Christmas Conspiracy by Robin Perini

Author:Robin Perini
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-10-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Kat couldn’t speak. Her entire body froze with uncertainty. He’d asked her for much more than one week forgetting the world outside. He wanted more. Possibly everything.

Logan stared her down, gauging her reaction as the effects of his challenge ricocheted through her. She swallowed but couldn’t hold his gaze. Something indefinable crossed his expression. Hurt? Disappointment? Grief?

“If you change your mind, you know where I am. I have some things to check on.”

He left her standing alone in the room and climbed the stairs, disappearing from view. Kat took a deep breath. What was she supposed to do? She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.

“What in heaven’s name are you thinking, girl?” Gretchen’s voice pierced the large room. “Do you need an engraved invitation?”

Kat whirled around and faced the slight housekeeper, the woman’s frown as intimidating as the unknown future. “You were listening?”

Gretchen laughed. “Of course I was listening. I’m the housekeeper. That’s part of my job. You don’t think this group of testosterone-driven men could handle saving the world without my guidance, do you?” She stepped closer. “Now it’s your turn. What’s your intention toward my boss? Make it good, because I’ve helped him get over you once, and it was ugly. I won’t have him put through that kind of pain again. His romp with you left him devastated and volunteering for every suicide mission available—and he almost succeeded three years ago in Germany.”

“The coma?” Kat asked, shattered that her children could have lost their father before they ever knew him, that she could have lost Logan.

“The very same, so think hard before you walk away from him this time.”

Kat frowned. “You don’t understand. I’m not trying to hurt him. I’m trying to protect everyone.”

“That’s horse manure and you know it. You’re protecting yourself. You’re afraid to accept all of Logan. Who he is—what he was.” Gretchen planted her hands on her hips. “Do you think I’ve been a housekeeper all my life?”

“I don’t know.”

“Sure you don’t,” Gretchen said, “but I grew up in a house bigger than this one. My father was rich…and the man I married at twenty-one was wealthy enough to make Logan look like a pauper.” Gretchen grabbed a dish towel from the laundry basket she’d set on the chair and started folding. “Do you think less of me because I now keep house for a living?”

“Of course not!” Kat denied. “A lot of people’s circumstances change.”

“Ah, but mine didn’t.” Gretchen set the towel down. “I was a pampered girl, and I enjoyed the money and freedom wealth gave me. I could still be living that same privileged life, but after my husband died and my dearest friend disappeared, I chose to be here on this ranch, watching over her son. For damn sure, the boy’s drunken father wouldn’t take care of him.”

Kat stared at Gretchen, seeing her in a new light.

“Life is all about choices. Logan Carmichael is a good man. The best. But because you doubt yourself, you let him walk out of this room with his heart breaking in two.

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