Descended (The Red Blindfold Book 3) by Rose Devereux Page A

back to the company that needed me, I was wasting precious
time trying to figure out how a blue-eyed stunner had walked out of
an ugly Chimayo afternoon and straight into my life.
    But now that I knew
nobody was looking for her, all I felt was relief. Relief and the
crazy urge to drive back to the house at Nascar speeds to see her.
    It was tough to admit but damnit, it
was the truth. Every day Jane stayed lost was another day she got to
stay with me.
    Sitting in my truck in
the station parking lot, I called every hospital in a two-hundred
mile radius to ask if any female patients had left without being
discharged. I’d never heard the word no so many times in one day, not since I’d tried to get investment for
my first pool hall.
    No, you’re too young.
No, you’ve got a record. No, your ideas will never work.
    I remembered how close
I’d been to fulfilling Elijah’s shitty prediction about me. If it
hadn’t been for Brooke Marshall’s father, I might still be a
self-taught shark with a dream and a pile of ill-gotten gains in the
bank.
    If Brooke knew what I
was dealing with down here, she wouldn’t like it one bit. Not just
because her father only invested in people he considered “above
board” with “impeccable reputations.” She was still in love
with me, as hard and as often as she tried to deny it.
    It didn’t help that
she worked for me and saw me every day. But that had been a condition
of the investment: give the woman who’d never had to work a day in
her life a job she wasn’t qualified for, simply because she liked
the title. I’d surrounded her with competent people to keep her
from screwing up too much, but what I hadn’t been able to do was
change her attitude. That rich-girl sense of entitlement that rankled
every time I looked at her.
    Some of us had come up
from nothing. Some of us still worked our asses off like there was a
wolf at the door, because we knew someday, there might be.
    I owed Brooke a lot, I
knew that. If she hadn’t vouched for me, her father never would
have given me a dime, let alone millions. I had to admit, she’d
done a bang-up job of explaining things that made me look like a very
bad bet. Articles online, rumors, grainy photographs taken in bars.
    When I’d first met
Scott, I was an ambitious, win-at-any-cost professional gambler with
a felon for a father and a taste for the fast life. Now I was a
success story, the reformed bad boy who mixed in polite society and
collected wine and sculpture.
    But since I’d decided
to expand the company to other states, my tie to Brooke and Scott
felt more like a stranglehold. I didn’t like being controlled by
anybody, no matter how much they’d done for me. I’d paid Scott
back ten times over, and as far as I was concerned, the debt was
settled. Any future investment would require only that I work
tirelessly for the company I’d built.
    As for Brooke, her
position at Cougan Inc. needed to be renegotiated. Immediately.
    I had unfinished
business that I’d let linger way too long. Meeting Jane made me
want to wrap up loose ends, turn over a new leaf, and God knew what
other clichés.
    She was the kind of woman who could
change a man for the better just by being around. Trouble was, I knew
she wouldn’t be around for long.
    When I woke, Drex was
gone.
    Along with a still-hot
pot of coffee, there was a note on the kitchen island. Gone
to take care of some business. Back in the afternoon.
    If he’d gone to the
police, it was too late to stop him. Even if I’d tried, he wouldn’t
have listened.
    As I filled a mug, I
knew I should feel bad about what had happened on the counter, the
table, and Drex’s bed. But I didn’t. Whatever I’d done, I’d
done it because I wanted to live and be happy.
    I didn’t know what
past was waiting for me, but Drex was right – we only had today.
The hospital had found nothing wrong, but what if they’d missed
something? What if I had a month to live, or less? Shouldn’t I
enjoy the time