Annie's Rainbow - Fern Michaels [126]
Parker watched his nephew drive down the hill before he climbed into his own jeep. He needed to pack a bag, needed to issue a few orders, and, by God, he needed to do some heavy-duty thinking. If he called Annie, would she talk to him? Probably not. Maybe he should call Tom. He really needed to know which way the Daisy Shops were going to go at the end of the six months. He was still smarting over the fact that he hadn’t been able to charm Annie into a three-year contract. Marrying her was the only option left, and now that was swinging in the wind. He’d been so sure, so confident of a happy ending, he’d gone ahead and given the sisters control over the business. Kiki had threatened once to bring things to a boil. She might still do it, and where in the hell would that leave him? Without a coffee bean to his name.
He thought about Annie then because he often thought of her these past weeks. He could have been happy married to her. He would have made a good husband and father. There had been no doubt in his mind that the moment children arrived on the scene, Annie would turn her end of the business over to him, content to raise her family and do all the things wives and mothers do. How could he have been so wrong about so many things? Was it even remotely possible that she had seen through his charade? Did he give off bad vibes along the way? He knew his lovemaking had been more than satisfactory. Things hadn’t chilled until she started questioning him on the laboratory and what it was he was testing. Then after what he now referred to as the infamous two-hour phone call, where he’d told her about Ben and his casework, things became downright bone-chilling.
Maybe he could turn things around. Maybe he could convince her he didn’t care about her past. Maybe if he called her and warned her, she’d take it as a sign that he really did love her. And he supposed he did, in his own way. His gut told him when Annie Clark made a decision, she stuck with it and she didn’t look back.
So then, if he knew that, why the hell had he offered to fly his nephew and his friend to Boston?
Was it because he was a man and his ego was bruised and bloody and all because of a woman?
Parker pressed the pedal to the metal. Business always came first. He was simply taking care of business. Everything else would fall into place.
“I hate leaving with things hanging in the air,” Annie grumbled to Jane, who was calmly sipping coffee at the kitchen table.
“It’s only been a week, Annie. You know the authorities never work quickly. Why would you want to go back to a house that isn’t structurally sound?”
“I don’t. That’s not the point. The point is, they must have every investigator in the state working on this, and not one of them has told us a thing. It was probably something very sophisticated and outside the realm of what they normally deal with. Once the house is repaired, I’m never going to live in it again. Hopefully some fool will buy it from me. I feel so violated. I felt the same way when I realized some person sat in my car and pawed through my. stuff and ended up stealing my purse.”
“How’s your leg this morning?”
“Each day it’s better as long as I don’t stand on it for long periods of time.”
“Have you heard from Clay Mitchell, Annie?”
“I sent a box of T-bone steaks for Jake. He called to say they were tasty. Guess that means he ate one of them. He said the car was gone from the ditch and it was a rental. The name on the lease was Stephen Lake. Lake reported it stolen that very night. No fingerprints. No nothing inside the car other than hairs and fibers that belonged to Stephen Lake. Another dead end. They aren’t going to find out anything from the debris on my house, either. We’re dealing with one clever man. A man who has no intention of getting caught.
“You know, Jane, I think it’s real nice that you’re bringing Daisy. I think she’s going to like seeing where we lived and worked and went to school. Maybe someday she’ll want to go to college