one of his sisters they were talking about. The desire to protect Deena, Leslie, Rachel, Bethany, and Jeannette ran deep. Had for years.
Not like their mother ever did shit to protect the girls.
He flicked off a quick text to Leslie: Wassup with you and Alex? Clothes shopping? Srsly?
Two seconds later, she’d responded. He can’t help that he’s style-challenged. I’m just giving him some guidance.
He chuckled and typed in a response. Not what I’m talking about. I demand you tell me what’s up.
Nunya. As in, none of your business. Let the man be. And stop telling me what to do. You’re a pain.
His response was quick. Pain in the ass if you don’t stop dating my friends.
The reply from Leslie was a grumpy cat face.
He grinned as he poured himself a cup of coffee, then sat down at the kitchen table with the envelope his friend had left. It was the report on Cara, like the others on all the employees he’d had compiled, standard for when he purchased a company. At a glance, it looked like it spanned her twenty-six years and then some. He read through the first few pages, basic stuff like family, demographics, etc. He skipped over high school and jumped right to where a name was highlighted.
Hank Finch.
What the hell?
Cara’s father’s name was Hank Finch. His was a name Branden thought he would never hear again. Branden read on, searching for confirmation that his suspicions were correct.
Yep, there on page two was what he’d thought the moment he read the name. Cara’s father was the same man his own stepfather had destroyed years ago.
Davies had been just one in a long string of men Branden’s mother had hooked up with and foolishly married.
How small was the world that Cara had been a victim of Carl Davies? Did she change her name to Michal because of what had happened or had her mother remarried?
And did Cara know Branden was connected to the man who had ruined her father’s life?
He leaned back, contemplating the question. He doubted it. She’d never once given him any reason to think she knew his past, and he paid well to have the Internet scrubbed clean of anything he didn’t want out there. And he certainly didn’t want the world to know his once tenuous connection to Davies.
But he and Cara had been trying to figure out who would want to hurt them. Maybe they both had been coming at it from the wrong angle. He’d assumed any threat was coming from paparazzi. Someone looking to make some cash.
What if this had something to do with Carl Davies?
Now that he knew there was a connection between him and Cara, he would need to take a look from that angle. He wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find that his stepfather was still dipping his toes in the shady side of the pond.
But why would Davies come around now, all of a sudden?
And why pick on Cara, too?
Chapter 12
Despite the adventures of the night before, Cara made it home in time to shower and change and get into work and behind her desk an hour early. She even had her coffee in hand. She booted up the computer as she shrugged out of her light morning jacket. Taking a sip of her coffee, she leaned back in her chair and let her mind wander back to last night. She really shouldn’t be surprised at how intensely she’d responded to Brandon in bed. He’d alternately been sweet and dominating, giving and then taking, and taking hard. Dominating, almost.
He couldn’t have gotten where he was at such a young age if he didn’t have a dominant personality.
What she was mostly surprised at was herself. She’d had dreams of being so sexually satisfied before, mostly since she’d met Branden, but she’d never really thought she’d be able to let go of her control to actually let her body respond in such a visceral, wild way. Or that once she did, that she would love it as much as she had.
But even more surprising than how sexual her body had reacted was the way her mind kept returning to thoughts of him—memories of how his eyes would light up or go dark…how earthy and spicy his scent was…how he’d shown a vulnerable side when he spoke of his sisters…
Iris would say she was crushing on this dude, and big time.
Was she?
She forced herself to pull up the spreadsheet she needed to work on today. She worked through