She'd made things so easy. Cole was probably sitting in Jergen's office, laughing over how she'd crept away in defeat.
Well, he was in for a big surprise.
She dried off, pushed her wet hair back from her face and slipped on a short cotton robe. She was smiling as she walked into the bedroom. Ready or not, Cole Cameron, she thought,
here I...
The brave idea ended on a shocked scream. Cole was standing in the doorway, his face twisted with rage, his hands knotted into fists at his sides.
"Faith," he growled. "Where is he?"
God, she thought, God, please help me...
"Where is he?" he said again and when she didn't answer, he kicked the door shut and came straight toward her.
All she could do was let out a strangled sob and fall back against the wall.
CHAPTER FOUR
COLE hadn't even thought about going to the house.
He'd watched Faith leave the law office, her chin lifted even though her face was ashen, her walk brisk.
"Tough spot to find herself in," Jergen had said, after a minute.
"Yeah." Cole had smiled thinly. "So is life."
"I don't feel sorry for the woman at all, you understand ... but perhaps you should give her just a bit more time to vacate Cameron House."
Cole had looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "What for?"
"Well, it's not very much notice, Mr. Cameron. If she went before a judge he'd probably grant her thirty days, maybe more."
"I'm not a judge. And if she has half the brains I figure, she'll know better than to waste the little money she has on legal fees."
"I agree, sir. I only meant, all things considered..."
"What things?" Cole looked at the lawyer and saw, to his surprise, that the man's face had suddenly become shiny with sweat. "Talk English, Jergen. I'm not in the mood for riddles."
"Perhaps I should have mentioned it sooner. I do have a certain obligation to maintain the privacy of my clients, but-"
"But?"
"But, it isn't as if there's only Mrs. Cameron in that house."
The conference room seemed to fill with silence. "Isn't there?" Cole finally said, his voice low.
"No." The lawyer searched for the right words. "I mean, if she were alone, perhaps..."
"Get to it, man. Who's living at that house with my sister-in-law?"
Jergen inhaled sharply, then blew the breath out through pursed lips. "Peter. And, of course, she won't have the money to support-"
Cole's blood drummed in his ears, drowning out whatever else the attorney was saying. The room swam, then went crimson. He shouldered his way past Jergen, ran down the stairs but Faith was gone. And a good thing, he thought as he dumped his jacket in the back seat, got behind the wheel of the Jaguar and gunned the powerful engine to life.
His brother was hardly cold in his grave and his wife had taken herself a lover and installed him under the Cameron roof, supported him with Cameron money...
Cole stepped down on the gas. Horns blared as he threaded his way through traffic, skidded around street corners and headed instinctively for the back roads he'd once ridden on his motorcycle whenever he'd needed to clear his head.
The houses began thinning. The air he pulled into his lungs no longer held the stench of the town. Open fields and woods flashed by. At last, the road turned to dirt and arrowed toward the hills and infinity.
Cole jammed his foot to the floor. The car gave a throaty roar and leaped ahead but the knot inside him only tightened. He'd seen what he'd come for, the look on Faith's face when she'd learned her scheme had fallen through, but it wasn't enough anymore. Not after what Jergen had told him.
His sweet sister-in-law had a man. A lover, living with her in that damnable house, sleeping in her bed, kissing and caressing that body she'd once offered him.
"Hell," Cole said roughly, and the tires screamed as he stood on the brakes and put the Jaguar into a tight turn that left a rooster tail of hot Georgia dust rising behind him. He needed to see it for himself.
Twenty minutes later, Cameron House had loomed against the sky as big and ugly as he'd remembered. There was no car in the driveway, no sign of life, but he hadn't expected any. Faith would have put her car in the garage. By now, she Was probably in her lover's arms, telling him the money they'd been counting on was gone.
Only a rich widow could afford to take herself a stud and pay for his services.
He took the front steps two at a time, strode across a porch that bore testament to his old man's inability to know the difference between schlock and style, and stabbed the doorbell until his finger hurt. Then he pounded his fist against the door.
"Faith," he said. His voice rose to a roar. "Faith!"
Nothing. The door remained shut, the house stayed silent. Cole ground his teeth together. He'd be damned if he'd stand out here, cooling his heels while his beloved sister-in-law sought the comfort of her lover's arms.