Buch lesen: «Tempt Me In Vegas»

One

“This isn’t a damn soap opera. It’s real life.” Cooper Hayes jammed both hands into his slacks pockets and shot a glare at the man opposite him. “How the hell did this happen? Secret heirs don’t just appear at the reading of a damn will.”

“The only thing that appeared was her name,” Dave Carey reminded him.

True, but hardly consolation. Cooper stared at the other man for a few long beats. Dave had been his best friend and confidant since college. He was always reasonable, logical and so damn cool-headed that it was irritating at times. Like now, for instance.

“That’s enough, though, isn’t it? She exists. She has a name. And now,” Cooper added darkly, “apparently, half of my company. To top it all off, we know nothing about her.”

Here in his office on the twentieth floor of the StarFire Hotel, Cooper could let his frustration show. In front of the board and the company’s fleet of lawyers, he’d had to hide his surprise and his anger at the reading of Jacob Evans’s will.

Usually, being in this room with its wide windows, plush carpeting and luxurious furnishings helped to center Cooper. To remind him how far the company had come under his direction. As did looking at the paintings of the famed Hayes hotels that decorated the walls. His father and Jacob had started the company, but it was Cooper who had built it into the huge success it was today.

But at the moment it was hard to take comfort in his business...his world, when the very foundations had been shaken.

Cooper still couldn’t quite wrap his head around any of this. Hell, he’d had everything planned out most of his life. Hayes Corporation had been his birthright. He’d trained for years to take the helm of the company and he’d damn near single-handedly made his hotels synonymous with luxury.

Though there were five star Hayes hotels all around the world, their main headquarters was here, in what was considered the flagship hotel, the StarFire, in Las Vegas. The building had undergone massive renovations over the years, but it still claimed a huge swath of the famed Vegas Strip, and at night it glowed as fiercely as the stars it had been named after.

When Trevor died, Cooper had stepped into his father’s place and worked with Jacob. Since the man had no family, it was understood that when Jacob died, the company would fall completely to Cooper, who had been raised to be king.

Except it hadn’t worked out that way.

Cooper looked at Dave again. Now his executive assistant, he and Dave had both worked summers for the corporation, interned in different departments to learn as much as they could and, when Cooper took over from his father, Dave had come along with Cooper. He couldn’t really imagine doing this job without Dave. Having someone you could trust was priceless.

Dave sat in one of the maroon leather guest chairs opposite Cooper’s massive mahogany desk. He wore a black suit with a red power tie. His brown hair was cut short and his dark brown eyes were thoughtful. “We don’t know much now. We will, though, in a couple of hours. I’ve got our best men working on it.”

“Fine,” Cooper muttered darkly as impatience clawed at his insides. “Jacob had a daughter. A daughter no one knew about. Still sounds like a bad plot in a B movie.” Unbelievable. Apparently, Jacob did have family after all. A daughter he’d never seen. One he and the child’s mother had given up for adoption nearly thirty years ago. And he had waited until he was dead to make the damn announcement.

Pushing one hand through his black hair, Cooper shook his head. “You’d think Jacob could have given me a heads-up about this.”

“Maybe he planned to,” Dave offered, then shut up fast when Cooper glared at him.

“I’ve known him my whole damn life,” he reminded his friend. “Jacob couldn’t find five minutes in the last thirty-five years to say, ‘Oh, did I tell you I have a daughter?’”

“If you’re waiting for me to explain this away,” Dave said, lifting both hands in an elegant shrug, “you’ve got a long wait. I can’t tell you why he never told you. I can say that Jacob probably wasn’t expecting to die in a damn golf-cart accident.”

True. If that cart hadn’t rolled, Jacob wouldn’t have broken his damn neck and—it wouldn’t have changed anything. Jacob had been eighty years old. This would all have happened, eventually.

“He gave her up for adoption, ignored her existence for years, then leaves her his half of the company?” Cooper took a deep breath, hoping for calm that didn’t come. “Who does that?”

Dave didn’t answer because there was no answer. At this point all Cooper had were questions. Who was this woman? What would she say when she found out she was a damn heiress? Would she expect to have a say in how Cooper’s business was run? That stopped him cold. No way was she going to interfere in the company; he didn’t care who the hell she was.

“Okay,” he said, nodding to himself as his thoughts coalesced. “I want to know everything there is to know about—” he broke off and looked down at the copy of Jacob’s will laying on his desk “—Terri Ferguson, by the end of today. Where she went to school, what she does, who she knows. Hell, I want to know what she eats for breakfast.

