Page 71 of Angel In Armani

The smile vanished from the older man’s face. “She’s my daughter. I don’t want to see her hurt.” Sean swigged the beer again.

“I don’t intend to hurt her,” Lucas said.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

“So I hear. That doesn’t change mine.”

“Why are you even messing around with someone like Sara?”

“What does that mean?”

“I know who you are,” Sean said. “Sara’s not much on baseball and, honestly, neither am I, but with this goddamned leg there’s not much I can do every day and I had plenty of time to read all about you and your pals when you bought the Saints.”

“Don’t believe everything you read in the papers.”

“I don’t. But I doubt they got the part about your family wrong, did they? You come from money, don’t you? The big old kind of money?”

“My family has money, yes.” Lucas said. “But I don’t see what that has to do with me and Sara.”

Sean’s eyes—a steelier version of his daughter’s—narrowed. “You said Sara didn’t tell you about Jamie? About the way he died?”

“No, sir.” Lucas braced himself. He got the feeling he wasn’t going to like this part of the conversation.

“Jamie was a pilot, too,” Sean said. “Damned good one. Though Sara could probably outfly him now. She learned some tricks in the army. Sneaky stuff.”

“She’s an excellent pilot,” Lucas said. “That’s why I hired her.”

“Yes. Well. So was my son. And he used to work for me as well. Doing the tourist runs over Manhattan. Flying rich types around.”

“Isn’t that what charter pilots do?”

“Yes it is. But what they shouldn’t do is fall in love with their clients. Or in lust. Whichever.” Sean waved a hand in the air. “Jamie got involved with a girl whose dad used to charter us. He hid it from me, knew I didn’t agree with mixing business with pleasure. I don’t know whether Sara knew.”

“How old was he?”

“Twenty-two.”

“That’s pretty young,” Lucas said. “Everyone does dumb things when they’re young.”

“I know. I did my share of idiotic crap when I was his age. But I survived it. Jamie didn’t.”

The bleakness in his voice made Lucas wince. He had his ups and downs with his family, but he definitely didn’t want to think about losing any of them. “Do you mind if I ask what happened?”

“He was out with this girl—Callie, her name was—and they were drinking. She ran her fool Porsche convertible off the road. And the car flipped. She was thrown free. Jamie wasn’t. His neck broke.”

“He died.”

“Not straightaway. There was someone driving right behind them. They called the paramedics and both of them made it to hospital. She broke some bones, too, but nothing serious. Jamie—” Sean broke off, lips pressed together. Then he drained the rest of his beer. “Jamie never woke up. Traumatic brain injury, they call it. Along with the neck. We turned off the life support after a few weeks.”

“And the girl?”

“She went home after a week or so. As far as I know, she was fine.”

“Did she get charged with anything?”

“Reckless driving. But her family lawyered up and she got off with community service. Seeing as she was so young and all. No priors, apparently.”

“That’s horrible,” Lucas said. “An injustice.”

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