Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? (27 page)

He sat back, his expression thoughtful. ‘Because for once in your life you’ve made me proud. You’ve done what any woman worth her salt should do – found a rich and well-connected husband.’

Lauren laughed. ‘Yesterday you were calling Grayson names and trying to make him look stupid. What changed?’

‘His father contacted me. I’ve worked with Beau a few times in the past. I never knew his son was slated to succeed him as president of Turner Enterprises.’

‘That’s not going to happen. Grayson hardly speaks to his father any more. In fact, I heard him turn down that very offer today.’

Her father chuckled and unwrapped a cigar. ‘Well then, the boy displays good horse sense. Why would he want to worry your pretty little head with all these business details? I’m sure he’ll let you know when he’s decided what he’s going to do. That’s what I always do with your mother.’

Lauren clenched her teeth so hard that her jaw hurt. It was always the same. He refused to admit she was capable of using her brain. She fought down a desire to argue. She wanted the facts.

‘I think you’re mistaken about Grayson. But if you don’t want to believe me, ask him yourself. All he wants is to live out his life on his ranch and deal with the horse stud and training enterprises.’

Her father scooped up a handful of papers from his desk. ‘Nice try, Lauren. Here’s a list of the companies Grayson owns and his investment portfolio. If that man’s a simple cowboy, I’m the queen of England.’

Lauren bunched the papers in her fist without looking at them. ‘Just because business is the most important thing in your life, Dad, don’t assume it’s the same for others. I’m more interested in running a profitable business than Grayson is.’

He smiled and something fisted in Lauren’s stomach. ‘Sweetie, it’s OK, you can admit it now. You’ve just been playing at being a businesswoman while you waited for the right man to come along and marry you.’ Lauren opened her mouth but her father kept talking. ‘You had me fooled for a while there. I was even willing to go along with your plans. Heck, I made sure you won four of your first deals, didn’t I?’

His satisfaction rolled over her like a wave. ‘What did you say?’

He lit his cigar and took a long pull, then released the smoke through his mouth in a series of rings. ‘Did you really think you got all those deals by yourself? I made damn sure that every one of those guys knew you were my daughter and that a favour to you was a favour to me.’

Lauren took a step back and knocked against a chair. In an effort to steady herself, she dug her fingernails into the polished wood. ‘I won those contracts through hard work and dedication. You don’t have that much power.’

Her father tapped out the ash from his cigar. His shrewd gaze came up to meet hers. ‘You underestimate me.’

He glanced down at another piece of paper on his desk. ‘And, of course, the last company you signed, Prairie Dawg Boots, is owned by Grayson Turner. What a coincidence. He obviously thought it was a good way to gain your trust and control you, just like I did.’ Smoke swirled around his nostrils as he exhaled. ‘It’s another reason why I think Grayson and I will work well together.’

Lauren shook her head. ‘You’re wrong, Dad, but at least I’ve finally learnt my lesson. In future, you can keep right out of my life. Pretend I’m dead, pretend I never existed, for as far as I’m concerned, you never did.’

She turned to leave, the papers still clutched in her hand. Her father’s parting words sounded loud and overconfident as she opened the door.

‘When you’ve calmed down, come back and see me. Your mother and I have a wedding to organise.’

From the top of the cliff, Grayson spotted Lauren sitting on the beach. If it wasn’t for a worried Mrs Turner, he would never have known where to find her. He made his way down through the rocks until he stood on the gritty sand.

She didn’t turn her head even though she must have heard his approach. In one hand she held a sheaf of papers which were twisted into shreds. Heedless of her silk dress, her knees were drawn up to her chin, her arms wrapped around them. He studied her profile. What the hell had happened to make her look as if someone had run over her puppy?

‘Lauren, honey?’ His softly spoken words were carried away by the gusting wind. ‘Are you OK?’

She wouldn’t look at him, her voice was barely audible. ‘Why did you lie to me?’

He slid his hands into his pockets. ‘About my father? I asked him here to help me out with your father. I thought we’d already discussed that.’

She shook her head, her soft hair, released from its band, fluttered around her face, concealing her expression. ‘Not just about your father, about everything.’