“If I’m going to have to deal with her, I want to have as much ammunition going into this fight as I possibly can.”

“Got it.” Dave stood up and turned for the door. “Maybe we’ll get lucky. Maybe she won’t want any of this.”

Cooper would have laughed, but he was too furious. “Sure, that’ll happen. People turn down billions of dollars every day.”

Nodding, Dave said, “Right.”

“No, she won’t turn it down,” Cooper was saying, more to himself than to his friend. “But she’s not going to show up out of nowhere and be a part of the company. I don’t care who she is. Maybe what we have to do here is find a way to convince her to take the money and then disappear.”

“Worth a shot,” Dave said. “I’ll push our guys to research faster.”

“Good.”

Once his friend was gone, Cooper turned toward the wall of windows at his back. He stared down at Las Vegas Boulevard, better known as the bustling Vegas Strip, nearly thirty floors below, and let his thoughts wander. He’d grown up in this hotel and still lived in one of the owner’s suites on the twenty-fifth floor. He knew every nook and cranny of this city and loved every mercenary inch of it.

On the street, tourists wandered with hope in their hearts and cash in their wallets. They played the machines, the gaming tables and in the bingo parlors. Every last one of them had thoughts of going home rich.

Why would Jacob’s long-lost daughter be any different?

His gaze swept the hotels that surrounded his own and he noticed, not for the first time, that in daylight Vegas held little of the magic that shone on it at night. The city slept during the day but with darkness, it burst into exuberant life.

Cooper’s family had been part of Vegas history for decades, he reminded himself as he turned back to his desk. He’d taken his father’s legacy and made it a worldwide brand. Cooper had made his mark through hard work, single-minded diligence and a vision of exactly what he wanted.

Damned if he’d let some interloper crash the party.

* * *

“I’m sorry.” Terri Ferguson shook her head and almost pinched herself, just to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. But one look around the employee break room at the bank where she worked convinced her that this was all too real. Just fifteen minutes ago she’d been downstairs on the teller line, helping Mrs. Francis make a deposit. Now she was here, sitting across from a very fussy-looking lawyer listening to what seemed like a fairy tale. Apparently, starring her.

“Would you mind saying all of that one more time?”

The lawyer, Maxwell Seaton, sighed. “Ms. Ferguson, I’ve already explained this twice. How many more times will be required?”

Terri heard the snotty attitude in the older man’s tone and maybe there was a part of her that couldn’t blame him for it. But come on. Wouldn’t anyone in her current position be a little off balance? Because none of this made sense.

It had been an ordinary day in Ogden, Utah. She’d gone to work, laughed with her friends, then taken her spot on the teller line at the Wasatch Bank in downtown Ogden. Familiar customers had streamed in and out of the bank until this man had approached her and, in a few words, turned her whole world upside down.

Now the older man removed his glasses, gave another sigh, then plucked a handkerchief from his suit pocket and unnecessarily cleaned the lenses. “As I’ve made clear to you, Ms. Ferguson, I represent your biological father’s estate.”

“My father,” she whispered, the very word feeling a little foreign. Terri had grown up knowing she was adopted. Her parents had always told her the truth, that she had been chosen by them because they fell in love with her the moment they saw her. They’d encouraged her to search for her birth parents once she was eighteen, but Terri hadn’t been curious. Why would she be? she’d reasoned. Where she’d come from didn’t really matter as much as where she was, right?

Besides, she hadn’t wanted to hurt her mother or father. Then her dad died, her mother moved to southern Utah to live with her sister, and Terri had been too busy with college and life to worry about a biological connection to people she didn’t know.

Now that connection had just jumped up to bite her on the butt.

“Yes, your father. Jacob Evans.” The lawyer slipped his glasses back into place. “He recently passed away and in accordance with his will, I’m here to inform you that you are his sole beneficiary.”

And that summed up the weird. Why would he have left her anything? They had no connection beyond biology. And if he’d known who she was, why hadn’t Jacob Evans ever reached out to her? Well, those were questions she would never get an answer to.

“Right. Okay. And I inherited a hotel?” She took a breath and held up one hand before he could speak again. “I’m really sorry. Normally, I’m not this slow on the uptake. Honestly. But this is...just so bizarre.”

