“Lex, man, I’m sorry to bother you.”
Alex massaged his eyes and forced his agitation to subside. “Don’t worry about it. What’s up?”
Horace White sighed heavily over the line. “It’s about the buyouts. Looks like the same real estate company’s handling all the deals.”
“Is that right?” Alex remarked, smoothing one hand across his jaw as he perched on the edge of his desk. “Who were they commissioned by?”
“We got no idea. It’s still a mystery.”
“And who’s the real estate company.”
“Another mystery.”
“Damn.”
“My exact sentiments,” Horace replied with a grimace as he paced his office.
“So how’d you find out the same company handled all the closings?”
Horace hesitated, before blurting, “Topaz did some digging and found this out. She came to see us this morning.”
Alex was rigid. “Topaz?” he repeated.
“We didn’t like it either,” Horace noted, sensing his friend’s aggravation. “It was important to her, though, man. Like us, she’s got some good friends who own businesses on this end.”
“Yeah, I guess I can understand that,” Alex said, though he still didn’t approve of her investigating something with such dangerous possibilities.
“So where do you figure we should go from here?”
Alex smoothed one hand across the back of his neck and stood. “Well, y’all can either wait to see if there’s anyone else on the street who can’t be intimidated or go out and drum up support against the buyouts. Maybe it’ll draw out whoever’s behind this and they’ll know what they’re really up against.”
Horace slammed his palm against his desk. “That’s damn good. We’re on it.”
“Horace? You keep her out of this, you hear?”
Horace debated on whether to respond. “Lex, man, Topaz has her own way about stuff. I don’t think keepin’ her out of this will be possible,” he finally said.
“You do what you have to and I’ll do the same.”
Topaz was on her way out of the Queen City Happening building. She was caught up in her own world—her mind on the kiss and Alex. She could feel her knees turn to water as she recalled the overpowering emotion that rose when he held her. After a moment, she rolled her eyes and grimaced. She was the last person to act like a girl who’d just received her first kiss. Still, she was hard-pressed to recall having ever been kissed that way before.
“Topaz, stop,” she ordered, barely moving her lips as she spoke to herself, “it was just a damn kiss.”
Of course, it was a kiss from no ordinary man. Alexander Rice was a man completely removed from anyone she’d ever known. It was maddening trying to determine why he captivated her so.
“Hmph, and if I could figure that out, maybe I could treat him the same as any other man and he wouldn’t occupy the majority of my thoughts.... Yeah, right,” she grumbled.
It was then that Topaz heard her name. Turning, she found Casey Williams approaching her on the sidewalk.
“Mmm ...” Casey said as they shared a warm hug. “I didn’t count on seeing you today. Got time for lunch?” he asked.
Topaz felt her spirits lifting. “Definitely,” she sighed, taking Casey’s arm when he offered to escort her. “So what’s going on? You seem to be in a great mood.”
“You should know what’s going on,” he smugly responded.
Confusion marred Topaz’s amber gaze; then it suddenly cleared. “You found out something?” she breathed, watching Casey send her another smug look.
“If it’s what I think, girl, you’ve just dropped in my lap what could be the biggest story of the year.”
“Lord, Casey, what’d you find?”
“After I got off the phone with you, I called a friend of mine who works for one of the local agencies in town.”
Topaz felt a shiver that had nothing to do with the nip in the air. “And?” she prompted.
“We made a little small talk before I asked about the buyouts on Briarcliff.”
“Was it his company?”
“Nah, but he was very eager to talk about it anyway since his company had lost out on handling the account.”
Topaz squeezed Casey’s arm and they stopped walking. “Are you trying to tell me all those businesses were looking to sell their shops at the same time?”
Casey stepped closer. “I’m trying to tell you that the real estate company is the one buying the shops.”
“Wait a minute. I thought real estate agencies were like the middle man in selling property. I didn’t think they bought it for themselves.”
