Page 6 of The Acquisition

Colter smacked my ass. "Don't be a brat or we will start with that spanking I've been promising you."

I clucked my tongue. "Promises, promises. Is that all you've got for me, just empty promises?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Just get dressed. I found some of my sister Waverly's clothes in the other guest room. I think they will fit you."

"Yes, boss," I mocked him.

His eyes flared. "Run, Jana. I've only got so much self-control and you are grating every shred of it. I want to get this out of the way before I move on to more pleasurable diversions later."

"What is this?" I asked, trying to actually be serious.

"I've set up a meeting with my lawyer. I'm not going to let your father take everything from you."

This time I did turn and run. Colter confused me. I had a feeling very little of his public persona was actually true. Despite having known him for years, I was starting to realize I didn't really know Colter Greyson at all. What really scared me was how badly I was starting to want to.

THREE

COLTER

"Thanks for meeting us on such short notice, Caroline," I greeted my lawyer.

Caroline placed her hand on my arm. "Anything for my best client."

Jana forced a smile. "I think I'm the client this time."

"Caroline Cartwright, this is Jana Easton, the friend I mentioned this morning."

Caroline nodded. "Nice to meet you, Jana. If you would both follow me into my office, we can go over the details of your trust fund and figure out a plan to recover your assets."

There was a stack of documents laid out on her desk. She uncapped a designer pen and offered it to Jana. "These are agreements of representation. If you would take a moment to look over these and sign them, I'm going to speak to Colter for a minute about another matter."

Jana took the pen and began reading the contract. While she was occupied I followed Caroline into the hallway.

Halfway down the hallway she stopped. "I have the accountants going over every scrap of evidence we could gather about Easton Corp. It doesn't look good, but we've only had a couple hours, so it's probably only going to get worse."

I looked back down the hallway to where Jana was signing papers. "What do you mean?"

Caroline sighed. "I really shouldn't be talking to you about this because there's so much we don't know yet."

"Tell me what you suspect then," I demanded.

"It appears the company was used as collateral for another investment. If that investment doesn't pay off soon then the company is going to go under. The forensic accountants are still trying to determine how much of Maxwell Easton's assets have been leveraged. From what it looks like, most of the assets that have been put against the loan are Jana's."

"Get to the bottom of it, and file whatever needs to be filed to get this stopped."

"That goes without saying, Colter. My team is going to need some time though. Certainly more than a few hours."

We went back to her office just as Jana was putting the cap on the pen.

Caroline took the contracts from her. "We'll go on and get started."

"Do you need anything else from me?" Jana asked.

"No, not at the moment at least. We should know more in a few days," Caroline replied.

"Thanks," I said. I turned to Jana. "Come on, let's go get some coffee."

She was quiet on the way out to the car. I opened her door expecting her to get in, but she crossed her arm across her chest and stood her ground. "Do you have anything to tell me?"

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