For the first time since entering the bank and asking to speak to her privately, the lawyer gave her a small smile. “I do understand how unexpected this must seem to you.”

“‘Unexpected’ is a good word,” she agreed and reached for the water bottle in front of her. She took a sip and added, “Weird is better.”

“I suppose.” Another smile. “Ms. Ferguson, your father was a full partner in the Hayes Corporation.”

“Okay...” That meant exactly nothing to her.

He sighed. “The Hayes Corporation owns more than two thousand hotels, all over the world.”

“Two thousand?” She heard her own voice squeak and winced at the sound. But seriously? Two thousand hotels? That couldn’t be right, could it? Her stomach did a quick pitch and roll and Terri took a deep breath trying to calm it.

The smell of burning coffee from the pot on the counter flavored the air, and the bank’s furnace made a soft hum of background noise. Downstairs people were working, talking, laughing, living normal lives, and up here? Terri was trying to think. Tried to remember who she was, where she was. But her brain had apparently decided it had accepted enough information for one day and shut down.

Resting one hand on a sheaf of papers he had stacked on the table, Mr. Seaton looked at her steadily. At least the gleam of impatience was gone from his eyes. Maybe he was finally understanding what a shock all of this was to her.

“Once you sign these papers, it’s official,” he told her. “You’ll have your father’s share in a very successful company.”

She tipped her head to one side and quietly asked, “How successful?”

One corner of his mouth twitched slightly. “Very. You, Ms. Ferguson, are now an extremely wealthy woman.”

Wealthy. Rich. Also weird. But good. Because her cable bill had just gone up and she had just been forced to put new brakes on her car and with winter coming, she really wanted to get new insulation on her windows and—

She reached for the papers instinctively, then pulled her hand back. “I’d like my own lawyer to look these over before I sign.” Well, her late father’s lawyer, but that didn’t really matter, did it?

“Commendable,” he said with a brief nod. Standing, he closed his black leather briefcase with a snap. Looking down at her, he said, “Your new partner, Mr. Cooper Hayes, is at the company headquarters in Las Vegas. He’d like to see you there as soon as possible.”

“Cooper Hayes.” She should probably write that down.

“Yes. His contact information is included in the packet of papers.” He gave her a small smile. “Hayes Corporation is headquartered at the StarFire Hotel and Casino.”

StarFire. She’d heard of it, of course. Seen pictures in magazines and now that she thought of it, Terri had seen pictures of Cooper Hayes, too. Her mind drew up one of the images of him posing with some celebrity or other—naturally, he was tall and gorgeous with eyes so blue he had to be wearing colored contacts.

And now he was her partner. The idea of going to the StarFire, meeting Cooper Hayes on his home turf, was a little intimidating, but she didn’t see a way around it. After all, she was now half owner of the place. A shocked burst of laughter bubbled up in her chest, but she squashed it. Yesterday she wouldn’t have been able to afford to stay at the StarFire. Now she owned half of it.

Weird just kept getting weirder.

“Okay, thank you.” She glanced at the papers, but didn’t touch them.

“Ms. Ferguson,” the man said quietly, and waited until her gaze met his to continue. “I know this is all new and somewhat overwhelming—”

“Somewhat?” she laughed but the sound she made sounded a little hysterical so she stopped. Fast.

“But,” he continued calmly, “I believe once the surprise of the situation eases, you’ll do very well in your new life.”

“You think so?”

“I do.” He grabbed the doorknob and said, “I’ve left my card with the papers, as well. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call me.”

“Thank you.”

He opened the door and Jan Belling almost fell into the room. She recovered quickly, stumbling to catch her balance, then flashing the lawyer a brilliant smile. “Hi, sorry.”

“No need,” he said, lips twitching. Giving Terri one last nod, he left.

Jan slipped into the room, closed the door and hurried over to take a seat opposite Terri. Her short, spiky black hair complemented bottle-green eyes, making her look like a pixie. “Well,” she said, “that was embarrassing.”

“I can’t believe you were listening at the door.”

“I can’t believe you’re surprised. Besides, I didn’t hear much. The door’s too thick. Stupid historical buildings with real wood doors.” Jan took a breath. “So what happened? Who was he and why did he want you?”

Terri laughed as the tension she’d been feeling for the past fifteen minutes dissipated. Jan was her best friend, and the one person who could help her make sense of all of this. “Speaking of a ‘can’t believe’ situation...”

“Try me.”