Grayson crouched down beside her. ‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’

‘Where would you like me to start? With the complicated relationship between you, Anna and your father or the fact that you are a multi-millionaire?’

‘Tell me which bothers you most.’

As he studied Lauren’s hostile body language, Gray realised he wasn’t prepared to roll over and play dead yet. Hadn’t Lauren got to know him at all? Wasn’t she even capable of giving him the benefit of the doubt? He sucked in a lungful of sea air. It didn’t help calm him down.

‘I never realised my being a millionaire would be a problem for you.’ He tried to inject some humour. ‘Hell, most women would do anything to marry a guy like me.’

She shot him a glance full of loathing. ‘Now you sound just like my father.’

He held her gaze. ‘I hate to keep saying this, but I’m not your father. I’m just the guy who married you and wants to live the rest of his life with you. What’s wrong with that?’

‘Because you lied to me.’ She swiped the hair out of her eyes. ‘I thought you were just a cowboy. I thought you were a nice, straightforward, simple guy.’

Grayson refused to drop his gaze. ‘I am. Having money doesn’t make me a different person.’

Lauren knelt up and threw the papers she held clenched in her fist at him. ‘You never told me about your internet companies, your corporate lifestyle and your succession of movie-star girlfriends, either, did you?’

Papers flew around him. He snatched a couple out of the air. ‘So who did?’

Lauren looked puzzled.

‘Who told you?’ He got to his feet. She opened her mouth and shut it again. ‘Let me guess. Was it my father or yours?’

He glanced at the papers in his hand, saw his own smiling face ripped from the pages of
Fortune
magazine. A slow knot of anger uncoiled low in his gut. ‘I’m judged and condemned, am I? It’s OK if I’m a cowboy without two cents to call his own, but it’s not OK if I happen to be a rich cowboy?’

Lauren stood up, her eyes a desperate blur in her pale features. ‘You’re going to be even richer still if your deal to buy up Springtown and turn it into an open-cast mine works out. So much for honesty. That’ll bring jobs back to the area for sure.’

Grayson held her gaze. ‘I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I haven’t made a deal with anyone, but I’m going to find out.’ He ripped the papers in his hands in half again and again. ‘Perhaps when you’ve decided who you’re really mad at, you’ll let me know. I refuse to take the crap from your relationship with your father.’

Lauren poked him in the chest. ‘And you think you’ve behaved much better? After telling me you loathe your father you go into business with him? When are you going to accept his offer and become president of Turner Enterprises?’

Grayson stepped back as the urge to shake some sense into her threatened to overcome him. ‘As I said, deal with your own father, I’ll worry about mine.’

Almost too angry to speak, he turned on his heel and looked back up the beach. ‘I’m going to catch an early flight back to Oregon. There’s no point in staying around here when you won’t even give me a fair hearing.’ He swung around and looked her right in the eye. ‘Hey, you should be celebrating. You’ve finally found your out. As you said, Lauren, it was all about the sex for you, wasn’t it? Stupid of me to believe I’d found a woman who could love me and like me for myself.’

He uncurled her fingers, dumped the shredded paper in her outstretched hand and headed back up the beach. It took all his concentration not to look back. When he reached the house, he couldn’t resist any longer. Lauren hadn’t moved. She stood on the beach, her back to him, facing the sun.

Grayson rounded up his father and Anna Paulson who were eating barbecue in the back yard and corralled them in Paul Redstone’s office. He locked the door and stood with his back to it, oblivious to the storm brewing on his father’s face. He glanced at his watch.

‘I have half an hour before my cab gets here. If you two want me to let you out of here alive, tell me what the fuck is going on.’

Lauren sank down onto her hotel bed and stared at the grimy drapes. New York in the summer wasn’t just hot, it was humid too. After being jostled and pushed on the sidewalk, she was in dire need of a shower.

She kicked off her high-heeled sandals and contemplated the chipped pink nail polish on her toes. She couldn’t be bothered to fix the damage. Her fingernails were ruined too. Biting her lip, she shuffled into the bathroom and put the shower on.

