River Road(67)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

Warner blinked. His mouth was open, but for a few seconds no words came out. Evidently, it had never dawned on him that his son might one day simply walk away.

“What about Jillian?” he finally rasped. “She’ll have something to say about you leaving the wine country.”

“Jillian will do what she wants, but I think it’s safe to say she won’t be coming with me. In spite of appearances, I’m not stupid. I realize that she has stuck around as long as she has for the same reasons the brood mare has stayed. She liked the money and the social status here in the valley.”

The possibility that Jillian would leave him now was shredding his insides. She was the reason he had stayed as long as he had. He knew how important it was to her to be connected to the Colfax family. Deep down, he was pretty sure it was the reason she had married him in the first place. It was his own damn fault that he loved her.

“I don’t believe any of this.” Warner’s voice was thin and whispery now, his rage so great he could hardly talk. “It’s all a pack of lies.”

Quinn shook his head. “Believe whatever you like. It’s not my problem anymore. Never was, come to think of it. Just took me all these years to realize it.”

Warner spun around and stalked out of the office.

Quinn waited until the door closed. Then the fury and the pain overwhelmed him.

He picked up the half-empty glass and flung it against the wall. Shards rained down on the floor. The vodka and orange juice splashed across a picture of the Colfax family vineyards.

The small act of violence was strangely clarifying. For the first time since the Summer of Brinker, Quinn knew what he needed to do. It was time to grow up and become a man.

Jillian appeared in the doorway. She stared at the broken glass and the juice running down the wall. When she looked at him he saw the dread and fear in her eyes. His heart ached.

“What just happened in here?” she said. “Warner was leaving as I was coming in. He’s in a rage.”

“What happened is that I just quit my job. I won’t be working for Colfax Winery in the future. In fact, I won’t work for my father in any capacity whatsoever in the future.”

Jillian studied him for what seemed like forever. “What are you going to do?”

“I have no idea.” He took a deep breath and put it all on the line. “I’m walking away from everything, Jillian—the company, the winery, the money. I will understand if you don’t want to come with me.”

She moved into the room and closed the door. “Do you think I married you for the Colfax name and the Colfax money?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“I will tell you the truth,” Jillian said. “But first I need to tell you about the past.”

42

Mason was buckling the black leather belt of his jeans when his phone rang.

“Perfect timing,” he said to Lucy. He crossed the small space to the end table.

Lucy was in the process of buttoning her blouse over the lacy black bra. She smiled at him in the dresser mirror.

“You look good like that,” he said. He could feel his body heating again.

She tucked her blouse into the waistband of her trousers. Her eyes gleamed with sexy mischief.

“I look good dressed?” she asked.

“That way, too, but you look really, really good after hot sex. You’re all sort of pink and soft and cuddly.” He gave up trying to find the right words. “I don’t know. Good.”

The phone rang again. He glanced at the screen and his incipient arousal instantly metamorphosed into another kind of heat.

“What have you got for me, Aaron?”

“Maybe something,” Aaron said. “Maybe nothing.”

Lucy sat down on the bed to put on her shoes. The aged springs creaked loudly.

“Is there someone else with you?” Aaron asked. “Uncle Deke?”

“Lucy’s here,” Mason said. He was suddenly conscious of the fact that he was taking the call in his bedroom. “Never mind. Tell me what you’ve got.”

“Well, as we both predicted, what few financials I could find all appear to be clean. A little too clean. I had Alice look them over. Alice says they look fine, too. Actually, she said they look more than fine. They look surprisingly good, given the fluctuations in the market over the past few years. But here’s the kicker—two months ago one of the accountants at Colfax Inc. was let go with no notice. He just stopped showing up for work. Evidently, there were some social-media rumors going around at the time to the effect that he had been fired because he was caught embezzling.”

Mason watched Lucy bustle around the bedroom, tidying the tumbled bedding. She looked adorable. The old headboard scraped against the wall when she tucked in one corner of the sheet.

“What’s that?” Aaron asked.

“Nothing. Have you got anything else for me?”

“Alice highlighted the fired accountant as a red flag, even though it’s routine for companies to keep quiet about embezzlement problems. So I got curious and looked a little deeper. Turns out there were some other rumors buzzing around in a couple of Internet chat rooms where disgruntled employees from various financial firms hang out.”

“What kind of rumors?”

Lucy was tucking in the corners of the quilt now. The headboard groaned.

“Is Lucy moving furniture or something?” Aaron asked.

“Tell me about the rumors, Aaron.”

“Where are you guys?”

“At the cabin. The rumors. Now.”

“Oh, yeah, right, the rumors. There were some veiled references to Colfax Inc. from one member of the chat room. Alice and I both think there’s a high probability that the comments were posted by the fired accountant. He indicated that he had been forced out because he had uncovered some discrepancies in the company’s financials.”

“Go on.”

“According to him, when he took his concerns to management he was told someone would look into the matter. The following day the accountant was terminated without notice and given the impression that he was suspected of embezzlement. He was assured that no charges would be brought if he went quietly. He was escorted to his car by a security guard.”

“Any chance you can find the accountant?”

“I’ve got his address.”

Lucy walked past Mason and paused in the doorway. “I think I hear a car in the drive,” she whispered. “Probably Deke.”