Page 69 of Summer Weddings
“It isn’t clear who hired the woman,” Christian admitted, “but odds are it’s Mariah.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I do!” Christian snapped. “I swear to you Mariah’s been looking for a way to do me in from the moment she got here. First off, she tried to cripple me.”
“She didn’t mean to push that filing cabinet on your foot.”
“Is that a fact? I don’t suppose you noticed how perfect her aim was, did you? She’s been a thorn in my side from day one. Nowthis.”
“Seems to me you’re getting sidetracked,” Ben said. He didn’t want to hear another litany of Mariah’s supposed sins, not when there was other, juicier information to extract. “We were discussing the attorney, remember?”
Christian plowed all ten fingers though his hair. “The lawyer’s name is Tracy Santiago. She flew in from some highfalutin firm in Seattle. Let me tell you, I’ve seen sharks with duller teeth. This woman’s after blood, and from the sound of it, she wants mine.”
“And you think Mariah sent for her?” Ben asked doubtfully.
“I don’t know what to think anymore. Santiago’s here, and when she’s through discussing the details of the lawsuit with Mariah, she wants to talk to the others. To Sally McDonald and Angie Hughes.” He referred to the two most recent arrivals—Sally, who worked at the town’s Power and Light company, and Angie, who’d been hired as an administrative and nursing assistant to Dottie. Both of them were living in the house owned by Catherine Fletcher—Matt and Lanni Caldwell’s grandmother.
“Are you going to let her?”
Christian raised his eyes until they were level with Ben’s. “I can’t stop her, can I? But then, I don’t think a freight train would slow this Santiago woman down.”
“Where is she now? Your office?” Ben asked, craning his neck to look out the window. The mobile office of Midnight Sons was parked next to the airfield, within sight of the café. He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“Yeah, I had to get out of there before I said something I’d regret,” Christian confessed. “I feel bad about abandoning Duke, but he seemed to be holding his own.”
“Duke?”
“Yeah. Apparently he flew her in without knowing her purpose for coming. He made the fatal mistake of thinking she might’ve been one of the women I hired. Santiago let him know in no uncertain terms who and what she was. By the time they landed, the two of them were at each other’s throats.”
That they’d been able to discuss anything during the flight was saying something, given how difficult it was to be heard above the roar of the engines.
“If I were this attorney,” Christian said thoughtfully, “I’d think twice before messing with Duke.”
Ben had to work hard to keep the smile off his face. When a feminist attorney tangled with the biggest chauvinist Ben had ever met, well…the fur was guaranteed to fly.
The door opened. Christian looked up and groaned, then covered his face with his hands again.
Ben turned around and saw that it was Mariah. He lumbered to his feet, reached for the coffeepot and returned to the counter.
“Mr. O’Halloran,” the secretary said as she timidly approached him.
“How many times,” Christian demanded, “have I asked you to call me by my first name? In case you haven’t noticed, there are three Mr. O’Hallorans in this town, and two of us happen to spend a lot of time together in the same office.”
“Christian,” she began a second time, her voice quavering slightly. “I want you to know I had nothing to do with Ms. Santiago’s arrival.”
“Yeah, right.”
Mariah clenched her hands at her sides. “I didn’t know anything about her,” she insisted, “and I certainly had nothing to do with hiring her.”
“Then who did?”
Ben watched as Mariah closed her eyes and swallowed hard. When she spoke again, her voice was a low whisper. “I suspect it was my dad. He must’ve talked to her about my being here.”
“And why, pray tell, would he do that?” Christian asked coldly.
Mariah went pale. “Would you mind very much if I sat down?”
The look Christian threw her said he would. After an awkward moment, he gestured curtly toward the seat across from him.
