The Princess and the Pauper (20 page)

Jordan exhaled shakily. “My record is ten years old. Juvie! The records should be sealed. And I wasn’t exactly criminal. I never
stole
anything.”

Jesse shook his head. “You went joyriding in old man Tamblin’s Cadillac. That’s grand theft auto. You were damn lucky you were underage.”

“We returned the car.” Jordan gazed at Jesse as if he’d never seen him before. “A cop. A detective?”

“Jordan, look at those initials. Think,” Jesse urged in a low voice. “Did you place these orders?”

Jordan examined the invoices one by one. “Yes, I did.”

April felt faint. Blood drain from her head. “Jordan,” she whispered, shocked.

Jesse merely looked thoughtful. Jordan’s narrowed eyes were cool and angry as he met his older brothers. The corners of Jesse’s mouth lifted. “Who brought them to you?” he asked.

“So you don’t think I’m a criminal?”

“Little brother, if you were a criminal, you wouldn’t let the evidence point directly to yourself.”

“You got that right.”

They smiled at each other, and Jordan remarked, “A detective. Does Bettina know? Of course she knows. I could kill the both of you!”

April plopped herself onto the corner of Jordan’s desk. “Will somebody tell me what’s going on? I feel like I walked in on the last half of the movie.”

“Jordan here’s been duped,” Jesse explained. “Someone handed him invoices with your initials, and he scratched his own across them, adding authenticity. It should be a simple matter to find out who.”

“I think these were put on my desk,” Jordan said, frowning. “I’ll figure it out.”

For April it was a moment of intense relief. It wasn’t Jordan. She turned to Jesse, her expression mirroring her joy, and she heard him suck in a soft breath at what he saw in her face. His eyes darkened.

A muffled tread sounded outside the office. Bemused, April turned her head. Jesse was going to make everything right, she realized, and it eased her fears.

A shadow fell across the doorway. Peter Hollis, his hair now completely silver and cut in an expensive, distinguished style, walked quietly into the room. His expression was a mixture of puzzlement, suspicion and disbelief. Behind him, Chris Daley appeared, glancing nervously from Jesse to the man who had made Hollis’s famous up and down the West Coast.

“Mr. Hollis, this is Detective Sergeant Jesse Cawthorne,” Daley introduced.

The two men exchanged glances and the atmosphere in the room subtly altered. Some things never change, Jesse realized, witnessing the confusion that swept briefly across the older man’s face. His own expression turned stony. He thought back to that afternoon on Hollis’s patio, remembering Peter’s teeth-gritting hospitality.

Recognition flashed in Pete’s gray eyes. “We’ve met,” he said tersely, his smile grim and hollow.

For the second time in Jesse’s life, April swept to his aid like a vengeful crusader. Her hand touched his sleeve. She didn’t say a word, but he could feel the dynamic clash of wills between father and daughter as if it were a physical thing.

This man hates me, Jesse realized, and wondered why.

Thirty minutes later April stared out the window of her own office and closed her ears to the sounds of her father’s furious pacing. He strode back and forth, volleying accusations at her from both ends of the office, making her feel like a ship on a storm-tossed sea.

“I’m not blaming you directly, April,” he declared for the fourth time. “It’s hard to know what the protocol should be in a situation like this. But that man ruined your life. It’s taken you years to recover. How—” he waved his hands in total lack of comprehension “– how could you let him near you?”

“He came to do a job,” April said was brittle patience. “He came to find out who was stealing from us. You asked for the police department’s help.”

“You can’t tell me you didn’t have something to do with his working on the case!” her father said contemptuously.

April flung him a dark look. Knowing she was burning all bridges, aware that it didn’t matter anyway, she said, “Actually, he came to help his brother, Jordan Taylor.”

Her father blinked rapidly several times. “Jordan Taylor?”

“We were in Jordan’s office when you confronted Jesse.”

The look on her father’s face melted some of April fury. He was plainly shattered, disillusioned. As if she’d brutally conspired against him.

“He’s Cawthorne’s
brother?”

“I didn’t tell you before because I knew you’d go berserk.” April let him absorb that information. It wasn’t Jesse’s fault that she’d become estranged from her family. It had been her father’s snobbery, prejudice and plain lack of understanding that had driven her from home.

Her father was, if possible, even less receptive. “What kind of circus do you think you’re running down here?”

“Sales are up, Dad,” April reminded him, feeling the smile fade from her face.

“And so is crime.” Glittering points of anger shone in his eyes.

“Not because of Jordan – or Jesse.”

His nostrils flared with outrage. The coldness she’d nearly forgotten he possessed seemed to freeze the very air in the room. Without a word he crossed purposefully to the door, looking like a man on a mission.

“Dad.” April was after him like a shot.

He stopped short of Jordan’s open door, his shoulders shaking ever so slightly. April anxiously peered around him. Jordan was talking to Jesse, who was lounging in a chair in a deceptively lazy position. His long legs stretched out before him, his face gave no clue to his thoughts.

“Jordan Taylor?” her father said perfunctorily. “You’re fired.”

Surprise flitted across Jordan’s face, followed by comprehension. He didn’t say a word. Before he could stop himself, he turned slightly in Jesse’s direction.

Jesse slowly climbed to his feet. It was one thing to attack him, another to attack his brother. “Your sense of justice escapes me.” His voice was ice.

