Loveknot

“Good morning, Mrs. Baron.” His handshake was firm and friendly.

“I’d like you to meet our foreman, Johnny Kelsey.”

“Nice to meet you,” Johnny said, but he didn’t sound as though he meant it.

“Likewise, Mr. Kelsey.” Devon’s easy smile remained in place. The two men shook hands briefly.

“Won’t you have a seat, Mr. Addison,” Alyssa said politely, but she didn’t return his smile.

“Thank you.” Devon sat down in the chair next to Johnny. Alyssa sat also, although she would have preferred to remain standing. The small advantage in height would have helped.

She came straight to the point. “Whom, exactly, are you representing this morning, Mr. Addison?”

“I wish you’d call me Devon,” he said with another easy smile.

Alyssa didn’t smile back.

“I’m here on behalf of my family and myself,” he began. “DEVCHECK is a privately held investment company. The major stockholders are my grandfather, my mother, myself and my stepfather.”

“Edward,” Alyssa said before she could stop herself.

“Yes.”

Alyssa was grateful to feel another energizing surge of anger course through her veins. So Edward was trying to take advantage of her father’s withdrawal from the world as everyone else was. What a fool she’d been to ask him for a loan the other day. What a fool she’d been to answer his questions about Ingalls F and M’s prospects for the winter. He hadn’t asked because he was concerned for the welfare of her company, or herself, he’d asked because he wanted more information about the difficulties they were in. And she’d given it to him, offered more, even, than he’d asked for. What a fool she was. What a blind, naive fool.

“I might as well tell you up front, Mr. Addison,” she said, leaning forward, both hands braced against the edge of the desk. “Ingalls F and M is not for sale. At any price.”

Devon’s smile disappeared. His gray eyes hardened and his jaw tightened. “I think you should hear me out first, Mrs. Baron.”

“It would be a waste of time.” Alyssa kept her gaze firmly on Devon’s face, but out of the corner of her eye she could see Johnny shift restlessly in his chair. He obviously wanted to hear what Devon’s proposal was.

“It would be…foolhardy not to listen to what I have to say.”

Alyssa bit her tongue to keep from saying what she wanted to. “Of course, you’re right, Mr. Addison,” she said, deliberately making herself relax back into her father’s big leather chair. “Please, go on.”

“I’m here to make you an offer for controlling interest in Ingalls F and M on very favorable terms. They’ve all been spelled out in detail in our original offer.”

“Our lawyers are still looking over the papers.” Alyssa was regaining her composure. After all, he was only one man, young enough to be her son. She’d sat in this office not once, but twice, with three very determined Japanese businessmen, and managed to keep them at bay. She could do the same with Devon Addison.

Devon wasn’t taken in by her diversionary tactic. “I’m sure you’ve already taken a look at them. I’m certain you also realize DEVCHECK’s plans for Ingalls are far more favorable, more in line with your own wishes for the future, than what Nitaka is offering.”

“That remains to be decided.” She should have known they would have seen a copy of the Nitaka offer. She wondered briefly where they’d gotten it. “At this moment, however, I can tell you that Ingalls F and M are not for sale.”

“Let’s not beat around the bush,” Devon said, still affably but with a hint of steel underlying his words. “If you don’t decide to deal with DEVCHECK—” he tapped the copy of the agreement he’d brought with him with the tip of his finger “—you’re going to end up dealing with the Japanese on a far less even playing field. The changes DEVCHECK plans to make will benefit the company and all of Tyler in the long run. The changes Nitaka plans to make…” He left the sentence unfinished. He didn’t have to say more. They both knew what he was talking about.

“Will you guarantee to keep all our people, at full wages and benefits?”

“I can’t guarantee there won’t be changes,” Devon said carefully. “Making the F and M profitable won’t be easy.”

“That’s what I thought. You’re wrong, Mr. Addison. Your offer isn’t so very different from Nitaka’s. They ended our discussion the same way. I’ll take everything you’ve said into consideration.” Alyssa stood up. She held out her hand, but couldn’t manage a smile. “Thank you for coming. I’ll let you know when I’ve made my decision.”

