“Did you get my voice mail earlier?” Rose asked as he followed her down the long hallway, which was lined with framed family photos.
“If you mean did I take the steaks out of the freezer, yes,” he answered. His gaze was locked on the fall of her hair, sliding down her back, swaying with her every step. On the curve of her hips, the lean length of her legs. He shook his head and swallowed a groan.
The flat heels of her shoes tapped against the wood floor and he liked the sound. Her steps were brisk, no-nonsense, and he had always liked a confident woman.
Funny, that wasn’t how he remembered Rose, though. When he’d first met her, she had seemed shy and a little standoffish. She’d hardly spoken to him the few times he’d seen her. But, he thought in retrospect, that had probably been due to Dave standing guard over her like a rabid pit bull.
He remembered being intrigued by her. He also remembered Dave shutting him down, fast. Back then, Rose’s older brother had made it clear that she was off-limits. Now, Lucas had to wonder if she’d been off-limits only to him, since Dave was already planning on using Lucas to worm his way into a position of trust. Already planning on using the Kings and stealing from them.
And wondering that, Lucas had to also ask himself if Rose hadn’t been in on it from the jump. Maybe, instead of being the carefully protected sister, she had been the bait in the trap. Beautiful. Seductive. Always kept out of reach, but dangled in front of a man until he stopped paying attention to whatever else was going on around him.
He watched her now through narrowed eyes, suspicion clawing at him. She moved around his kitchen, humming under her breath and even shuffling her feet into a little dance move to accompany whatever song was playing in her mind. She looked lovely. Innocent.
But how innocent could she really be? he wondered now. She was, after all, a Clancy.
Damn it, why had he never considered this before? Dave hadn’t let Lucas get close to Rose, but he’d made damn sure that Lucas had had a good look at her. Can’t catch anything if the victim never sees the bait. Victim.
A rush of fury pushed through his veins. No. He wouldn’t accept that. He wasn’t a damn victim. He had been the target of an unscrupulous family. That didn’t make him a victim. It made him…what, exactly? A fool for trusting? Well, he already knew that and accepted it.
The tide was about to turn, though. He’d get even with Dave for what he’d done to Lucas and the Kings. The upside was, now that he’d considered Rose might have been a part of the whole setup, he felt less…not guilt, precisely, but regret, about using her.
Lucas set her iron pan onto the stove with a clatter that got her attention. She whirled around and grinned at him. “You’re going to love dinner tonight. And it’s easy enough that you’ll be able to make it again on your own anytime.”
“Good to know.” He tucked his hands into his jeans’ pockets, leaned one hip against the edge of the black granite counter and watched her.
Frowning a little, she slipped out of the bright yellow windbreaker she wore over a cream-colored shirt and a pair of black jeans. “Is there something wrong?”
“No,” he said with a shrug he hoped was convincing. “What could be wrong?”
“I don’t know. You seem…” She paused, then shook her head. “Never mind.”
Lucas told himself to lighten up. He didn’t want to make her uneasy. Couldn’t afford to scare her off before he had a chance to make her brother pay. So he smiled and offered, “Sorry. Bad day at work.”
“What happened?”
“Why do you want to know?” he asked and wondered if she was reporting in to her brother on everything Lucas had to say. Then he scowled at himself and let that one go. There was such a thing as going overboard. Dave had already taken the Kings for all he was going to get. No doubt he’d forgotten all about them and had moved on to steal from someone else.
“Just curious, jeez,” she said. “Thought you might want to talk about it, that’s all. But no big deal if you don’t.”
“Sorry again,” he said, shoving one hand through his hair. “I’m in a crappy mood and taking it out on you.”
“It’s okay, everybody needs to unload once in a while.”
“Understanding of you,” he muttered.
“Well, growing up in our house, believe me, I heard my father and Dave complaining all the time. I’m sort of used to it.”
He didn’t stiffen this time when she mentioned her brother, though damned if he didn’t want to question her. Find out exactly what Dave had had to say about him two years ago. But he wouldn’t. Not yet, anyway.
Instead, he gave her a brief description of the minor crises at King Construction. “One of the crews had to shut down. A retaining wall crumpled and a man was hurt.”
Worry sparked in her eyes. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Yeah.” Lucas shoved away from the counter, walked to the opposite side of the cooking island and looked at her. “Broke his leg in two places, though, so he’ll be out for a while. Meanwhile, the crew was pulled out so a different one can go in tomorrow to reinforce the retaining wall. And there’s a customer complaining about her new block wall fence. Seems when she told us to build it five-and-a-half-feet tall, what she really meant was six feet and we should have known.”
She grimaced, then smiled in sympathy. “According to Dave, women customers are the worst.”
“I don’t know. I usually like working directly with the woman of the house. Most times, she knows what she wants and she can make a decision quicker than her husband.” He slapped both hands onto the cool granite. “Men tend to look at a situation from every possible angle. A woman will look, see what something needs and just do it.”
She tipped her head to one side and studied him. “You were right before.”
“About what?”
“When you said you were nothing like my brother,” she told him.
In the overhead lights, her eyes blazed a clear, summer-sky blue. Her cheeks were still a little pink from the cold wind outside and when she licked her lips, a knot of something hot and needy settled inside Lucas.
It seemed, he thought, that every minute with Rose Clancy, he was fighting to maintain control. Something about this woman sneaked past every defense he had ever had in place, and despite suspecting that she might have had a hand in what Dave had done to the Kings two years ago—or maybe because of it—he wanted her. Bad.