Chapter 2 - A WOMAN WHO COULDN'T BE BOUGHT
Christa left Valerius in a car arranged by Leo.
She had insisted on paying for the ride.
Leo hadn't argued.
Instead, he'd handed her a business card.
No title.
No company name.
Just a phone number embossed beneath his initials.
“Use it if Hammond approaches you again.”
Christa had stared at it.
“Why would you help me?”
Leo had studied her for a long moment.
Then answered:
“Because I dislike men who confuse fear with consent.”
Now, as the car moved through Manhattan, Christa turned the card over in her fingers.
She knew the rumors.
Leo Flores controlled ports, warehouses, shipping companies, nightclubs, and businesses that respectable people preferred not to investigate.
He was forty-one.
Unmarried.
Wealthy beyond calculation.
And allegedly responsible for the disappearance of several dangerous men.
Christa wasn't foolish enough to believe he'd become powerful through kindness.
But she couldn't forget the way he'd stepped aside when she said she had her own car.
Gregory had tried to own her.
Leo had given her an exit.
That distinction troubled her.
Her phone rang.
UNCLE THOMAS.
She answered.
“Christa, what have you done?”
She closed her eyes.
“Hello to you too.”
“Gregory called me.”
“I'm sure he did.”
“He says you humiliated him.”
Christa stared out the window.
“He threatened me.”
Silence.
Then Thomas sighed.
“Gregory can be intense.”
“Intense?”
“Christa, he's an important man.”
“So am I.”
Her uncle laughed dismissively.
“You design houses.”
“I own an architecture firm.”
“That's not the point.”
“Then what is?”
Thomas lowered his voice.
“The estate.”
Christa went still.
“What about it?”
“Your mother's property is tied up in some complicated financial arrangements.”
Her stomach tightened.
“What arrangements?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
She sat straighter.
“Thomas.”
He hesitated.
Then said:
“You should have stayed at dinner.”
Christa stared at the phone.
For the first time, she wondered whether her uncle had known exactly what Gregory intended.
She ended the call.
Then looked at Leo's card.
She didn't call him.
Not yet.
May you like
Instead, she called her attorney.
Because if someone was trying to take her mother's house, she intended to find out why.
