Unfinished Business

“I get it. Times are tough for you. But I need that money. You’re going to have to figure out how to get it for me or times are going to get even tougher for you and your pretty baby sister.” He patted her cheek and she flinched a second time. “You hear what I’m saying?”

“I hear.”

“And?”

“I’ll get you what I can.” As difficult as it would be to give up her financial cushion and postpone moving Lansing Employment Agency into a bigger, fancier office, she’d make the sacrifice if it meant keeping Brody out of her and Hailey’s life. “Now, get out.”

Brody laughed and headed for the front door.

Rachel followed him across the room and slid the deadbolt home before his tasseled loafers reached her front walk. She didn’t realize how loud her heart thundered in her ears until Hailey spoke. She had trouble hearing her sister’s apology.

“He must have followed me home from work,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. We weren’t going to hide from him forever.”

“We’ve managed for four years.”

“Only because he never came looking.” Rachel sat down on the recliner’s arm and hugged her sister. Hailey was shaking. Her confident, bright sister had been alone with Brody and afraid. “Why did you open the door to him?”

“He followed me into the house when I came home from work. I didn’t realize he was there until he shoved me inside.”

Rachel rested her cheek on her sister’s head. “I’m sorry I didn’t get home sooner.”

Hailey shrugged her off. “Why do you owe him fifty thousand dollars?”

“I borrowed some money to start up the employment agency.” It was a lie, but Rachel didn’t want her sister to worry. The burden was hers and hers alone.

“Why would you do that?” Hailey demanded. “You know how he is.”

Rachel shrugged. “No bank is going to lend a high school graduate with big ideas and a sketchy business plan the sort of money I needed. Besides, he owed me something for the five years I put up with him.” She tried to reassure her sister with a smile, but Hailey had regained her spunk now that Brody was gone.

“Those years were worth a lot more than fifty thousand.” Hailey levered herself out of the chair and whirled to confront Rachel. Her brows launched themselves at each other. “What are we going to do? How are we going to come up with the fifty grand?” Hailey’s pitch rose as her anxiety escalated.

Rachel stood and took her sister’s cold hands to rub warmth back into them. “There is no we, Hales. It was my decision to borrow the money and it’s my debt to repay.”

“But—”

“No.” Rachel gave her head an emphatic shake and stood. She could out-stubborn her sister any day. “You are not going to worry about this.”

“You never let me worry about anything,” Hailey complained. “Not how we were going to get by after Aunt Jesse took off, not paying for college, not anything.”

“I’m your big sister. It’s my job to take care of you.”

“I’m twenty-six years old,” Hailey asserted, her tone aggrieved. “I don’t need you to take care of me anymore. Why won’t you let me help?”

“You already helped. You graduated from college with straight As and got a fabulous job at one of Houston’s top CPA firms. You pay for half the groceries, do almost all the cooking and even your own laundry.” Rachel grinned to hide the way her mind was already furiously working on a solution to the Brody problem. “I couldn’t ask for more. Besides, once I pay Brody the money, he’ll be out of our lives once and for all.”

“But how are you going to come up with the money?”

“I’ll try to get a bank loan. They might not have been willing to loan me money four years ago when I was starting up, but Lansing Employment Agency has a profitable track record now.”

Perched on a guest chair in the loan officer’s small cubicle, Rachel knew from the expression on the man’s face what was coming.

“Economic times have hit us hard, Ms. Lansing.” For the last four days she’d been listening to similar rhetoric, a broken record of no’s. “Our small business lending is down to nothing. I wish I had better news for you.”

“Thank you, anyway.” She forced a smile and stood. A quick glance at her watch told her she’d run over her allotted hour lunch break.

This morning she’d wired her twenty-five thousand dollar nest egg to her lawyer with instructions to give the money to Brody. For the last five years, she’d been paying him ten thousand a year, double what she’d agreed to in their divorce settlement. Reimbursement for a debt she didn’t owe. Punishment for divorcing him. No, Rachel amended, punishment for marrying him in the first place.

Returning to the Case Consolidated Holding offices, she slid into her desk and shoved her purse into a bottom drawer a second before Max’s scowl peered at her from his office.

“You’re late.”

Rachel sighed. “Sorry. It won’t happen again. Did you need something?”

“I need you to be at your desk for eight hours.”

She tried again. “Something specific?”

“Get Chuck Weaver on the phone. Tell him I needed his numbers three hours ago.”

“Right away.”

As she was dialing, her cell started to ring. Since Chuck wasn’t answering, she hung up without leaving a voice mail and answered her mobile phone.

Brody’s voice rasped in her ear. “Did you get the money?”

“I wired twenty-five thousand to my lawyer this morning.”

“I said fifty.”

Demanding bastard. “It’s all I could get.” She kept her voice low to keep from being overheard. “You’ll just have to be happy with that.”

“Happy?” He chuckled, the sound low and forced. “You don’t seem to get it. I need the whole fifty thousand now.”

“I get it,” she said. “You’ve been on a losing streak.”

She hadn’t known about his gambling until the second year of their marriage. A shouting match between him and his father clued her in to his destination when he vanished on the weekends. Frankly, she’d been disappointed. She’d thought he was having an affair. Had hoped he’d fallen in love with someone else and would ask for a divorce.

“That’s none of your business.”

“You need to get some help.”

“You need to get me the rest of my money.” He disconnected the call.

Rachel blew out a breath and pushed back from her desk. She had to clear her head. It wasn’t until she stood up that she realized someone watched her. Max wore an inscrutable expression, but his shoulders bunched, tension riding him hard. He had the sexy overworked COO look going today. Coat off, shirt sleeves rolled up and baring muscled forearms. She stared at his gold watch to keep her gaze from wandering to his strong hands, and her mind from venturing into the memory of how gently he’d caressed her skin.

“Chuck Weaver wasn’t in his office,” she said, burying her shaking hands in her pockets. “I’m going to run to the ladies room. I’ll have him paged when I get back.”