The Bad Boy

She’d known Alex long enough to realize that when he hadn’t been in the study with his father, awaiting the arrival of the first of his half brothers to be brought home, then there was only one place he could be on such a monumental—not to mention potentially emotionally difficult—day.

The stables.

If he didn’t have such a love of and an innate knack for corporate business, she’d bet Alex would have focused entirely on breeding and racing Thoroughbreds. As it was, he could spend no more time on it than one would a hobby, but she’d seen plenty of proof that being around the horses relaxed him, maybe even soothed him, the way nothing else could.

He’d spent the past two days—since the reading of Marcus’s will—out here, not going to the office at all.

Very, very telling as far as Sara was concerned, and her already besieged heart ached for him.

She continued down the walkway, passing through the honeysuckle arch that provided a visual and aromatic buffer between the house and the stables, but the sharp, sweet scent of the buff-yellow flowers and the subtle buzzing of bees did nothing to calm her nerves. She didn’t want to think about what she’d do if Alex was too upset to listen to her about Cooper.

She entered the stable through the wide doorway on the closest end of the long, low structure, built to match The Big House, with redbrick, white shutters and a miniature version of the white dome. Pulling in a lungful of the earthy, straw-and-horse-scented air that was such a contrast to the flowers outside, she looked immediately to the stall where Alex’s favorite saddle horse, a former racer retired to an easier life, was kept.

The big bay was there, but his attention lay firmly on the tack room across from him on Sara’s right, just inside the stable door. Sure enough, through the interior window she could see Alex, dressed for riding and replacing the cheek strap on a bridle at the workbench.

She stepped into the small room, the stable smells usurped by the heady scent of well-oiled leather. “Alex, I need to talk to you.”

He turned enough to glance at her, but then went back to what he was doing. She’d known him all her life, like a cousin if not a brother, but she’d never seen him look the way he did—weary, disillusioned. It was little wonder. Good heavens, to find out you were actually your brother’s son?

“What can I do for you, Sara?”

She couldn’t speak for a moment, stunned even more by Alex and Cooper’s similarities, despite the four-year difference in their ages. Alex’s black hair was shorter than Cooper’s, so she’d never really noticed it was equally thick and glossy, though not enough to make her fingers itch to burrow into it as Cooper’s did. Alex also had the same strong, square jaw and well-proportioned nose Cooper possessed, as well as a similar build.

How could these two men grow up in the same town and no one notice their resemblance?

Because the improbable rarely occurred to people. They were of different worlds. Plus, Joseph had worked hard to establish himself as the symbol of high moral standards in town, so any connection would have seemed impossible. But clearly Marcus hadn’t followed his father’s standards, at least in private. He’d been so much older and traveled so often that she really hadn’t been that well-acquainted with him. Maybe he’d been secretly lashing out at his father. Or overexcelling at the one thing he was good at—charming women—though too self-absorbed to consider the consequences.

When she still hadn’t said anything, Alex turned to her again, a familiar black eyebrow arched, though not quite as high or as sardonically. His eyes also had more gray in them, which softened the blue, and his mouth wasn’t quite as sensuous. Or tempting. At least to her. She’d known him too long, too closely, to be attracted to him.

“Sara?”

She blinked a few times to focus. “I’m sorry. I’m just a little stunned. You and Cooper Anders look a lot alike.”

His mouth hardened and he went back to working on the bridle. “So he’s here?”

She took a step nearer. “Yes. I just left him and your father.”

He stilled. “You mean my grandfather.”

She cringed at her mistake. To change a lifetime’s way of thinking would take effort. So much in their lives had changed. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “This must be very diffi—”

“Were you sent to fetch me? Because if you were, I’m busy.” His posture was stiff, and his tone was as sharp as Joseph’s had been when he’d reprimanded her.

But this was Alexander, whom she’d played with in the small lake on the property on sweltering summer days and who’d kept a stash of tissues in his pocket for her in the weeks following her father’s death. She planted her hands on her hips. “I swear, if one more person interrupts me today…”

He glanced at her, eyebrows raised curiously, then away.

She inhaled deeply and tried to calm down. “That’s not why I came to find you. Joseph understands your…your…” She trailed off, not wanting to put to words his obvious turmoil. That would not be the way to secure his help. “I’m here because I need to talk to you. About Cooper.” His name alone was enough to bring the heat back to her cheeks and the dampness back to her palms. Damn the man for rattling her so.

“What about him? Is he buying stuff already? Beats winning the lottery, if you ask me. He doesn’t have to wait all that long to get his money.” Alexander looked at her over his shoulder, his lip curled into an expression she’d never seen on him. “I imagine he’s in hog heaven.”

Thinking of a similar expression on Cooper’s face—a contempt born of hurt and betrayal—she shook her head adamantly. “No. Just the opposite. When I took his letter to him this morning he told me he plans to ruin the company.”

Alex heaved a sigh and faced her. “He plans to ruin the company? Why in the world would he say something like that?”

“He says he’s known since he was thirteen that he was Marcus’s son.”

Alex’s brows shot up.

She repeated what Cooper had told her on the county-jail steps—nearly word for word, because she really was a very good listener.

By the time she’d finished Alex was rubbing his temple. “Why didn’t you tell my da—my grandfather this?”

She heaved a similar sigh, unaccustomed to being brushed aside by the man who’d given her a top spot in the company despite her being only thirty. But Alexander had been needed to fill Marcus’s shoes while Marcus gallivanted around doing client relations. Now, there was a euphemism.

“I did. Sort of.” She pointed toward the house. “But he got to Joseph before me.”

“He?”

“Cooper. He arrived at the house first after I’d bailed him out of jail.”

“Jail?”

“Yes. The county lockup. Alison Sullivan—the private investigator Joseph hired—had been on her way out of town early this morning to deliver the Colorado letter—”

A muscle twitched in Alex’s jaw at her offhand mention of yet another half brother.

Sara swallowed and forged on. “When she noticed Cooper’s truck in the parking lot of a bar that should have been closed, and people were hauling broken chairs out the door. Clearly, there had been a ruckus of some kind. She stopped to check it out and was told that Cooper had been one of the people arrested last night for being involved in a fight at the bar. Joseph thought it best if I went immediately to get him out as discreetly as possible and give him his letter rather than waiting until the other letters were delivered.”

Alex closed his eyes and shook his head. “Jail. Beautiful.”

“Anyway, he gave Joseph some cock-and-bull story about telling me he was worried his inexperience would cause the company harm. Now Joseph thinks I just misunderstood Cooper.”

Alex leaned back against the workbench. “Could you have?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and raised her chin. “No. Absolutely not. He was very succinct.”

“Fine. So what would you have me do about it?”

She let her arms fall to her sides again, confused about why he’d ask such a question when the solution was obvious. “Stop him!” What was with these McCoy men?

“How?”

She started to pace, sorely limited by the small size of the tack room. “I don’t know…keep him from going to work for McCoy Enterprises or something.” Maybe that would protect the company her father had helped build at Joseph’s side.

Alexander shook his head again and turned back to the workbench to resume fixing the bridle. “Marcus’s will was equally succinct, Sara. Cooper is to be given a job at McCoy Enterprises befitting a ‘Real McCoy.’ We couldn’t keep him from the company even if we wanted to.”

She wrapped her arms around her middle to still her churning stomach. “Then what do you suggest we do about him?”