“I hope it’s the right one.” This time there was no hint of threat in his voice, but he added nothing to soften the impact of his words. “I’ve enjoyed meeting you. I hope we’ll see each other again. Mr. Kelsey.” He turned to shake Johnny’s hand, then left the office without looking back.

“Whew. He’s one tough cookie,” Johnny said, breaking the silence and the tension left behind by Devon’s exit.

“I can see why Edward places such confidence in him.” Alyssa continued staring at the closed door. “He’s very good at what he does.” She glanced over at her father’s most trusted employee and her companion since childhood. “But no amount of ‘friendly advice’ is going to make me change my mind. A threat is a threat, no matter how politely worded.”

Johnny chuckled. “And maybe Eddie is going to find he bit off just a little bit more than he can chew, trying to yank the rug out from under you and your dad?”

“Maybe.” Alyssa reached into the desk drawer for her purse, letting her anger sustain her, refusing to think any farther into the future than the next few minutes. “And maybe it’s also time Edward Wocheck heard the words straight from the horse’s mouth.”

* * *

“YOU’RE BACK earlier than I expected,” Edward said, looking up from the faxed reports lying on his desk in the former storage room he’d appropriated for his office. It was a bare-bones operation—desk, chair, telephone fax machine and not much else—but he didn’t mind. “How did it go?”

“Not quite as smoothly as I’d hoped,” Devon admitted. “By the way, Alyssa Baron is one foxy lady.”

“Yes, she is,” Edward said, as if it made no difference to him whatsoever. “A very foxy lady.”

“The kind of lady worth waiting for,” his stepson added, as if it made no difference whatsoever to him, either.

“Yes, she is.” Edward didn’t elaborate on the statement. He shuffled the papers he’d been reading into a stack and set them aside. “I take it she didn’t jump at our offer.”

Devon laughed a bit sheepishly. “You might say that. You didn’t tell me she can be a real ice queen when she sets her mind to it. I expected to rattle her pretty easily.”

“And?” Edward couldn’t help asking.

“She listened to what I had to say. Said she’d consider the offer and showed me the door.”

“She’s Judson Ingalls’s daughter, all right. It looks like I’ll have to speak to the lady myself.” Edward found he was looking forward to confronting Alyssa. They’d been no more than polite acquaintances since his return to Tyler. They’d seen each other infrequently, spoken rarely and never about themselves. With the exception of that one fleeting kiss at Christmas almost a year before, under the mistletoe, they hadn’t touched at all. He didn’t know what he wanted from a relationship with Alyssa Ingalls Baron. He only knew he wanted one. But before that could happen, there was business to conduct.

“I thought that’s what you might say,” Devon said as he rose from his chair. “Well, I’ve done what you asked of me. Now it’s your turn. You promised to show me the attic. I’d like to see if there’s anything of Margaret Ingalls’s still up there while the daylight’s good.”

“So that’s why you’re dressed that way,” Edward said, rising from his seat. Devon was wearing gray sweatpants and a sweatshirt from Columbia, his alma mater. “I thought maybe you were going to ask me to join you for a run.”

“Maybe later. Right now I want to play detective,” Devon said, only half-joking.

“I’ll show you the way. We rewired the attic when we were working on the lounge and reception area, but it’s still minimal lighting up there.”

“That’s what I figured. Sundown comes pretty early around here,” Devon commented as they left the office and headed for the out-of-the-way staircase that led to the attic.

“I told you the winters are long and cold.”

“And hardly a ski lift in sight.”

Edward glanced sharply at his stepson. Devon’s face was turned away, however, so he couldn’t tell if he was in earnest or pulling his leg. “You can always join your mother in Switzerland.”

The younger man shrugged. “Maybe,” he said, as Edward opened the inconspicuous attic door and snapped on the overhead light.