Page 39 of Stranded with the Billionaire
“What do you mean his health?” Jake frowned and gave Creymarn a searching look.
“High blood pressure, diabetes, atherosclerosis,” the lawyer explained. “Time is not on your father’s side.”
This was the first time anyone had told Jake about this. Scowling, Jake thanked Creymarn and went to find out if he could get a visit with Michael today.
He was surprised to find Max waiting as well to speak to Michael.
“Jake!” Max extended a hand with a grin. “Good to see you.”
Jake shook Max’s hand in greeting. “How are things going?”
“Just came to visit Michael,” Max sobered as he thought about his brother being held in prison. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Do you mind if I tag along?” Jake asked. “I have a couple of questions I’d like answered.”
“Sure,” Max responded in his usual easy way. “I don’t have a problem with it if the prison guys don’t.”
They both signed in to see Michael. A guard led them to a room where they would wait.
“So you were in a plane crash?” Max whistled. “That must have been some fun.”
“Not really,” Jake said shortly. He really didn’t want to talk about his excursion on the mountain with Sterling.
“Dillon told me he had a visitor yesterday. He was debating whether to talk to you or not about her,” Max studied his watch like it held the answers to the universe.
Jake knew that when Max was like this he wanted his audience to draw the answers out of him. Jake didn’t feel like being a cooperative audience, especially when he suspected that Sterling had been the one to visit Dillon.
Although why she would be going to talk to Dillon, Jake didn’t know. He frowned and waited for Max to get impatient enough to continue because Jake wasn’t going to ask.
Max rolled his eyes. “You are stubborn.”
“Always have been,” Jake responded with a frown. It was a family trait. He took a seat, pretending that he didn’t care.
“Sterling Denver came by to give a piece of her mind,” Max announced, unable to wait for Jake to say anything. “I wonder why she would do that?”
“Since Dillon told you all about it, I’m taking that as a rhetorical question,” Jake muttered. He looked at his own watch and wished the guard would hurry up.
“You tanked her career,” Max looked at Jake with some awe. “What did she do that was so bad that she can’t get another job in the print industry?”
Jake gave Max a hard look. “She’s dragged this family through the mud with that tabloid of hers. Enough was enough.”
“She hasn’t done any worse than the other tabloids,” Max raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to buy all the papers up and disband them? Even you aren’t that rich.”
Jake bit back a caustic response. It wasn’t Max’s fault how things had happened and he wasn’t going to take his feelings out on his cousin. “I had just cause.”
“Really?” Max persisted. “You knocked her down pretty hard.”
“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” he responded, trying to sound disinterested.
“I don’t think so,” Max frowned as he contemplated Jake. “I did a little research. Blacklisting someone is illegal.”
“So is price fixing but we know that large corporations do that all the time,” Jake shrugged it off and tried not to feel guilty.
“What did she do that was so bad?” Max genuinely wanted to know.
“She lied to me,” Jake reluctantly said. He hardened his heart against the feeling of hurt that talking about Sterling provoked. He didn’t want to talk about her, or even think about her.
Max whistled again as he studied Jake. “You fell in love with her.”
