“Only the loan to McKinley.”
“Shit.”
Alex’s tone was harsh. “What the hell is going on, Nate?”
“Cranston’s flashing a power of attorney signed by those two women.”
That didn’t make any sense. None at all. “Hang on.” Alex covered the receiver.
Emma was watching him with an impatient look of confusion.
He kept his voice even. It had to be a mistake, or maybe a forgery. “Nathaniel says David Cranston has a power of attorney.”
She drew back on the bed, shifting the covers away. “For what?”
“Did you sign anything for him?”
She shook her head. “No.” Then she stopped shaking and her eyes narrowed. “Wait. There was one thing. An authorization to redecorate a bed-and-breakfast in Knaresborough. It’s a tiny little place. Nothing important.”
Alex returned to the phone. “She says all he can do is redecorate some bed-and-breakfast.”
“It’s not redecorating. And it’s not a bed-and-breakfast. The man is authorized to sell any and all McKinley properties. He’s cutting a deal with Murdoch and DreamLodge. For an obscene commission.”
“How do you know-don’t answer that.” Alex went back to Emma. “Did you read it carefully?”
Her eyes went wide, and her face paled.
“Did you read it at all?”
“We’d already talked about it…” Her features pinched, and her hands fisted around the blanket. “With the wedding and all…I signed so many stacks of paper.”
He let out a pithy swearword.
“Yeah,” said Nathaniel. “Now you’re catching on. You get your ass on a plane.”
Alex glanced to the rain battered window and the pitch black beyond. “Can you stall?”
“I’ve already put his entire legal team on retainer, had them declare a conflict of interest, and forced him to find new attorneys. You don’t want to know what that cost me.”
“Did you talk to Katie.”
“Hell, yes.”
“Can she stop it?”
“Not without Emma.”
Alex closed his eyes and willed the wind and rain to stop. “We’ll be there as soon as humanly possible.”
“Get here now.” The line went dead.
Alex set down the phone.
“Alex?” Emma whispered hoarsely.
He stared at her. There was no easy way to say this. “David is trying to sell the Kayven Island Resort.”
She blinked back in silence. “Why?”
Alex’s stomach clenched to walnut size.
Why?
Because its value is about to rise to half a billion dollars.
Sorry I forgot to mention that before you married me.
Emma understood the words “trying to sell Kayven Island.” It was the meaning that eluded her.
David was redecorating in Knaresborough. And, as far as she knew, hadn’t had anything to do with the Kayven Island property.
“Why would he do that?” she repeated into the rain-dotted silence. She got that something was wrong. But she couldn’t get the puzzle pieces to connect inside her head.
“For a big, fat commission from Murdoch.” Alex raked a hand through his hair. “Why didn’t Katie see-”
“Back up,” said Emma, clambering off the bed and shrugging into one of the hotel robes. “Murdoch?”
Alex’s eyes went hard as granite. “Murdoch bribed David to find a way to sell him Kayven Island.”
“He wanted it that bad?” Sure it was a nice resort, but it served a small niche market. It commanded steep rates, so it was often half empty. Nobody was getting rich off Kayven Island anytime soon.
A muscle clenched near Alex’s right eye. He grabbed his boxers and retrieved a pair of slacks from the closet. “We have to get to the airport.”
“In this?”
“It’ll let up eventually. As soon as there’s a break in the ceiling, we’re taking off.”
“But what did Nathaniel say?”
Alex seemed completely serious about heading for the airport, so Emma discarded the robe and pulled on a cotton dress.
“Just what I told you,” said Alex.
“You haven’t told me anything.”
Keeping his back to her, he moved around the room as he spoke. “David duped you and Katie into signing a power of attorney that somehow allowed him to make a deal on Kayven Island. Nathaniel is trying to hold him off, but we need to get back to NewYork.”
Emma watched his furtive packing. “What aren’t you telling me?” Was it a done deal? Had they already lost the resort?
“Nothing.”
“Has the sale gone through?”
“No.”
“Because if it has, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.”
Alex froze.
“It wouldn’t,” she repeated. “As long as David got a decent price.”
Alex pivoted to face her. “Your employee, your sister’s boyfriend, is trying to defraud your company and you’re saying it’ll be okay as long as he got a decent price?”
“If you’re afraid to tell me it already happened, you-”
“I’m not afraid to tell you it already happened. It didn’t already happen.”
“Then why are you acting so weird?”
“I’m not acting weird. I’m acting normal. Acting weird was earlier.”
His words hit Emma like a sledgehammer, and she staggered back. Was that it? Had the kinder, gentler Alex been an illusion? Was he mad now because he thought she’d made a mistake?
She supposed she had made a mistake. But Katie had-
Katie.
Katie would be devastated.
Emma went for the phone.
But as she reached for the receiver, Alex latched on to her wrist.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling Katie.”
“You can’t do that.”
Emma glared up at him. “Yes, I can.” This wasn’t some random whim, this was her sister’s life.
“Emma…”
“Let go of me, Alex.”
“We have to talk.”
She tried to shake him off. “We can talk on the plane.”
“We have to talk before you talk to Katie.”
The look in his eyes sent a shiver of fear through her body. She almost couldn’t bring herself to say the words. “Is she hurt?”
“No. No. She’s not hurt.”
Emma shook her arm, and Alex let her go.
“Then what the hell is going on?” she asked.
Alex squeezed his eyes shut for a second. “There’s something about Kayven Island you don’t know.”
“But Katie’s not hurt?”
“Katie’s fine. I think she’s with Nathaniel. No, I know she’s with Nathaniel. He won’t let her out of his sight until we get back.”
Emma’s fear cranked back up. “Is she in some kind of danger?”
“Emma, listen to me.”
She closed her mouth.
Alex took both her hands in his. “The local government is putting a cruise ship dock on the island.”
“What island?”
“This island.”
“So?”
“So, that’s why Murdoch wants the resort. That’s why he’s willing to bribe David.”
“Because the value will-” Emma stopped.
She got it. In a blinding flash she understood exactly what had happened to her.
“Alex!”
“I wanted it, too,” he confessed.
No kidding. She yanked her hands from his, stumbling back against the bed.
“You kept this from me?”
“Yes.”
“You…You…I could have sold it to Murdoch.”
Alex nodded.
“And then I wouldn’t have had to marry you.”
He nodded again.
She raised her fist, battling a split second temptation to pummel his chest. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“It was business.”
“Business?”
“I knew what I knew, and I did what was best for my company.”
The fight suddenly left her.
Of course he’d done what was best for his company. He’d never pretended to do anything different. He’d even warned her. He’d suggested she do the same.