Bachelor No More. Victoria Pade

      Mara again helped the older woman out of the recliner. “Are you okay?” she asked Celeste.

      Celeste smiled miserably. “Maybe being naive wasn’t so bad. I just don’t want anyone thinking that I need fancy lawyers and postponements and wheeling and dealing to cover something up.”

      “No one will think that,” Mara assured her. “You have the right to the best defense and that’s all this is. Even if it has happened fast and…furiously.”

      Celeste nodded once more but still looked uncertain.

      “Go let the brandy do its job and get some rest,” Mara urged.

      Another nod. Then Celeste turned to her grandson and took his hand in both of hers. “Thank you for coming. And for wanting to help.”

      “I am going to help, you can be sure of that.”

      It was somehow cold comfort but still Celeste muttered, “Okay…”

      Then she said good-night to both Mara and Jared and left them alone again in the living room.

      Only when Mara heard Celeste’s bedroom door close did she turn to Jared Perry.

      “I’ve been trying to get her to agree to having a lawyer. I just couldn’t make myself scare her into it.”

      One eyebrow arched at her. “Are you saying I shouldn’t have?” he challenged.

      “I’m just saying I couldn’t and maybe just a little lighter touch would have been—”

      “I believe in doing what needs to be done—whatever that is, whatever it takes,” he said as he put on his coat. “But then I’m usually the person who comes in and gets things turned around when no one else can bring themselves to do it.”

      Take-No-Prisoners Perry. Mara could see it.

      And maybe because of that and because of the change that had overtaken Celeste before she’d gone to bed, Mara wavered a bit in thinking that what he’d just accomplished was an altogether good thing.

      “It is better for Celeste to have a lawyer, isn’t it?” she said with a hint of uncertainty of her own now.

      “A lawyer who isn’t an overworked, underpaid, uninvolved, uninterested public defender? Much.”

      “This woman you’ve hired—or enlisted—she’ll do everything possible for Celeste?”

      He narrowed those ice-blue eyes at her. “Am I hearing suspicion of me again?” he asked, the challenge once more in his tone as he referred to her earlier questions through the door.

      “I don’t really know you. And you don’t really know Celeste. You wouldn’t be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, coming in here to pressure her into something you have set up to hurt her rather than help her, would you?”

      That seemed to amuse him slightly because a small, slow smile made one side of his mouth creep upward. “Now why would I do that?”

      “There are people who believe that Celeste was in on the bank robbery and that she killed her lover’s partner. There are people who think that at the very least she was an accomplice to it all. And there are other people who think that even if she didn’t commit those crimes, there should be consequences for having left her husband and sons the way she did.”

      “I’m not any of those people.”

      “But you could want to get back at her for your grandfather’s sake or because she abandoned your father or…I don’t know, for not being a doting grandmother when you were a kid.”

      That apparently amused him even more because the other side of his sexy mouth joined the first in an uptilt. “Actually, I’ve always thought my grandmother and I might be kindred spirits if we ever got to know each other. So no, I don’t have anything to get back at her for. I honestly am here to help her.”

      Mara knew he could just be saying that to cover his tracks if he intended to do damage to Celeste. But she had no way of telling whether he was lying.

      And she had lobbied for Celeste to have a private attorney. Now that Jared Perry had accomplished that, Mara didn’t have much choice but to trust him. And to hope for the best. But that didn’t keep her from worrying just the same.

      She raised her chin at the man who stood tall, strong and sure before her. “If you’re lying and you do anything to hurt her…”

      Her threat made him smile full-out—a broad, amused grin that put creases down his cheeks and would have been something to marvel at if Mara hadn’t suddenly been so concerned about his intentions.

      “What will you do to me?” he asked with barely contained delight

      Unfortunately Mara didn’t have any threat at all, let alone a good one.

      So she merely stood her ground and said, “This had just better be what you’re saying it is.”

      “Careful, I don’t think you know who you’re dealing with.”

      “Careful yourself, or you might end up cut off at the knees.”

      Mara didn’t know where that had come from or how she’d managed to make it sound as ominous as she had. She also didn’t know what she would possibly do if he pushed it. But still she stared him down—navy blue eyes locked unwaveringly with ice-blue.

      Until he blinked.

      Not because she’d won the stare-down, but because he couldn’t laugh without breaking it.

      Then he said, “Relax, Mama Bear, I only came to help your cub.” He sauntered to the door, opened it and then added, “I’ll be in touch,” before he walked out and closed the door behind him.

      Mara deflated, realizing that meeting Jared Perry had had its own impact on her as it rippled through her like an aftershock.

      An aftershock that brought with it something a little tingly.

      Something a little tingly and, surprisingly, somehow exciting.

      Chapter Two

      Jared Perry was out of bed at 5:00 a.m. Monday morning and on the phone to his assistant in New York by 5:05. That made it 7:05 a.m. New York time so he knew Lloyd was answering at home. It didn’t matter. Lloyd was used to Jared calling him at all hours.

      After rattling off questions concerning his newest takeover—a sporting-goods business in Colorado—and giving Lloyd instructions for the day, Jared took a shower, shaved, did some paperwork, phoned his man in charge of the revamp of an international electronics firm based in London and watched the clock until the more reasonable hour of 8:30 a.m. That was when he called Stephanie to see what kind of headway she was making with the postponement of Celeste’s questioning.

      The news was not what he had been hoping for.

      Authorities had already delayed the interrogation in order to gather and organize their information, Celeste had a public defender appointed to her so she was represented, and there was no reason for officials to put off her questioning any longer. The fact that Celeste had had a last-minute change of mind regarding representation was Celeste’s—and Stephanie’s—problem. The stage was set, investigators and the district attorney had made travel arrangements to Northbridge, and they were firm in their determination that today be the day.

      “That’s it then? It’s happening without you?” Jared asked.

      “I spoke to the public defender and he’ll still be there, only now as my proxy while I participate through a conference call. I’m sorry, J., but that’s all I can do on such short notice. I have a death penalty hearing today and tomorrow and I can’t leave until it’s over.”

      “I’m worried that if you’re not here to coach her, Celeste might say something she shouldn’t.”

      “I’ll call