Page 50 of Intrigued
I jerked my head back. “Who?”
“I can’t tell you, but it’s not Dale. And so is Jasper. He’s spoken for, Holls.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head rapidly. I could not believe what I’d just heard. “He’s spoken for?” I was barely able to ask.
“I don’t know with who, but our family has debts.”
“What kind of debts?”
“I don’t know. That’s why you’re here. But I know you will give up on this if Jasper breaks your heart. And he will, Holls. He will.”
I didn’t know what to say. Hearing that made my insides feel as if they’d turned to a substance more solid than steel.
“He won’t.” I nodded firmly. “He can’t.” I meant that, which surprised the hell out of me. “Listen, do you know Arthur Valentine?”
“No, I don’t.” She shook her head. “But I know someone named Carter Valentine. He’s a friend of Jasper’s. He’s asked me out a few times, but I’m not interested.”
“Do you know anything else about him?”
She snorted sarcastically. “Nothing more than he’s the kind of rich prick that I try to stay away from.”
I wanted to tear into her for being the same old Bryn, who ignored a lot of the shit she should’ve been paying attention to, especially since my brain had put one and one together and come up with something she could’ve figured out a long time ago.
“One second,” I said then got up to get my phone out of my cocktail purse. I did a quick search for the family of Arthur Valentine. The results came up on my screen as soon as I sat back down. I held out my phone to Bryn. “Is this him?”
Instead of leaning forward to get a better look, she inclined herself back in her seat even more. “Yeah, that’s him.”
I sighed gravely. “Where’s Jasper?”
“He’s downstairs, sorting out Randolph’s passing,” she said as if her father dying were just an everyday occurrence.
“Your father died?”
She shrugged. “He was always dead to me.”
“Why do you hate him so much?”
“Because he doesn’t care about anyone but himself.”
“Didn’t,” I said.
She looked confused. “Didn’t what?”
“You were speaking about him as if he were alive.”
“Well, didn’t, doesn’t. I don’t give a damn, Holly. I don’t want to talk about him.”
I felt myself biting the inside of my cheek. That only happened when I was extremely anxious. I wanted to say more about Carter Valentine, but I also wanted to explore more of her father’s passing. Something was off. The sort of hate Bryn had toward him wasn’t normal.
She pointed to my cell phone. “So why did you show me a picture of Carter Valentine?”
I pinched my bottom lip, wondering what the hell was going on in this big creepy Christmas mansion. “Um…” I cleared my throat. My instincts told me to withhold what I knew from Bryn and perhaps heed Jasper’s warning about her. “His father is Arthur Valentine,” I whispered.
“Who’s Arthur Valentine?” she asked.
“You really don’t know him?”
“I wouldn’t be asking you if I did,” she snapped.
