Bücher online kostenlos Kostenlos Online Lesen
Three Fates

Three Fates

Titel: Three Fates Kostenlos Bücher Online Lesen
Autoren: Nora Roberts
Vom Netzwerk:
hadn’t realized was there to be damaged. “Okay. I screwed up with you. I figured I’d cut a deal with Anita, take the money and hand you your share. Everybody’s happy. I figured, well, he’ll be a little pissed I did it behind his back, but when he’s got all that green in his hands, how can he complain?”
    When he turned back, violence shimmering almost visibly around him, Tia stepped between them. “Stop. Think. What she did made sense. If she’d been dealing with a normal businesswoman, even a dishonest one, it made sense. None of us could have predicted how far Anita would go.”
    “What she did was lie.” He ignored Tia’s tugging hand. “To all of us.”
    “It started with lies.” Tia’s voice had just enough punch behind it to have Gideon glancing at her. “Trust and full disclosure’s been the main problem here all along. We’re all splintered in different directions, with different goals. Different agendas. And as long as we stay that way, Anita has the advantage. She has one direction, and one goal. Unless we agree on ours, she’s going to win.”
    “That’s right.” Malachi laid a hand on Tia’s shoulder, and though she stiffened, she didn’t pull away. “I’m no more pleased about how we got to this point than any of the rest of us. We all, well, all but Tia here, have reasons for regrets. We can stew about them. Or we can punch a few walls. Gid.”
    His voice gentled and he waited until his brother turned those angry eyes on him. “Remember the punching bag Da set up at the boatyard? We called it Nigel,” he said to the women. “And we beat hell out of it instead of each other. Most of the time.”
    “We’re not boys now.”
    “We’re not, no. So instead of sulking off, or finding a handy Nigel, why don’t we start from here? The good news is we have the second Fate. And where might this bank be, Cleo?”
    “Over on Seventh.” She dug into her jeans pocket for the key she’d put there that morning. “I have to get it. I have to sign and show ID to get into the box. I can do it in the morning.”
    “ We’ll do it in the morning,” Gideon corrected. “Right now I want some air. I’m going up to the roof.”
    Cleo sat where she was when the door slammed behind him. Then as the shards of what had broken inside her stabbed, she got to her feet. “That went real well.” Appalled that her voice broke, she bore down. “I’m going to take a nap.”
    When the office door shut behind her, Tia pushed her hands through her hair. “Oh boy. I never know what to do. I never know what to say.”
    “You did and said exactly right. Stop shoving yourself down, Tia. It’s irritating.”
    “Well, pardon me. I’m going to go see if I can help Cleo.”
    “No, that’s the easy way.” With a small sigh, he touched her shoulder again. “I’ll go talk to Cleo, you try Gideon. Let’s see if we can make this mess we’ve created into some sort of unit.”
    He started for the office door, then turned. “You were brilliant with Anita,” he said, then knocked briskly and opened the door without waiting for an invitation.
    Cleo lay on her back, on the unmade pullout. She wasn’t crying, but she knew she was working up to a good, explosive jag. “Look, I’ve had enough of the Sullivan brothers for this act. Let’s consider this intermission.”
    “That’s too bad because the show’s not over.” He lifted her feet, sat, then dropped them into his lap. “And because this Sullivan brother is willing to admit he might have done exactly as you did. I wouldn’t be proud of it, would look back from here and see all the places where I went wrong, when I should’ve turned right instead of left. But that wouldn’t change a fucking thing, would it?”
    “Are you being nice to me so I’ll cooperate? Go, team, go?”
    “That’d be a nice benefit, but the fact is, you’ve had a hell of a time, and I’m part of the reason why. Gideon now, he’s not as devious-natured as you and me. Not that he’s a doormat or a fool, but he’s more inclined to say what he thinks and is often annoyed everyone doesn’t do the same. He has a refined sense of fair play, our boy.”
    Knowing it, hearing Malachi say it, didn’t go far toward mollifying her. “People who play fair mostly lose.”
    “Don’t they just?” He laughed a little and began to rub her feet in a friendly way. “But when they win, they win clean. That matters to him. You matter to him.”
    “Maybe did

Weitere Kostenlose Bücher