Page 73 of Pay the Price

“Yep, I’m here.”

“I’ve got that information for you,” the person said on the other end of the phone.

I gave Natalie a wave and continued to the kitchen. I was washing out my coffee cup and already thinking about my workout at the gym when I sensed a presence in the room.

I stopped cold, water still running from the sink, my cup still in my hand as Gray leaned against the counter just a couple of feet away. I’d avoided being in a room alone with him since the incident at the Mill, but now here he was, standing two feet away, hate burning in his eyes.

I squared my shoulders and hurried to rinse the soap off my cup. “Hey.”

I couldn’t manage friendly, but I’d tried to be civil during the rare occasions when we’d been forced to interact. I liked my job at Cantwell. I was learning a lot, the money came in handy, and now that the resort was under construction, the possibility of sitting in on meetings with the design team dangled like a juicy carrot in front of my nose.

“Crazy we’re officially under construction, right?” he asked.

His tone was friendly enough, so I played along. “Definitely. Do you think we’ll meet the date?”

Out of earshot of Piers, Natalie had grumbled about the proposed opening date, calling itaggressivewhen she was in a good mood andinsanewhen she wasn’t.

“We’ll meet it,” Gray said. “We have a triple crew working almost around the clock.”

Of course they did. They had tons of money tied up in the property. I was sure they’d want to see it turn a profit sooner rather than later.

“It’s exciting to see it actually happening,” I said, turning off the water.

This was fine. Grayson Cantwell was a total douchebag, a sexual assaulter, but being at work would be a lot more pleasant if we could be civil, if my heart didn’t race (in a bad way) in hispresence and I didn’t have to fight the rising tide of panic in my body every time he was in the room.

“It is,” he said. “Your sister seemed excited too.”

“My… sister?”

He nodded. “At the ground-breaking party. We talked for a long time. She’s really smart for her age.”

I caught a hint of something in the last part of his comment:for her age.

Excitement? Triumph? Like he knew she was just a kid, knew it would push my buttons to talk about her like she wasn’t.

I turned to face him, the dripping cup still in my hand. “Yeah well, she’s only fifteen. Sounds like you know that.”

He nodded. “Totally. But we like nurturing…young talentat Cantwell.”

“Young talent?”

“Yeah, we have all kinds of internships and stuff.” His words were light, his tone casual, but his eyes were cold. “I mean, look at you!”

“I’m twenty,” I said.

“Fifteen, twenty.” He shrugged. “Whatever.”

“No,” I said, matching the coldness in his voice. “It’s not whatever. Ruth is a kid.”

He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I get you. It’s good that you’re protective of your little sister. I’ll be a perfect gentleman when I give her the tour.” He held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

“What tour?”

“The tour of the construction site. She seems really interested in how the place is going to be laid out, especially how the private villas are being built in the woods around the main hotel and spa.” He shrugged. “I told her I’d give her a tour. Seems only right to…nurtureher natural curiosity.”

Two months ago I might have slinked off in fear, lost sleep over what he was saying.

What he was threatening.

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