Page 13 of Scarred Heart

My phone rang not five seconds after the text went through.“I told you it’s not an emergency,” I answered by way of greeting.“The last thing I need is a new bride on my ass for waking her husband up early on their honeymoon.”

Miles yawned, then snorted with laughter.“It’s not a problem.I’m jet-lagged to hell and back, anyway.What do you have for me?”

“I hate to do this to you on your honeymoon, but…” It was like ripping off a Band-Aid.Better to get it over with right away, all at once.“Honest to God, I hadn’t thought about her in years,” I concluded after giving him the condensed version of our history.“I wasn’t trying to keep it from you.”

He kept me waiting for what felt like an eternity before grunting.“I’m glad you told me about this.I take it no one else knows?”

“Not even my closest friends here in town.Only my father and his lawyer, and we never discussed it again.”As far as Dad was concerned, it never happened.He sent me to China to work in our shipping offices and washed his hands of the whole thing.

“And the girl,” Miles added.

“And her.”

“What are you going to do about her?Do you think she’s a threat?”

“Don’t worry about that,” I told him, gazing out the windows overlooking downtown.She was out there somewhere, going about her life the way she had all this time like I didn’t exist.

It bothered me more than it should have.

“Respectfully, I’m a little worried.”He sounded so damn British when he said it.

“We’ll be fine.She kept mentioning the contract, and she’s a lawyer.She knows better than to break a binding agreement.”Because, of course, Dad wouldn’t leave anything to chance.I’d been too fucked in the head at the time to think much about it—worried for Rowan, hating myself, guessing she hated me twice as much.I was unable to reach her, obsessed with finding her, always waiting for somebody to show up at the front door with a warrant for my arrest.It was only when he mentioned the agreement she’d signed that my fears cooled a little, but he’d immediately dropped the bomb about sending me to China to hedge our bets and keep my reputation intact.I was too relieved at the time to question it.

The whole thing made my head spin more than a decade later.

“Exactly what was in this contract?”

“To tell you the truth, I never saw it.”When he groaned, I continued, “If there’s one person my old man always had faith in, it was his lawyer.Jarvis Daniels.The man could work miracles, though I don’t think God or Heaven had much to do with it.”Speaking his name brought his image to mind.I had never seen him out of a dark suit like he was always on his way to a funeral.

“I suppose a lawyer would know better than to break a binding contract.”I couldn’t tell whether Miles was coming around or trying to convince himself.It didn’t matter either way.I knew what I was talking about, and that was enough for me.

“Go enjoy your honeymoon.I’ll keep you posted.”Setting the phone aside, I heaved a sigh.Dad and Jarvis had jumped through hoops to keep me from facing the consequences of that awful, reckless night.

After a frantic 911 call, I’d immediately called Dad, who’d ordered me to keep my mouth shut and wait for Jarvis to arrive.All it took was a horrific, completely avoidable crash and the unconscious, blood-covered girl beside me to turn an arrogant prick into a terrified little boy begging Daddy for help, imagining nothing but an empty life ahead of me, my name forever tainted.

It was hard to imagine how many people he paid off to keep me out of the narrative, remove my car from reports, and have reports destroyed altogether.He’d systematically covered up the entire thing.

But then again, there was nothing money couldn’t do.It had the power to make a person disappear the way I had disappeared, whether I liked it or not.At the time, thinking Rowan had to hate me and wished we had never met, leaving the country seemed to make sense.What else did I have to keep me in California?

I had taken the coward’s way out, and there was now a chance of it coming back to haunt us unless I found a way to make sure Rowan wouldn’t decide to retaliate.

* * *

“Is Miss McNulty available?I need to see her.”

The cute redhead behind the reception desk frowned ever so slightly.“Are you the gentleman who called earlier this morning asking for an appointment?”

“I am,” I told her, as if telling me Rowan was busy would make a damn bit of difference.

She sighed loud enough to get the point across.I was a pain in the ass she didn’t have time for.“Like I told you on the phone, she is in the middle of a conference and rarely accepts walk-in appointments, Mr.…”

“Collins.Spencer Collins.”I lowered my voice, cocking an eyebrow while delivering a slow smile that never failed.“Trust me.She’ll want to see me, and I won’t take up too much of her time.”

Her stony expression softened the way I knew it would.“I’ll see what I can do.”Still, she looked like she wished I had never walked through the door as she picked up her phone and dialed an extension.When it was clear I wasn’t going to do the gentlemanly thing and walk away, she turned slightly away in her chair, mumbling.

Rowan would see me.Not because she wanted to but because curiosity wouldn’t let her turn me down.She wouldn’t want me to think of her as a coward, either.Time might have changed some things, but it couldn’t change a person’s nature.There was a reason we clicked the way we did back in the day, and it wasn’t purely physical.Something in her had appealed to something in me.

Though the physical aspect was definitely there.

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