down over his blade of a nose in a scowl. He’d taken his sunglasses off and she could see that his eyes were almost black. And cold.
Luke wasn’t intimidated at all. “Okay. This is the situation. I am here with a young woman who is Bard Redfield’s biological child. By a woman Bard apparently loved, who lived in Sacramento. They —”
Black interrupted. “She is Lucy Benson’s daughter?”
Luke glanced at her then turned back to the screen. “Yes. This is confirmed by DNA.”
Black didn’t seem to be listening. “Let me see her,” he demanded. “Right now.”
Luke glanced again at Hope and when she nodded, turned the cell to her, framing her face.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Black breathed. “I don’t know your name, but you are the spitting image of Bard. He has no idea you exist, none at all. Lucy was the love of his life and he never had a serious affair after her. She just blew him off after he was wounded. He never got over her and he thinks of her to this day. If it’s money you want, Bard will give you the shirt off his back.”
Hope’s voice turned cold and crisp. “I don’t want money, Mr. Black. Not a dime. I’m fine. But I do want to know if my father tried to have me killed.”
Jacob Black seemed like the very epitome of an unflappable man but his features went slack for a moment. “Have you killed? Bard?”
He was surprised? The idea of a warrior, a man who’d been a soldier all his life and had served in war zones, being an actual killer wasn’t an impossible stretch, she thought. In essence a soldier was a professional killer. But Hope had two soldiers right before her — Luke and Jacob Black. Luke technically wasn’t a soldier any more but he was about to become a security expert for a company made up of former soldiers like himself. Jacob Black too wasn’t a government soldier but was the head of a highly successful company made up of former warriors. Telling both of them that Bard Redfield was already a killer anyway wasn’t a smart move.
“Unlike you, Mr. Black, I don’t know him. I only know that I had a DNA analysis done and it pinged on the Redfields. The next thing I know, the friend who did the DNA analysis is dead. I have remote access to my surveillance system, and masked, armed men broke into my apartment that same day. Luckily I was able to escape. I don’t like to think of what they’d have done to me if I’d been there. Someone doesn’t want me around. And for the record, I have been told that Lucy Benson, my — my mother, thought Bard Redfield had died. Court Redfield went to see her to tell her Bard had been killed and that she should never contact any of the Redfields again. She was pregnant with me but didn’t know it yet. Five years later, she read an article and discovered that Bard was alive. She tried to contact him with photos of me and a few days later she was dead and I was in a coma.”
Black frowned. “You remember all of this?”
As if. “No. I remember nothing and this was as much of a surprise to me as it is to you. Luke and I watched a video recorded by my uncle, Frank Glass, who told me the story.”
Black’s face changed. “Frank … Lucy’s brother was Frank Glass?”
“Half brother, apparently, but yes. Did you know him?”
“Bard told me about his affair with Lucy once when he was very drunk. He said she had a half brother named Frank, a real nerdy guy. I had no idea we were talking about Frank Glass.”
“I don’t think he was the Frank Glass at the time. I think he was just a bright kid with good ideas.” Hope wanted to bring the conversation around to what she needed. “So — twenty-five years ago someone had my mother killed, tried to kill me and would have if my uncle hadn’t acted quickly. He had me taken to a hospital far away from the scene of the accident, had me declared dead and relocated me under another name. When I tried to find a match of my DNA and it was found by a good friend of mine, someone killed him and sent what looked like a team of hitmen to my apartment. They also killed the doorman. That someone might be