She sighed as the water pummelled her skin. She had one more meeting in New York and then she was headed for Pueblo, Colorado to meet with the executives of the PBR and show them her set-design proposal for the first commercial. Hot water streamed down her back. Why wasn’t she excited? After all, it was a dream come true.

Every time she tried to enjoy the moment, her father’s insinuations came back to haunt her. Had he truly influenced all her business deals? Or even worse, had Grayson manipulated the PBR one himself? She couldn’t forget that she’d first met him in Vegas at the PBR finals weekend.

Lauren washed her hair and rinsed away the shampoo. Reluctant to step out of the shower and face the inadequate air conditioning, she allowed the water to cascade over her head. In the week since her mother’s birthday party, she’d concentrated on her business and ignored any attempts to contact her. She needed time to come to terms with all the crap that’d been heaped on her.

She pictured Grayson’s furious face before he’d abandoned her on the beach. Hadn’t he understood that she needed time to sort through everything she’d heard? Like most men, he hadn’t been prepared to give her any. To his mind, her decision must’ve seemed clear cut.

Steam poured from the shower as she opened the plastic curtain and stepped out onto the mat. She would have to face Grayson soon. She owed him that. Her father was a different matter. She walked to the window and looked down on Fifth Avenue. Could she move herself and her business here? Would she be far enough away from her father’s reach?

She put on a straight black shift dress, black boots and white lipstick. Black sunglasses completed her look. It suited her mood. New York always brought out her darker side.

The cab dropped her at a new high-rise office building just off Wall Street. She checked the details on the business card the PBR public relations guy had sent her and made her way up to the fourteenth floor. To her surprise, the offices of GAT Industries were almost empty.

She was led to one of the corner offices by an enthusiastic male intern named Dave, who looked barely old enough to drive, let alone work. After knocking loudly on the door, Dave stepped aside leaving her face to face with a familiar figure behind a chrome and steel desk.

‘Good afternoon, Lauren.’

Grayson got to his feet but he didn’t come around his desk. He wore a dark-grey business suit, blue shirt and silver tie. Lauren clutched her purse to her chest and sank into the nearest chair. Grayson looked as if he hadn’t slept much since she’d last seen him. Dark shadows under his eyes made him look older and harder.

She waited until he resumed his seat before dropping her sunglasses into her purse and fishing out her Palm Pilot. The faint rumble of traffic below filtered through the thrum of the air conditioning as he settled back in his leather chair.

‘Great office space, Grayson.’

A muscle jumped in his cheek. ‘Yeah, it is. I heard you’ve been looking at rental space. If you were thinking about relocating your company here, I’d offer it to you at a reduced rate. But then, you’d probably think I was trying to bribe you.’

Lauren gestured at the business card she still held in her hand. ‘GAT Industries. I should’ve realised this had something to do with you. What does the “A” stand for?’

‘Adam. It’s my middle name. I apologise for the deception. I figured the only way I’d get your attention was if I put myself into your world.’ His expression became hard to read. ‘I appreciate you seeing me. I won’t keep you long.’

‘What can I do for you?’ She was amazed that she sounded so calm.

He met her gaze straight on. ‘I wanted to get some things straight.’

‘You don’t have to do that, I’ve been thinking . . .’

Grayson drew a leather briefcase onto his desk and opened it with a click. ‘Let me finish. It’ll be easier that way.’

Lauren sat opposite him, hands folded in her lap. She wondered how she could ever have doubted his business acumen. Like all successful executives, Grayson emanated a sense of calm assurance and power. She struggled to readjust to his unnerving and unexpected presence. Dammit. If he wanted to treat this mess like a business meeting, she would gladly go along with him.

Grayson took out a pile of papers. ‘First off, I have signed letters from my father and the Paulsons confirming that I have no interest, financial or otherwise, in joining their bid to ruin Springtown Valley.’ He pushed the letters across the desk towards her. ‘When I told you about my plans for the small business units on my ranch, I had no idea what the Paulsons were up to.’

Lauren thought about Anna Paulson’s smug assurance that Grayson wanted to be involved in their project. She would love to have been a fly on the wall during that meeting. What exactly had Grayson done to get the letters written?