Terri shook her head at the strangeness of it all. “I want to tell you all of it, but I should get back to work.”

Jan shook her head. “No worries. The boss says you can take as long as you like. We’re not busy, anyway, so start talking.”

Turning her bottle of water back and forth between her hands, Terri did. As she told her friend everything, it all began to settle in her own mind. It was beyond strange. Crazy. Impossible, even. Okay, maybe her mind wasn’t as settled as she’d thought.

“This is like a fairy tale or something,” Jan finally said once Terri had wound down.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Terri admitted wryly. “So when the clock strikes midnight do I turn back into a pumpkin?”

“Cinderella wasn’t a pumpkin. Her carriage was.” Jan laughed a little. “And this is reality no matter how strange it all seems. This is amazing, Terri. You’re rich. I mean wildly rich.”

“Oh, God.” Terri dropped one hand to her stomach in a futile attempt to calm it. She’d never had a lot of money. Growing up, her adoptive parents had been schoolteachers, so though they’d had a nice life, they’d also driven ten-year-old cars and saved up to take vacations.

Of course, she drove to Idaho occasionally to buy lottery tickets, because who didn’t dream of suddenly becoming a gazillionaire? But to have it actually happen was almost terrifying.

Jan reached across the table to take her hand. “Why aren’t you celebrating? Oh. Wait. Sorry. God, I’m an idiot sometimes. You’re reacting to hearing that your biological father died, aren’t you?”

“Seems ridiculous to be sad about someone you’ve never met, but yeah, I guess I am.” In the midst of the windfall, there was that sad fact. Terri silently wondered what her father had been like. If he had known who and where she was, why had he never contacted her before? Why had he left her everything? She’d probably always wonder.

Jan took Terri’s water, had a sip, then handed it back. “You really had no idea at all about who your biological father was?”

“Not a clue,” she said softly. “And now I’ve got all these questions and no way to get answers and... I don’t know. It’s all so far out there, it’s hard to believe it’s really happening.”

“Yeah, I get that. But,” Jan said, “at least you know he thought about you. Remembered you. And in the end, wanted to give you everything he had.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Terri’s mouth. “Good point. Okay, then. No feeling sorry for myself. But I can be a little panicked, right?”

“Absolutely. The StarFire?” Jan grinned. “That’s supposed to be an amazing hotel.”

“I know.” Terri took a deep breath, but she had a feeling the wild tremors inside weren’t going to be soothed away. Her entire world had just been rocked.

Terri’s mind raced with possibilities. She had a good job, if not an exciting one, but now she had been given the chance for more. Sure, she’d have a lot to learn, but stepping into this new life could be amazing.

“And you own it!”

“Well I own half of it, apparently.” Abruptly, Terri stood up and said, “How do I go from being a bank teller to being a hotel executive?”

“Seriously?” Jan looked at her. “You’re going to make me mad if you start doubting yourself. Okay, fine, there’s the whole surprise factor to take into account,” Jan said. “But you’re smart and you’re good with people and you can do any damn thing you want to.”

Smiling, Terri said, “Thanks for that.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I don’t even know where to start, Jan.”

“With a lawyer.” Jan stood, too, and her expression read sympathy and aggravation. “Terri, this is your big chance. A chance to get out of the bank, to find a job that really interests you. Take it and run.”

All true. Terri had taken this job at the bank because she needed to work. But it wasn’t where she’d wanted to build a career. She really hadn’t known what she wanted. And the longer she stayed at the bank, the more comfortable it became and the less likely it was that she would leave to find something that fit her better.

She’d always done the expected thing. School. Work. Maybe this was the Universe giving her the opportunity to burst out of her rut and find out just what she was capable of.

Jan was right. She had to take this chance. Had to try for... more.

“Your new partner expects to see you in Vegas and you’ve got to figure all of this out before you meet him.”

Terri blew out a breath. She wasn’t a coward. Never had been. Sure, she’d never been faced with anything like this in her life before, but she could do it.

Couldn’t she?

She’d always been the good girl. The good daughter. The responsible one. She’d had dreams of traveling but had accepted that for the things she’d wanted to do and see, she would have to spend years saving money. Now suddenly, the world was laid out in front of her. She’d be crazy to ignore it.

“You’re right,” she said, nodding. “I’ll talk to Mike, tell him I need to take some time off.”

Jan shook her head and smiled. “While you’re talking to the bank manager, you might tell him that you’re going to be taking off forever.”

