His breath left him. Stunned, he stood like a statue while his mind raced.
She had to be an employee at Hayward. The answer to his prayers. Surely, she had access to the information he needed. At the very least, she knew someone with access. After months of dead-end trails and closed doors, she was the “in” he’d been looking for. Maybe he could buy her a coffee and casually get to know her. He painted on his most ingratiating smile and turned to speak to her. But she was gone.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Miller.”
The voice came from behind him. He whipped around to see her, head tucked down, as she slipped out the door.
He couldn’t let her escape. Not when he was so close to finding the answers.
“Wait!”
Heart racing, he handed his coffee back to the confused manager and hurried after her. When he got outside, she was running across the parking lot, the soiled sweater hanging from her arm.
“Hey! Stop! I don’t even know your name!”
She reached her car—a small, dated sedan—and jumped inside. Cole ran toward the parking lot entrance, intending to block her way, but she pulled out of her parking place and exited behind the building, her tires spinning as she drove through a patch of gravel.
What just happened?
CHAPTER 2
Cole watched Finn’s face disappear from the large video screen on his office wall, but Finn’s laughter continued, even after he slid from his chair, presumably to roll on the floor. The conference call was doing nothing to improve Cole’s mood. He’d hoped to get some encouragement from his three best friends and business partners. But Finn’s antics had the other two laughing as well.
“There’s nothing funny about this!” Cole crossed his arms and glared at the screen, waiting for Finn to reappear.
With a strong friendship forged at a computer camp for teens with disabilities, Cole knew Finn cared deeply, despite his teasing. Living with a limited lifespan from his sometimes-debilitating cystic fibrosis, Finn kept a light-hearted attitude, laced with droll wit. Cole usually found Finn’s sense of humor entertaining, but was in no mood for it today.
Jarrett Alvarez, on the split screen from his office in Denver, was the first to regain his composure. Like Cole, Jarrett also wore a prosthesis, having lost his leg as a young teen due to bone cancer. “Maybe she ran away because Hayward Home warned her about you. Haven’t you been fighting with them about releasing information?”
“Hayward Home doesn’t know I’m involved. Garner made all the inquiries without giving a hint to my identity. He’s been very careful.”
“What if they kept tabs on the babies after they were adopted? They might’ve figured it out.” Jarrett leaned forward, his elbows on his desk, dark hair falling across his forehead.
“My adoptive parents only lived in Houston for three years before my father died. I don’t even remember him.” Cole ignored Finn as he crawled back up into his chair, instead addressing the other two, who were at least attempting to be supportive. “Mom moved to Kansas to live with her parents. She married Dad two years later, so my name was changed from Davis to Miller five years after the adoption, and I lived there until I graduated from high school. I can’t believe Hayward could keep up with all that.”
“But Garner’s been asking questions about you. Surely their records show the baby had a deficient arm, and you’re a celebrity with a missing hand,” said Jarrett. “They might’ve put two and two together and warned their staff about you.”
“I guess it’s possible.”
He almost hoped it was true, though it would mean his chances of gaining information were slim-to-none. The woman’s rejection bothered him more than he cared to admit. She’d thrown down the gauntlet, and he was determined to win… whatever it took.
“What if she isn’t single, and she thought you were trying to make a move on her?” Jarrett asked.
“It’s possible she’s in a relationship.” Cole wasn’t particularly happy about the idea. “The guy at the coffee shop said she had a ring but hadn’t been wearing it lately.”
With a gulp of water from his insulated cup, Finn regained enough composure to poke fun at him again. “Maybe the woman ran away because she hates city guys who dress up like cowboys.” Somehow, the tease sounded even more irritating with Finn’s slight British accent.
“I own a ranch with 200 head of cattle.” Cole ground his teeth together, once again defending his preferred mode of dress to Finn. “I think that earns me the right to wear boots and a Stetson.”
“But you’ve never been on a horse.”
Finn grinned his challenge. Cole had no desire to ride a horse, and Finn knew it.
“I don’t need a horse. I can cover my entire thousand acres with my pickup and a four-wheeler.”
“Let’s get back to the subject at hand,” said Branson Knight, who was broadcasting from New York, along with Finn. “What do you know about this woman?”
“Her name is Brooke, and she comes in for coffee three or four mornings a week.” Cole wiggled his jaw from side to side, trying to relax the tight muscles. “The kid at Lava Java confirmed that she works at Hayward Home. He said he’d asked her about the logo on her shirts.”
“I haven’t seen you this uptight about a girl since college.” Despite having two sightless prosthetic eyes, Bran’s piercing gaze seemed to read Cole’s mind.
“You still can’t see me,” Cole joked, pulling at his suddenly-too-tight collar.
“I see plenty.” Bran cocked his head. “You think Brooke might be different from all the other women, and you’re afraid to find out. At some point, you have to give love a chance. Why can’t you admit you like her?”
Ever since Bran had tied the knot, he’d been after the others to settle down and get married. Finn had already followed suit, but Cole and Jarrett were firm holdouts.
“Because I don’t like her. She’s just my only lead to find out about my birth mom. If I could get to know her, she might agree to do a little research for me.” Cole let out a nervous chuckle, his pen tapping a machine gun rhythm on the table. “But it doesn’t matter. She’s obviously not attracted to me, so it’s another dead end.”
“I bet the real reason she wasn’t interested was that she saw you on that Millionaire Matchup show.” Finn waggled his brows. “She knows you’ll be married to someone else in a few months, so why bother?”
Cole let out a low rumble from his throat. “I’m not getting married. Not now. Not ever.”
“Didn’t you say they had you trapped?” Jarrett lifted his eyebrows in question. “That the document you signed was legally binding, with a million-dollar penalty for reneging?”
“Yes, but Garner’s going to find some way to get me out of it.” He hoped and prayed his words were true.