“Clear out your office and be gone by five,” Peter ordered Jordan. “And Cawthorne, you’re not on this case any longer.” He turned smartly on his heel, making no effort to disguise his loathing. April stared after him, aghast. He had to stop because she stood directly in his path. She thought for a moment that he would push her aside, but he waited, warily, for her to speak.

A million thoughts passed through her mind. She was angry and scared. In the end she opted for neutrality, hoping to smooth over a no-win situation between men as pride-filled as her father, Jordan, and most of all, Jesse. “Don’t be rash,” she cautioned quietly.

April saw emotion quiver in Peter’s flushed cheeks. He looked ready to burst with displeasure. Defeated, April stepped aside. Her father strode toward the glass elevator. April met Jesse’s stony eyes for an instant, silently begging him to understand. His face was granite.

She twisted on her heel, catching her father before the elevator doors could slam shut. He didn’t acknowledge her presence. His gaze was directed at the beveled panels as the elevator began its smooth descent.

“You can’t fire Jordan,” she said flatly.

“This store is my life,” he answered, as if continuing a previous conversation. “It’s all that matters to me except for you, your sister and your mother. And Eden,” he added after a moment. “If you quit, you’ll make me choose between you and it. I don’t want to have to do that.”

His age showed in the slight slackening of the skin around his mouth. It struck her hard. She had been about to issue an ultimatum: rehire Jordan or she’d quit. Now she found the words shriveling in her throat.

“It’s Jesse, isn’t it? Not Jordan.”

He didn’t respond.

“Dad, it was so long ago!”

“Have you told him about Eden?”

Hating herself, April clenched her teeth. “I’m afraid to. I’m afraid he’ll do something terrible if he finds out the truth. But I can’t stand the lies!” she added vehemently.

“That’s why I want him off this job. Don’t you see, April? You’ve just put your life back together.
We’ve
just put our lives back together. If Cawthorne’s anywhere near you, he can tip the scales. Who knows what could happen?”

The elevator shimmied to a stop. April gazed at her father unhappily. “If I don’t tell him, it’s not fair to either Jesse or Eden. He should know. How would you feel if you found out you had another child, that the mother kept the secret from you? You’d be furious, betrayed. And you would have every right to feel that way.”

Her father had one foot out the door. But he turned and regarded her soberly. “And you know what would be the first thing I’d do when I found out? I’d sue for custody. I’d make sure that my child was with me. By fair means or foul.”

He stalked away and April’s shoulders sagged. She was angry because he was right, and angrier at herself for hesitating, for being afraid.

“What about Jordan?” she called after him anxiously, holding open the door.

“Get someone else. Call your friend Rob at Richard and Richards. Make him a serious offer.”

April slammed her palm against the Up button. The doors whispered closed. She had no intention of calling Rob, or anyone else. It was Jordan she wanted for Hollis’s, no matter what her father said.

And Jesse, whom she wanted for herself.

She pressed her lips together. She could admit it. She was attracted to Jesse. A stubborn, womanly part of herself responded to his voice, his smell, his intense masculinity. Rationalization didn’t work. She could tell herself a million times that he wasn’t good for her and still she wouldn’t listen. She knew there was a small chance for them. She could practically reach out and touch it, if she tried.

April winced. Was that love? She was almost afraid to identify it as such. She was certain that what he felt for her fell far short of that.

And what was Jesse’s capacity for forgiveness? She shuddered to think what his reaction would be when – if – she told him about Eden.

She nearly stepped into Jesse when the elevator opened on the tenth floor. He was standing just outside the doors, his mouth pressed into a thin and uncompromising line. His eyes were strangely opaque, as if he were purposely shutting her out.

“He’s changed his mind,” April lied. “He just overreacted about Jordan.”

“Jordan’s leaving, April. He’s cleaning out his desk.”

“Then I’ll have to stop him. If it takes a formal apology from my father, I’ll get that, too.”

“It’s too late.”

She glared at him. “Jordan can talk for himself, can’t he?”

“Your father hasn’t changed his mind. It’s been set for over ten years. Longer, perhaps.”

She clenched her fists. He had this uncanny knack for being infuriatingly calm, just like the eye of a hurricane. He also was invariably right.

“And what about you?” she asked hollowly. “Did my father scare you off, too?”

His answer was a small, cold smile that was packed full of ambiguity.

She decided it would be easier to live on some remote star than attempt to understand the men in her life.

Ten days later April walked into Hollis’s after lunch to find a circle of people awaiting her. They were standing under the store’s main chandelier, light falling down on them in shimmery teardrops.

Jesse was there, facing her father.

For once he wasn’t dressed in black. Dun-colored pants molded his hips and his shirt was a paler shade. His jacket was a darker brown. The effect was characteristically casual and surprisingly powerful. Or maybe it was just Jesse himself. He had a presence that couldn’t be denied. By the look on her father’s face, April could see he resented it.

“April.” Peter’s greeting was crisp.

Her eyes swept from him to Jesse. The others in the group looked at the ground, each other, or anywhere else.

“Detective Cawthorne here thinks he’s found out who’s responsible for the inventory leak.” His lips curled. “I didn’t realize he had continued with the investigation.”

April flushed. Her father’s words were a cool reprimand, entirely misplaced. She hadn’t seen Jesse at all. In fact, she’d despaired of him ever calling her again. Jordan has left Hollis’s with a simple, “Goodbye,” but Jesse had walked out without a word.

“She didn’t know.” Jesse’s voice was flat. “I took it upon myself.”