High Stakes Seduction - Book 1 Read Free

they could tell me was that the claim was legitimate, though they suggested I could seek legal advice if I wanted to contest it. Which meant my sister and I were still dealing with Dad’s debts, while some complete stranger would be getting half a million dollars.
    I rubbed at my temples, trying to figure out what to do next. I decided to take the insurance company up on their suggestion, pulling out my phone and flipping through my contacts.
    "Hi Mr. Conner," I said when his secretary put me through. "It’s Angela Tilson."
    "Angelina?" he said, using the name I hated. But he was an old family friend of my mother’s who’d known me since I was young enough to love that nickname. I could forgive him for still calling me that. "How are you? How is your sister doing?"
    "Not so great," I said. I wasn’t in the mood for small talk, so I spilled right into the details of our situation. Conner listened intently, "hmm"ing and "uh huh"ing at the appropriate times. I could almost see the crinkle in his brow and the look of concentration he always had when he was thinking really hard about something. I could hear him typing away on his keyboard in the background as I spoke.
    "Antonio Mancini is pretty well known here in town," he said when I stopped talking. "He's in the fashion business. Seems to have lots of connections." I heard his fingers on the keys again. "Hmm…" he said, trailing off.
    "I want to meet this guy, Mr. Conner. I want to know who he is."
    "Hmmm, no, Angelina. That's not a wise decision," he said in that lawyer tone of his. "I understand you want to know more about him. So I'll tell you what. Let me have someone look into this Antonio Mancini for you. Promise me you'll sit tight and just wait until you hear back from me, okay?"

Chapter Five
     
    I stood gazing at the urn that contained what was left of our father. We hadn't decided yet what to do with his ashes, so they sat on our fireplace mantel, next to Mom's. It was strange to think of the two of them together again, but there was also some measure of comfort in knowing where I could find them if I needed to.
    I laughed at myself, feeling silly for the nostalgic sense of family I got, looking at their remains. There was a kind of madness to the whole situation and I certainly hadn't sorted everything out yet.
    God, how I hated to wait for things to come to me. I wished there was something more I could do to unravel the mysteries surrounding the events of the past week. I knew my pacing and silent cursing wouldn't change a thing. But it did help to dissipate some of the anger and sadness I didn't yet know how to deal with.
    True to his word, Mr. Conner had a thick manila envelope delivered to us by courier within a week. Maria already had the contents spread out across the coffee table when I got home from my job at the restaurant that night. There was quite a pile of papers she was riffling through.
    "If I see another set of official documents this week, I swear I’m going to–"
    "Oh you’ll want to see this," Maria interrupted, pointing to several photographs strewn across the table.
    I sat down beside her, and immediately understood what she was talking about. "He’s … um… gorgeous…" I said, picking up one of the photos.
    " That's Antonio Mancini," she said, turning the photo over to show me the note written on the back.
    The man stared at me with cool dark eyes, well-coiffed hair and a tiny smile on the corner of his lips. He was on a crowded sidewalk with people bustling around him, but he stood out in his perfectly tailored suit. He had the look of a man who was completely in control.
    I spread the photos out on the table so I could see them, but I was unable to stop myself from admiring just how handsome this particular man was. Then something caught my eye. Or rather, someone . The photographer had managed to snap several shots of Mancini meeting with different people, including the mayor.
    The mayor was known less for his charitable work