LITMIR.BIZ

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got almost every window open in the house—but they might still bother you.”

      “Of course, it’s lovely out here,” Natalie replied, meaning it. She followed Liam up some stairs, appreciating the view of a sparkling, light blue Lake Michigan.

      “Something to drink?” he asked. “I have iced tea, soda—”

      “No, I’m fine. Please get something for yourself, though,” she said as she sank down onto a cushioned deck chair.

      “I’ll be right back.”

      Natalie nodded and leaned back in the chair. It was hot today, but the humidity had dropped. The view was amazing from there on the stone terrace—the tall prairie grass and colorful flowers in the backyard swaying in the gentle breeze, the waves hitting the rocky beach. She envied Liam. It was two years ago that she’d almost bought the Myerson cottage. She’d fantasized once about taming these surroundings into a cottage garden. Well, not taming, really—who would want to cultivate such a wild, glorious place? Her brother had been very uneasy about the idea of Natalie living in such a secluded spot though, and Natalie hated the idea of him worrying about her. In the end, she’d bought her cozy town house instead.

      It was the practical thing to do, but sitting there on the terrace, she couldn’t help but feel a very illogical longing.

      “If I didn’t know I was in Michigan, I’d swear I was on the English coast,” she told Liam with a smile when he came through the screen door. She automatically took the iced tea he offered her, momentarily forgetting she’d said she didn’t want anything to drink. “It looks so similar.”

      “Does it? I’ve never been,” Liam said as he plopped down in the chair that faced hers. His blue eyes were fixed to her mouth. She suddenly felt foolish for saying something so whimsical and took a sip of her tea.

      “So what it is it you wanted to talk to me about?”

      “Right. To business,” Liam said drolly.

      “That is why you called me, isn’t it?”

      His small shrug seemed to say that the reason would have to do.

      “I don’t know how much you know about my father, but you knew that he was a lawyer,” Liam began.

      She nodded. “He was the legal counsel for Langford, a defense contractor and publicly traded company. He’d worked there for over twenty years.”

      “You’ve done your homework.”

      She lifted her chin to face him. It must seem odd to him to know she’d gathered as much information on his father as she could over the years.

      “I’ve told you how curious I was.”

      He nodded slowly, his eyes steady on her face, before he took a swallow of tea and set down his glass on a wrought-iron table.

      “Then you might know that for a half year before the accident, the Securities and Exchange Commission had been investigating Langford for fraudulent financial statements. As chief counsel for Langford, my father was a major part of that investigation.”

      Her pulse began to throb in her throat. She’d wondered about this very issue. Was Liam saying that his father had acted so irresponsibly on that night sixteen years ago because he knew he might be implicated in Langford’s fraudulent practices?

      “I had heard about it,” she said quietly. “Just an occasional reference here and there in some old news clippings about the crash. The SEC came out several weeks after the accident and announced that no charges would be made following an investigation at Langford. I thought no wrongdoing was found.”

      “There wasn’t any wrongdoing,” Liam said soberly.

      “Then…why are you telling me this?”

      He paused to take a sip of his tea before he continued. Natalie found herself admiring the muscular movement of his tanned throat as he swallowed. She guiltily met his gaze when he spoke.

      “I’m telling you because I figured that you, like most people, would have come up with some sort of conspiracy angle when they heard about the SEC’s investigation. It goes something like this, I can imagine—Derry Kavanaugh swindles thousands of honest shareholders with fraudulent financial reports. When he gets caught by the SEC, though, he can’t stand the prospect of his family and the public knowing he’s nothing but a dirty criminal. He’d rather die than face the music. So he gets smashed one night and in the process of offing himself, selfishly takes three other lives as well.”

      Her cheeks burned at his seemingly casual recital. Maybe he’d stated it bluntly to make a point, but what he’d said was true. She had wondered if something akin to that was behind Derry Kavanaugh’s erratic actions that night. Despite her embarrassment, she refused to be cowed by Liam’s subtle sarcasm.

      “I’ll admit I wondered about the SEC’s investigation. Even if he’d been innocent, your father might have been overwrought. The investigation had gone on for months. That’s a terrific amount of pressure to live under, especially when he had to keep working and putting up a brave front. Many people would crack under stress like that.”

      She paused, feeling self-conscious when Liam said nothing but just studied her, his long legs bent before him and his arms sprawled on the sides of the chair. Beneath his seeming insouciance, she sensed a diamond-hard edge, however, a tension that belied all that relaxed male brawn.

      It made her wary, this difficulty she had in reading him. Was he angry?

      “How do you know that wasn’t the case with your father?” she persisted, despite her uncertainty.

      “Because my father knew that the SEC wasn’t going to level any charges at the time of the accident.”

      “What?” Natalie asked, sitting forward. “But the SEC didn’t announce that until weeks after the crash.”

      “True,” Liam said briskly. “But I accessed Langford’s financial disclosures. The details of the investigation are in the files. The SEC had finished their investigation and made their determination weeks before the accident. The announcement just wasn’t made to the public until a stockholders’ meeting several weeks later. As chief legal counsel, my father knew the SEC’s decision as soon as it was made. I have a dated memo that proves that fact. My father definitely knew Lang-ford was cleared of any wrongdoing at the time of the accident.”

      “I see.”

      “Disappointed?” he asked.

      “No. No, of course not,” she said, irritated. How could he be so warm at times, and at others, downright confronta-tional? “I want the truth, not easy answers.”

      Something about the tilt of his mouth before he took another swallow of his tea made her think he doubted her.

      “Can I ask you a question?” she asked impulsively.

      “Sure.”

      “Did you already know what you just told me, or was it news to you?”

      He shooed a buzzing fly away with a lazy flip of his hand before he answered. “I knew, but in a family-knowledge kind of way. I wasn’t sure of the facts.”

      “What do you mean?” Natalie asked. She leaned forward even farther in her chair. She couldn’t help it. She was sitting with a man who had known firsthand the secrets of the Kavanaugh house. Things that Natalie had wondered about incessantly were common knowledge to Liam.

      Something sparked in his eyes when he noticed her curi-osity…her eagerness.

      “So this is the part where it’s handy to have an inside man for your investigator?” he asked softly.

      “It’s not bizarre that I would want to know what you know.”

      His nostrils flared slightly as he studied her, but then he sighed and glanced toward the lake. The sunlight reflecting off the water seemed

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