Read Online The Angels' Share (The Bourbon Kings Book 2) by J. R. Ward - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: J. R. Ward
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“You’ll stay on. For as long as you want the job.”
The man breathed a sigh of relief. “Anything for you.”
“I’m going to make him proud.”
Now Don looked at her. His eyes shimmered with tears. “Yes, you will.”
With a nod, she got in the back, and jumped as the door was shut witha muffled
thump
. A moment later they were off, smoothing their way out of the courtyard, off the estate.
Usually, she and her father discussed things on the way downtown, and as she stared at the empty seat beside her, it dawned on her that the day before was the last time that the pair of them would ride to headquarters together. The final trip … had come and gone without her knowing it at the time.
Wasn’t that the way of things.
She had assumed there would be many more ahead of them, countless mentoring, ceaseless drives side by side.
Denial was lovely while you were in it, wasn’t it. But when you stepped out of its warm pond of delusion, reality carried a shivering, cold sting. And yes, if the partition separating the front from the back of the car hadn’t been down, she probably would have wept as hard as if she were going to her father’s funeral.
Instead, she placed her palm on the seat that had been his, and looked out the tinted glass. They were getting on River Road now, joining the line up of traffic that eventually funneled into the surface arteries that ran under the highways and bridges of Charlemont’s business district.
There was only one person she could think of to call. One person whose voice she wanted to hear. One person … who would understand on a visceral level what she was feeling.
But Edward Baldwine didn’t care about the liquor industry anymore. No longer was he her competitor’s heir apparent, her counterpart across the aisle, the sarcastic, sexy, infuriating friend she had long coveted.
And even if he had still been the number two at the Bradford Bourbon Company, he certainly had made it clear that he didn’t want anything to do with a personal relationship with her.
In spite of that … crazy hook-up … they’d had at that caretaker’s cottage out at the Red & Black.
Which she still couldn’t believe had happened.
After all the years of fantasizing, she had finally been with him—
Sutton pulled away from that black hole of going-nowhere by rememberingtheir last meeting. It had been in a farm truck parked outside her house, and they had fought over that mortgage she’d given his father. Right before the man had died.
Hardly the stuff of Hallmark cards.
Yet in spite of all that, Edward was still the one she wanted to talk to, the only person other than her father whose opinion she cared about. And before his kidnapping? She would absolutely have dialed him up, and he would have answered on the first ring, and he would have supported her at the same time he would have put her in her place.
Because he was like that.
The fact that he wasn’t there anymore, either?
Just one more of the losses.
One more thing to miss.
One more piece of the mourning.
Letting her head fall back, she stared at the river and wished that things were as they had once and always been.
“Oh, Edward …”
EIGHT
S amuelTheodore Lodge III drove his vintage Jaguar convertible down River Road at a measly fifteen or sixteen miles an hour. Traffic was no slower or faster than it ever was, but he was less frustrated than usual at the delay because this morning, he didn’t have to go all the way in to his law office in Charlemont proper. No, today, he was stopping off first to meet one of his clients.
Although to be fair, Lane was more family than anything else.
The big estates up on the hills were to his left, the muddy waters of the Ohio were to his right, and overhead, the milky blue sky promised another hot, humid May day. And as the balmy breeze ruffled through his hair, thanks to the top being down, he turned the local classical music station up so he could hear Chopin’s Nocturne Op.
The man breathed a sigh of relief. “Anything for you.”
“I’m going to make him proud.”
Now Don looked at her. His eyes shimmered with tears. “Yes, you will.”
With a nod, she got in the back, and jumped as the door was shut witha muffled
thump
. A moment later they were off, smoothing their way out of the courtyard, off the estate.
Usually, she and her father discussed things on the way downtown, and as she stared at the empty seat beside her, it dawned on her that the day before was the last time that the pair of them would ride to headquarters together. The final trip … had come and gone without her knowing it at the time.
Wasn’t that the way of things.
She had assumed there would be many more ahead of them, countless mentoring, ceaseless drives side by side.
Denial was lovely while you were in it, wasn’t it. But when you stepped out of its warm pond of delusion, reality carried a shivering, cold sting. And yes, if the partition separating the front from the back of the car hadn’t been down, she probably would have wept as hard as if she were going to her father’s funeral.
Instead, she placed her palm on the seat that had been his, and looked out the tinted glass. They were getting on River Road now, joining the line up of traffic that eventually funneled into the surface arteries that ran under the highways and bridges of Charlemont’s business district.
There was only one person she could think of to call. One person whose voice she wanted to hear. One person … who would understand on a visceral level what she was feeling.
But Edward Baldwine didn’t care about the liquor industry anymore. No longer was he her competitor’s heir apparent, her counterpart across the aisle, the sarcastic, sexy, infuriating friend she had long coveted.
And even if he had still been the number two at the Bradford Bourbon Company, he certainly had made it clear that he didn’t want anything to do with a personal relationship with her.
In spite of that … crazy hook-up … they’d had at that caretaker’s cottage out at the Red & Black.
Which she still couldn’t believe had happened.
After all the years of fantasizing, she had finally been with him—
Sutton pulled away from that black hole of going-nowhere by rememberingtheir last meeting. It had been in a farm truck parked outside her house, and they had fought over that mortgage she’d given his father. Right before the man had died.
Hardly the stuff of Hallmark cards.
Yet in spite of all that, Edward was still the one she wanted to talk to, the only person other than her father whose opinion she cared about. And before his kidnapping? She would absolutely have dialed him up, and he would have answered on the first ring, and he would have supported her at the same time he would have put her in her place.
Because he was like that.
The fact that he wasn’t there anymore, either?
Just one more of the losses.
One more thing to miss.
One more piece of the mourning.
Letting her head fall back, she stared at the river and wished that things were as they had once and always been.
“Oh, Edward …”
EIGHT
S amuelTheodore Lodge III drove his vintage Jaguar convertible down River Road at a measly fifteen or sixteen miles an hour. Traffic was no slower or faster than it ever was, but he was less frustrated than usual at the delay because this morning, he didn’t have to go all the way in to his law office in Charlemont proper. No, today, he was stopping off first to meet one of his clients.
Although to be fair, Lane was more family than anything else.
The big estates up on the hills were to his left, the muddy waters of the Ohio were to his right, and overhead, the milky blue sky promised another hot, humid May day. And as the balmy breeze ruffled through his hair, thanks to the top being down, he turned the local classical music station up so he could hear Chopin’s Nocturne Op.
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