Terri laughed. “Things are changing, yes. But I’m not ready to throw my whole life out just yet.”

“I think,” Jan said as they left the break room together, “someone already did that for you.”

“I hate it when you’re right.”

Jan laid a hand on her arm. “Terri, you’re making yourself nuts and you don’t have to. Cooper Hayes doesn’t need you to run the company. But you’re his new partner, like it or not, so you do at least get a say in things.”

True, she thought and her mind started racing again. This was the opportunity of a lifetime and she’d be crazy to ignore it or to fear it. Sure, she didn’t know how to run a hotel. But she’d stayed in enough of them to know what she liked and didn’t. That had to count for something. And her Dad had owned a popular restaurant for decades. Terri had worked there herself as a teenager and learned from her father that the key to success in the service industry was making people happy. Sounded easy, but way too many people didn’t understand that.

“Just go, Terri. Grab this shiny brass ring with both hands. And if you need the cavalry, I’m only a plane ride away.”

Terri grinned. “Vegas, here I come.”

* * *

Four days later Terri was in Las Vegas, standing in the massive, opulent lobby of the StarFire Hotel. The floors were covered with wide, navy blue tiles that sparkled as if stars were trapped inside them. The ceiling was high and featured a night sky dazzled by twinkling stars and streaks of light from falling stars leaving trails of gold dust in their wakes. The effect was so real that if not for the crowds and the noise and the fact that it was the middle of the day, Terri would have thought she was outside staring up.

Paintings in gold inlaid frames dotted the walls, and a waiter served complimentary champagne to guests waiting in line to register. The noise level was tremendous, since the casino spilled right off the lobby. Slot machines beeped, pinged and sang out encouragement to the hundreds of people wandering the casino floor.

She turned in a slow circle, saw a gift shop, signs for restaurants and bars and still more people. From what Terri could see, the hotel seemed to stretch on forever. The outside had been impressive, but the inside was like walking into a different world.

One that was hers now.

That thought had her smiling and biting her lip at the same time. She hadn’t contacted her new partner, but she had made a reservation, so she dutifully joined the tail end of the line and accepted a flute of champagne from the waiter.

She hadn’t told Cooper Hayes she was coming. Terri had wanted a little time on her own, to check out her inheritance. To get a feel for what could be her new life. Or to at least explore the possibilities.

She owed that much to herself and to her parents. They’d raised her to be strong and confident. They’d sent her to college, encouraged her to find her passion. How could she walk away from this without even trying to make it work?

And in a way, didn’t she owe it to her biological father, too? She hadn’t known him, but he’d clearly kept track of her. He’d left her everything he had, so she was really his legacy, wasn’t she?

The line moved quickly and in minutes Terri was at the desk, handing over her ID to the clerk. He was young, with a practiced smile and a name tag that read Brent.

“Is this your first time at the StarFire?” he asked.

Terri grinned. “How could you tell?”

He winked at her. “You keep looking up at the ceiling.”

“Guilty.” She took a sip of the champagne. “It’s beautiful.”

“It really is.” He glanced at her driver’s license, tapped a few keys on his keyboard then stopped, turned and stared at her as if she had three heads. “Terri Ferguson?”

“That’s right.” She frowned a little and tried to get a glimpse of the computer screen. “You’ve got my reservation, don’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with the crispness of an audible salute. Gone was the easy, flirtatious smile. Brent was suddenly all business. “We’ve been expecting you, ma’am.”

When did she become ma’am? “Expecting me?” She’d hoped to fly in under the radar but apparently that wasn’t going to happen.

“Your suite is prepared and ready for you, Ms. Ferguson.”

“I didn’t reserve a suite,” she said.

He grinned, printed off two key cards and slid them into a folder with the word StarFire emblazoned across it. He returned her ID, handed her the keys, then looked up and waved to someone behind her. “Like I said, Mr. Hayes—and we—have been expecting you.”

“He has?” Well, of course he has, Terri. Hadn’t the lawyer told her as much?

“Your name was tagged in the system so we’d recognize your arrival right away.” Brent smiled again. “Your suite’s been ready for days. Bill here will take your bags—”

A bellman in his twenties appeared out of nowhere beside her.

“Oh, I’ve only got the one bag, and it has wheels. I can—”

“It’s my job, Ms. Ferguson,” Bill said. “I’ll show you to your suite.”