Grant (Riding Hard) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,35

ass, even though a lot of my money’s tied up in it too. I’d like to thwart him by buying up the real estate out from under him, but I don’t have the money.”

“Maybe we can have another bake sale,” Tyler suggested, his face straight.

Karen gave him a wry look. “Aw, ain’t you sweet. But I could do something like that, you know. Maybe have you boys put on a show, to raise money to buy up the town yourselves.”

Grant drummed his fingers on the table. “We already own the town. I mean, the properties already have owners who live here.”

“True, but the mortgage company has bought up a lot of loans, and on some places, the ownership is under question. I’m very good at chaining a piece of property. Ownership can be convoluted. This bar, for instance.” She looked around.

“Christina’s uncle owns it,” Grant said. “Sam Farrell.”

“You sure about that?” Karen asked. “Because I have a report that says he doesn’t.”

Grant stared at her. “Can’t be right. He’s run it forever.”

Karen gave him a patient look. “Sam Farrell hasn’t owned this place in three years. He took out a second mortgage, and then got way behind on the payments. The bank in town took the bar, but the head of the bank—Mr. Carew is it?—lets Sam lease it and keep running it. There was a letter stating that Sam planned to buy the place back sooner or later, but he’s not done it so far.”

Tyler raised his brows. “Does Christina know this?” he asked Grant.

Grant shrugged, worried. “If she does, she’s never mentioned it.”

Karen glanced at Christina, who was smiling at Kyle Malory while she poured him a beer, probably not one he hated.

“Maybe she’s embarrassed,” Karen said. “It’s another old-school value I don’t have—thinking it’s vulgar to talk about money.”

Grant watched Christina leaning on her arms to talk to Kyle in a friendly way. His heart burned. She was so beautiful, and it drove him crazy when she turned that beauty on other guys, especially when they were Malorys.

“Christina doesn’t embarrass easy,” Grant said absently as he watched her. “If she knew, she would have said something to someone.”

“Oh, well.” Karen took another delicate sip of her martini. She wasn’t the kind to down alcohol until she was roaring drunk, it seemed. No getting her sloshed and making her sign papers stating she wouldn’t destroy the town. “The bank is willing to sell the bar if Sam can’t buy it back. Preston, the total bastard, has put a bid on it, but I made a personal one. Now all we have to do is see who wins.”

Christina waited exactly twenty minutes, then waited another five, because she wanted Grant to sweat a little. Then she walked out from behind the bar, making her way to the Campbells’ table.

When she was within two yards of them, Grant rose, excused himself, leaving his hat, and caught Christina by the arm.

“Take a break.”

“What?” Christina refused to jerk away, because that story would be all over town. Well, it would be all over town anyway, but she’d rather not have people saying that she and Grant were fighting in the middle of the bar.

“Take a break,” he repeated. “I need to talk to you.”

Grant’s brows were drawn, his look serious. Christina stopped the argument before it reached her lips and let him escort her out the back door.

Once outside, Grant kept walking, away from the Dumpsters and the sour smell of trash, out to where the lot ended in a hedge dividing it from the road. In the relatively cool, green-scented night, Grant stopped.

“What?” Christina said, worried. “Everything all right? Something wrong with Bailey …?”

Grant put his fingers to her lips. “No, baby. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Then what’s up?”

She didn’t want to be out here in the dark with him, not when he looked so good, smelled so good. The dim lights made his eyes a deep blue. She didn’t trust herself with him at all.

“I’m just going to ask this,” Grant was saying. “Did you know your uncle sold this place? About three years ago?”

Christina stared, the words making no sense. “What are you talking about? Who told you that? Wait, I bet it was Miz Ice Queen.”

“Yeah, she did. But she had no reason to lie about it. It’s easy enough to prove.”

Christina took a few steps away from him. Sam had sold the bar? Without telling her? He’d never do that. Karen had to be feeding