Page 140 of The Rebel

She nodded. “Yeah … about that.” Her hand dropped to her side, and her neck tilted back so she could look at me. “Wait, what about my brother? Did he do something?”

“You haven’t read your email?”

“I … no.”

She hadn’t read her email.

Her skin was red, her eyes glossy, she’d left work early—every goddamn alarm was going off in my head.

This wasn’t like her.

Rowan was usually the one who told me about the emails that came in, not the other way around, because she read them much sooner than me.

“Today has been”—she glanced behind her, into the foyer, as though someone were standing at her back, and then her eyes returned to me—“different.” She swallowed. “Tell me about Rhett. At least I’m assuming you’re talking about Rhett.” Even though I was holding her, she took a few steps back, moving out of my grip.

I followed her. “The asshole sent us and the entire executive team his findings on the land in Lake Louise and how, in his opinion, we could have built the full-sized hotel that we originally planned.”

Still walking, she paused halfway to the kitchen. “He sent us that info …now?”

“And felt the need to bash the contractor we’d hired, which we’d only done because your brother left us high and dry. Not to mention, the results of the soil testing contradict everything Rhett said in his email.”

“I don’t understand.” When she shook her head, her hair got caught in her eyelashes. “He knows we’ve already purchased the land in downtown Banff and we’ve moved forward with the plans to build two hotels.”

That summary alone made my blood pressure skyrocket.

“Why would he do that?” she asked.

I pushed the hair off each side of her face. “To make me irate. It worked.”

Her gaze shifted between my eyes. Back and forth. Multiple times. “Cooper, when will this end?” Her tone was the softest it had been since I’d arrived.

I had the same question.

“I’m terrified it’s not going to and then …” Her voice trailed off.

So, this was what was bothering her.

What was causing her to be so quiet, her skin to be flushed.

That bastard got to her as much as he got to me.

I needed to put a stop to this.

But first, I needed to get Rowan to relax.

I remembered one of the ways I’d done that in Canada. Fortunately, the bathtub in her en suite was even bigger than the one had been in my hotel room, and this one would easily fit both of us.

I held the sides of her face. “I’m going to fix this. I promise.” My words bounced right off her; her eyes didn’t change, and neither did the red in her skin. “But first, I want you to stay right here, okay? Don’t move.”

I took the flowers out of her hand and brought them into the kitchen. The first spot of counter I came to was the island, and that was where I set the arrangement, directly next to a small plastic bag. I wasn’t sure why the bag was holding my focus, but I couldn’t look away from it.

Not when the bag was wide open, revealing a box inside.

A box that …

Fuck.

It can’t be.

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