“You don’t think that will bring on the gossip?”
She assured herself her caution was sincere. It wasn’t merely an attempt to keep Royce here at the ranch.
His eyes narrowed.
“If you come rolling into the office, people are sure to think something’s up.”
“She’s right,” Stephanie put in.
“I don’t see an alternative. I have to talk to the division VPs.”
“Bring them here,” suggested Amber.
Both Royce and Stephanie stared at her.
“There’s your pretext. Come up with a reason to bring them here. Something fun, something frivolous, then take them aside and have whatever discreet conversation you need to have.” She paused, but neither of them jumped in.
“A barbecue.” She offered the first thing that popped into her mind.
Royce’s voice turned incredulous, but at least there was an emotion in it. “You want me to fly the Ryder senior managers to Montana for a barbecue?”
“They’d never suspect,” she told him.
“A barn dance,” Stephanie cried, coming erect on the seat. “We’ll throw a dance to christen the new barn.”
“You’re both insane,” Royce grumbled.
“Like a fox,” said Stephanie. “Invite the spouses. Hire a band. Nobody throws a dance and barbecue when the company’s in financial trouble.”
Amber waited. So did Stephanie.
Royce’s brows went up, and his mouth thinned out. “I find I can’t disagree with that statement.”
Finished with her own breakfast, Stephanie hopped up and transferred her dishes to the sink. She gave Royce a quick peck on the cheek. “See you guys in a while. I have to get the students started.”
As she left the room, Amber screwed up her courage. She definitely needed to clear the air. “Royce-”
“If you have time today,” he interrupted, “could you give me as much information as possible on the cattle ranch finances?” His voice was detached, professional, and his gaze seemed to focus on her hairline.
Amber hated the cold wall between them. “I…”
“Stephanie’s going to pull something together for the horse operation, and I’ll be busy-”
“Of course,” Amber quickly put in, swallowing, telling herself she had no right to feel hurt. “Whatever you need.”
He gave a sharp nod. “Thanks. Appreciate you helping out.” Then he turned and strode out of the kitchen, boot heels echoing on the tile floor.
Amber was curled up on the webbed cushions of an outdoor love seat on the ranch house deck, clouds slipping over the distant mountains, making mottled shade on the nearby aspen groves. She flipped her way through a hundred-page printout from the ranch’s financial system, highlighting entries along the way.
Gopher, one of Molly’s young pups, had curled up against her bare feet. At first, she’d been wary of his wet nose and slurpy tongue. But then he’d fallen asleep, and she found his rhythmic breathing and steady heartbeat rather comforting.
She hadn’t seen Royce since breakfast, and Stephanie was obviously busy getting her own financial records together. Amber’s thoughts had vacillated from heading straight for home, to confronting Royce about last night, to seducing Royce, to helping him sort out his business problems and earning his gratitude.
She sighed and let her vision blur against the page. For the hundredth time, she contemplated her mistake. Why had she panicked last night? Why hadn’t she kissed him harder, hugged him tighter and waited to see where it would all lead?
She was wildly attracted to him. She was truly free from Hargrove now, and there was no reason in the world she couldn’t follow her desires. So what if she’d only known him a few days? They were both adults, and this was hardly the 1950s.
Gopher shifted his warm little body, reminding her of where she was and that, 1950s or not, she’d blown her chance with Royce. The choices left were to leave him, seduce him or impress him. Since she was completely intimidated by the thought of seducing a man she’d already rebuffed, she decided to go with impressing him.
She forced herself to focus on the column of numbers in her lap.
There it was again.
She stroked the highlighter across the page.
Yet another payment to Sagittarius Eclipse Incorporated. It was for one hundred thousand dollars, just like the last one, and the one before that.
She skipped back on the pages, counting the payments and pinpointing the dates of the transactions. They fell on the first day of every month. Where other payments in the financial report were for obvious things like feed, lumber, tools or veterinary services, the Sagittarius Eclipse payments were notated only as “services.”
Amber’s curiosity was piqued. She flipped to the back page. Scanning through the total columns, she discovered one-point-two million dollars had been paid out to Sagittarius Eclipse in the current year, the same amount the year before.
She pulled her feet from the love seat cushion. Gopher whimpered and quickly scooted up next to her thigh, flopping against her.
She smiled at the little puff ball, set the financial report aside and scooped him into her arms. He wiggled for a moment, but then settled in next to her like a fuzzy baby.
“I suppose if I hold on to you, you can’t do any harm,” she whispered to him, checking Molly and the other pups as she rose to her feet. They were curled together at the far end of the deck. Nobody seemed to notice as she carried Gopher through the doorway.
There was a computer close by in the living room, and she sat down in front of it, moving the mouse to bring the screen back to life. She hadn’t graduated in Public Administration without knowing how to search a company. Using her free hand, she called up a favorite corporate registry search program.
An hour later, she knew nothing, absolutely nothing about Sagittarius Eclipse Incorporated. They had to be an offshore company, and a hard-to-trace one at that. She could hear her father’s voice inside her head, warning her that when something didn’t seem right, something definitely wasn’t right. But since she wasn’t nearly as suspicious as her father, she refused to jump to any conclusions.
Shifting the sleeping puppy, she dug into her pocket to retrieve her cell phone, dialing Stephanie’s number.
“Yo!” came the young woman’s voice.
“It’s Amber.”
“I know. What’s going on?”
“You ever heard of a company called Sagittarius Eclipse?”
“Who?”
Amber repeated the name.
“What are they, astrologers or something?”
“I hope not.” Amber nearly chuckled. If Ryder Ranch was paying for a hundred grand a month of astrology services, they’d better be accurately predicting the stock market.
“Never heard of them,” said Stephanie. “How are things looking at your end?”
“Best I can come up with is to stop work on the new barn,” said Amber. And maybe quit paying for unidentified “services.” But something stopped her from mentioning the strange payments to Stephanie.
“I hate to say it,” Stephanie returned, “but I’d better not buy Blanchard’s Run.”
“I thought that was a foregone conclusion.”
“A girl can hope.”
This time, Amber did laugh at the forlorn little sigh in Stephanie’s voice. “Suck it up, princess.”
“Easy for you to say. It’s not your business being compromised.”
Amber couldn’t deny it. What’s more, she couldn’t ignore the fact that she didn’t have a business to compromise. Nor did she have a career to compromise. The only thing she’d ever been able to call a vocation was her role as Hargrove’s loyal fiancee and future wife. And she’d completely blown that job yesterday.
