Hijacked by B.J. Daniels

Author:B.J. Daniels
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Harlequin Intrigue
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“SO IT HAD nothing to do with money,” Jack said sarcastically when she’d finished. “It was just a job.”

She heard the edge to his voice, part anger, part fear that she knew more about his father than he did. “It is seldom about money, although money is usually the exchange medium.”

Jack laughed. “You fleece people. Why don’t you just be honest? It isn’t about vengeance or settling a score. It’s about you taking some poor sucker for everything he’s worth. I became your mark because your family saw the article in Fortune magazine about me. It had nothing to do with my father.”

“You inherited the construction company from your father,” she said calmly. “He started with nothing, right? First remodeling one of the houses in your area, then starting his own business as he began buying run-down buildings, getting low-income housing loans and rebuilding the neighborhood.”

Jack’s gaze narrowed. “That’s right.”

“Later, he moved the two of you out of the neighborhood and started building new subdivisions, but he made his money in your old neighborhood, building houses for the poor—just like you started to do a year ago, after your father died, and taking kickbacks from substandard construction and materials.”

“That’s a lie!”

“Did your dossier mention that I had relatives who came from that Houston neighborhood?” From his expression it was clear he hadn’t known. “I had a great-aunt on my mother’s side who lived in one of the houses your father built. She was killed in a fire. The fire department found a short in the electrical wiring. That’s when it first came out about the substandard materials.”

Jack was shaking his head. “If that were true—”

“Your father hired a lawyer, paid off some people and nothing ever came of it. But part of the deal he made was to stop building houses in our neighborhood and never return.”

Her dark eyes met his, hers warm as honey. Jack thought he glimpsed regret in that gaze and something far worse, pity.

“It would be smart for you to stay away, as well,” she said.

“Don’t worry about me, okay?”

“Fine,” she said, and looked away. “I just don’t think you have any idea how ugly it could get.”

“I grew up on the streets of Houston in a rough neighborhood. I was pretty much on my own from the time my mother left and my father…” He stopped and smiled ruefully. “Oh, I forgot, you know all of that.” And more. “At least, you think you do.”

Jack frowned and looked out the plane window at the darkness. He’d been eleven when they’d left the old neighborhood. It had always bothered him that they never went back. When he’d missed his friends and complained to his father, Kelly Donovan had told him to make new friends. When he’d insisted on seeing old friends, Patrick had been brought to their house in the new neighborhood. Jack wasn’t allowed to go back to the old neighborhood. He’d thought it was because the place held too many bad memories for his father.

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