“No,” Sutton said. “I have to do it here, in my office, with both of them.”
“Why, Daddy?” Gracie hadn’t meant to say that out loud and the sound of her own voice surprised her. It seemed to startle Roman, as well. He looked her way.
Sutton gazed up at her with what could only be described as tenderness, and said quietly, “It’s just something I need to do.”
The vulnerability in his eyes melted her. And forced her to do something she’d thought she would never have to again. Talk to Roman.
She met his icy gaze and swallowed past the lump building in her throat, struggling to find the anger and resentment she’d felt before he walked through the door. Did he have to look so hard and cold and intimidating? Maybe he’d learned that in the military. Because the Roman she knew had never looked at her like that before. She could barely remember him even raising his voice to her when they argued, which they hadn’t really done all that much come to think of it. Their relationship had been pretty easy. Right up until the moment it wasn’t. When she learned of how he’d betrayed her.
She had screamed at him then, and the worst part was that he never screamed back. He had only stood there looking remorseful, taking full responsibility for what he had done.
Though he had never actually said the words I’m sorry, his remorse had been clear on his face. And it wouldn’t have made a difference if he had. There were no words to make up for his betrayal and all the hurt he caused. And if her father wanted this meeting, he was going to get it.
She could be snarky, but she knew Roman well enough to know that attitude wouldn’t work. She shoved down her pride as far as it would go and tucked her tail firmly between her legs. She was doing it for Daddy.
“You know that my father isn’t well. If this is something he needs to do I want to get it done. What will it take to get you to help?”
Her father touched her arm and said firmly, “Thank you, Princess. But let me handle this.”
Princess?
Really?
Roman resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Gracie pleading Sutton’s case. She always had been, and always would be, a slave to her father’s demands. A dedicated daddy’s girl. Roman had learned that one a long time ago, the hard way. When it came to her loyalty, Sutton and her two sisters always came first.
Though it did look to Roman as though the old man didn’t have much time left. The weight loss, the gray pallor. Roman had watched it happen to his own father when he was only fifteen, then five years later to his mother. Roman could see that Sutton Winchester was knocking on death’s door, and didn’t doubt that the man’s excessive lifestyle had ultimately been his undoing. The skirt chasing, heavy drinking and high-stress business dealings had taken their toll.
Which was why Roman didn’t feel a bit sorry for him.
Sutton turned to Roman and asked, “Will you arrange it?”
Yeah, right. Who the hell did Sutton think he was, asking anything from Roman? He didn’t owe the man a damned thing. “Um...no. I won’t.”
“I’ll pay you,” Sutton said, and Roman’s hackles went up.
The idea of taking the old man’s money made him sick to his stomach. He shook his head and said, “Not gonna happen.”
“What do you want? Just name it.”
He opened his mouth to tell the old geezer that he had nothing to offer that Roman could possibly want, when something stopped him. He glanced over at Gracie, who was doing her best not to look at Roman. He remembered all the times in the past that Sutton had tried to sabotage Roman’s relationship with Gracie, because he never considered Roman—a military brat—good enough for his precious daughter. But Roman had come a long way since then. Now Sutton needed him, and clearly he had nothing to lose.
He glanced over at Gracie, casually eyeing her up and down. “How about an hour alone with your daughter.”
Gracie blinked, then blinked again, and asked in an incredulous tone, “To do what, exactly?”
He let a slow smile curl his lips. “Whatever I want.”
She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. He had rendered the great Grace Winchester speechless. That was a first. And it gave him more satisfaction than he’d ever imagined it could.
“It was a joke,” Roman said. “I just want to talk.”
“But I don’t want to talk to you,” she replied, glancing nervously toward her father. Would Sutton really do that to her? Knowing Roman and Gracie’s complicated past, would he really force her to speak with him?
“I’ll give you fifteen minutes with her,” Sutton said, cementing in Roman’s mind what a bastard the man really was, selling out his own daughter.
Gracie gasped and said, “Daddy!”
She looked to Roman with pleading eyes.
“Forty-five,” Roman said, ignoring her.
“Twenty,” Sutton countered without missing a beat.
Un-freaking-believable.
Grace just stood there, her mouth hanging open, as if she couldn’t believe this exchange was really happening. That she was being bartered like property.
“Thirty and not a minute less,” Roman told Sutton. “And that’s my final offer. Otherwise, you’re on your own, old man.”
Knowing how vain Sutton was, the “old man” comment had to stick in his craw, but he never let it show. He considered it for less than ten seconds before he said, “We have a deal.”
Wow, the man truly had no scruples or decency. Gracie had offered to help, but considering her wide-eyed stare, Roman doubted this was what she had in mind. The question was, would she really do it?
Maybe Sutton had no scruples, but Roman did. “What do you say, Grace? Thirty minutes to catch up?”
Roman could see that she wanted to say no. But Sutton broke into a coughing spasm that paled his skin and stole his breath, and Grace winced.
She laid a hand on her father’s shoulder until the spasm ceased then said gently, “Of course I’ll do it.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Roman said. “But I can’t promise that Graham and Brooks will cooperate.”
“If anyone can get them to agree, you can,” Sutton said.
An actual compliment? Wonders never ceased.
Roman turned to Grace and grinned, and the patience and compassion she showed her father evaporated before his eyes. He could feel the tension and her hatred for him radiating from every pore. And he deserved it for his boorish behavior, but if this was the only way to get Gracie to talk to him, so be it.
“When would you like your thirty minutes?” she said through clenched teeth.
“Right now works for me,” he said with a grin, feeling smug about the whole situation. He hadn’t been looking forward to his meeting with Sutton and had originally told him no. It had taken some convincing to change his mind and now he was glad he had. And if Sutton thought that having his daughter there would soften Roman up, he was wrong.
Well, maybe not totally wrong.
He had half suspected the old man would pull something like this, but when Roman saw Gracie standing there in her father’s office it was still a shock.
“We can talk in the library,” Gracie said stiffly,