous. “What makes you think I would stab Drew in the back like that? Particularly for you?”

For a moment he looked annoyed. “It’s not stabbing him in the back. All I want you to do is talk to him. You’d be saving him from himself, actually.”