At the Tycoon's Command Read Free

to only a little over two thousand dollars.
    She gathered her determination. He was just trying to bluff her, to make her believe he had some kind of tangible proof. She was not going to fall for his line. It was the way the high and mighty Stevens family had been treating her family for three generations.
    â€œIf you have this proof, then I want to see it now.”
    â€œOf course.” His manner was almost condescending ashe smiled at her again, a smile that spoke volumes—a smile that said he had not been bluffing.
    Jared opened the file folder and handed her copies of a signed contract and a signed, notarized promissory note for twenty thousand dollars. She fought to keep her hand from shaking as she stared at her father’s signature. She carefully read both documents. It all looked legal and binding. A sinking feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. All her bravado crashed as the cold chill of reality sank in.
    â€œI, uh, I want Gary Parker to look over these documents.”
    â€œIs that your attorney?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œNo problem.” Jared stood, picked up his attaché case and walked to the front door. “I’ll contact you in a couple of days to finalize the arrangements for the payment of the debt.”
    Kim watched from the window as Jared returned to his car and drove away. It had been a very unsettling meeting, caused as much by the way he made her senses tingle as by the stressful outcome of their conversation. Why had her father insisted the debt didn’t exist when he had obviously signed a contract and a promissory note? She knew he couldn’t have already paid out the twenty thousand dollars to settle the debt. As executrix of his estate, she had been over his finances.
    A hint of despair settled inside her as her gaze drifted around the living room of the old house, the house where she had grown up, the house where she had lived until seven years ago—the house where just yesterday mourners had gathered following her father’s funeral. Her father’s sudden death at the age of fifty-five from a massive coronary had come as a shock to her. She had always thought of him as being in good health. He had never mentioned anything about heart problems, but her conversation withhis doctor before the funeral told a different story. Her father had known of his heart condition but had chosen not to follow his doctor’s orders.
    She looked around the room again. It seemed like such a long time since she had moved from Otter Crest to accept her first job as an English teacher at a high school in San Francisco. In reality it had been only seven years, but it had been a very eventful seven years.
    She had firmly established her career and earned the respect of her peers for her hard work and dedication to her teaching. She had twice been voted the most popular teacher by the student body of the school. The only downside had been her ill-fated engagement to Al Denton, a man whose idea of commitment to a relationship turned out to be that she was the one with the commitment and he was the one who could continue to date others.
    Several months prior to the wedding, he’d changed. He had become overbearing, demanding, argumentative and controlling to the point where he made her life miserable. Whatever love she had felt for him quickly disappeared. She had broken the engagement, put the unfortunate experience behind her and gotten on with her life.
    And now the past, in the form of Jared Stevens, had intruded into that neatly organized and smooth-running life.
    She wandered into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of iced tea. How in the world could she ever pay off the debt, assuming it was legitimate? She didn’t even know the exact amount. All those years worth of interest on twenty thousand dollars would make the debt even more insurmountable.
    She returned to the living room and sank onto the corner of the couch. She took a sip of her iced tea,