Free The Groom's Revenge by Susan Crosby

you really think you’ll be ready by six-thirty?”
    “That’s what time Tony will come by. If I shower afterward instead of before, I would need another half hour.”
    “All right Why don’t I pick you up at seven, and we can stop for breakfast before we head to the airport. We’ll lose two hours going west I don’t want to get there too early in the morning.”
    Mollie lifted her bag from the floorboard and into her arms. She set her hand on the door handle, but hesitated. “I don’t think you know just how big of an adventure this is for me, Gray. I can’t thank you enough.”
    Gray resisted the how-about-a-good-night-kiss expression in her eyes. Anticipation played with his imagination as he visualized such a kiss. Warmth rushed through his veins, pooled low, then simmered. Attraction hadn’t been part of the plan, but he couldn’t deny it, either. Her wide mouth looked eminently kiss able, her sleek body exceptionally touchable. Only that huge Off-limits sign that was lit in neon above her head stopped him from acting on his desire. He was supposed to avenge her, proect her—not seduce her.
    “Don’t stay up all night fretting, Mollie,” he said. “Everything will be fine.”
    “You’re not coming up?”
    He shook his head. “I need to finish a project.”
    “I’ll see you in the morning, then.”
    Gray waited until she was safely inside her shop, then drove o a small, tidy house on a tree-lined street not far from hers. After grabbing an envelope from the glove compartment, he approached the structure with a resolute stride
    “Mr. McGuire,” the silver-haired man who opened the door said, a curious emphasis on the name.
    “Mr. Swensen. May I come in?”
    Gunnar Swensen shut the door behind Gray but didn’t invite him farther into the house. “You’ve come to a decision?” the nan asked.
    Gray passed him the envelope. “Everything checked out.” The man withdrew the bank book from the envelope, then examined the amount written there. “This is more than we discussed.”
    “Yes.”
    He stared at Gray for a minute, his eyes cautious and weary. “What if you decide to do nothing?”
    “That won’t happen.”
    “If you are in an accident or become ill suddenly and die—”
    “The money is still yours,” Gray interrupted, hearing the strain m his own voice. He headed for the door.
    “You are nothing like your father,” Gunnar said.
    Gray didn’t suffer from any illusions. He knew he wasn’t universally loved, as his father had been. Respect was the most he could hope for. Still, the knife-sharp words sliced Gray’s heart heatly in two for the second time in his life. “Lucky for you,” he said to the man just before the door shut. He’d needed proof of Mollie’s parentage. Now he had it, hoarded by Gunnar Swen sen all these years.
    The unsettling business behind him, he drove out of the city and into the countryside trying to bury the memories surfacing like a meteor shower. In his mind he struggled once again to stuff them back into the dark place they lived.
    When that task was done, he returned to his hotel, booted hi computer, then scanned the list of mail awaiting him. He ignored it all except the one from MollieS: “We can’t even hold hand in front of your parents?”
    He stared at the screen. A smile pulled at his mouth. Mollie Mollie, Mollie. Picturing her earnest expression, he laughed. But the laughter soon faded, as did the smile. When the truth came out, would she be as irreversibly changed as he had been?
    The phone rang. A few minutes later he hung up, satisfied Knight Star Systems had lost out in the bidding for a deal that would have been the biggest in their history, a bid they should have been awarded easily.
    Stuart should be fitting the final pieces of the puzzle together Questioning his abilities. Anguishing over having to lay off em ployees. His character was about to be tested—failure tested : man.
    Soon, everyone would know Stuart Fortune wasn’t