two men inside turn in surprise.
Both men wore suits, the younger man in an expensively cut navy pinstripe, the elder in a dark gray with a faint red thread running through the fabric. In this setting, they looked like a magazine ad for today’s top executive and his dream office. The room around them was all glistening wood, supple dark leather and knee-deep carpet.
Their surprised gazes went from her to Alex and back again. Neither looked happy to see him.
She felt Alex stiffen next to her, his hand searching out hers. He squeezed it gently. “Welcome to the lion’s den,” he said under his breath, then stepped into the room, drawing her with him.
Chapter Seven
“Alex?” his father said, sounding as if he hadn’t seen him in months and hardly recognized him. He hadn’t.
Alex had gotten a glimpse of his father and Brian talking with Caroline’s doctor at the hospital. He had hardly spoken to his father when he’d called yesterday to tell him about Caroline’s accident.
Neither his father nor his brother had made an attempt to talk to him since and Alex hadn’t bothered, either. He could only assume that his father blamed him for Caroline’s accident. It would be just like C.B.
“Is this about Caroline? Is she—” His father’s voice broke.
Alex shook his head. “She’s still unconscious.”
His father’s look said, “Then why are you here?”
“I’ve been trying to contact her fiancé,” Alex said. “Have you heard from him?”
C. B. Graham shook his head. “Pres spends quite a lot of time out of the country.” Pres? “He’s a busy man.”
Yes, as C.B. had been when Alex was growing up.
What C.B. didn’t say, but Alex heard: Unlike you, Alex, who only works part of the week as a fireman.
Alex felt that old frustration and resentment rising in him. Already his father had bonded with Preston Wellington III, practically a complete stranger, but C.B. made no effort to understand his youngest son.
Brian, Alex realized, was staring at Samantha.
“This is Samantha Peters. She’s a wedding planner with Weddings Your Way. Caroline’s been working with her.”
“You’re from the place where Caroline was struck down,” Brian said with interest as if contemplating a lawsuit. He shifted his gaze to Alex. “What were you doing there with her anyway? I didn’t even think the two of you had spoken in years.”
“This must be very difficult for you all,” Samantha broke in, stepping forward to shake each man’s hand.
Alex watched in amazement as his father seemed to melt at her touch, at her softly spoken soothing words. What was it about this woman?
Brian, though, was his usual cold self. He seemed suspicious and angry. Nothing new there.
“Of course you’re worried about Caroline, but she’s in good hands,” Samantha was saying. “All we can do now is find her fiancé. I know how devoted he is to her and he’d want to be here with her now.”
C.B was practically falling all over himself saying, “Yes, of course. He’s a fine young man. This is such a tragedy with the wedding not that far off.”
Did either his father or brother know that Caroline had moved the wedding up three months? Did they know she was pregnant?
“We’ve tried several numbers in an attempt to reach Mr. Wellington,” Samantha was saying. “Any information you can give us would be appreciated.”
“What exactly is your involvement, Miss…Peters was it?” Brian asked.
“Since I’ve been working with Caroline and Preston, I thought I might be of some help,” she said.
“That is very kind of you,” C.B. said. He was like putty in her hands. Alex felt a little jealous.
“Pres owns a couple of companies,” C.B. said. “Would you like the names?”
“If you don’t mind, that would be very helpful,” she said.
Alex gritted his teeth. Yesterday he’d asked his father for other ways to reach Preston and got the runaround. C.B. had insisted on handling everything himself, as usual.
C.B. went to his desk, flipped open a folder lying right on top. Apparently, he’d been trying again to reach Pres. “One is a company called Wellington Enterprises.”
The same name as the one Caroline had written all the checks to.
“The other is—” C.B. dug through the folder “—Maple Ridge Unlimited.”
“Are those companies in Miami?” Samantha was asking.
“Both out of New York,” C.B. said with obvious pride. “Pres is quite the young man. Smart and ambitious.”
Alex groaned inwardly. Even Brian looked a little green around the gills. Their father admired ambition almost as much as he did money.
As C.B. closed the folder on his desk, Alex had a very