Deal Breaker

  In Bryce’s protective arms, Hailey felt a stirring that didn’t make any sense considering she’d almost been killed just moments ago.

  Still, the intense feeling made her want to snake her arms up around Bryce’s neck and stay cradled against him forever.

  Frantic for Bryce’s safety, she ignored the questions thrown at her to make sure he was okay, trying to take in what had just happened.

  To Hailey’s relief, with the help of strangers, Bryce was able to hike himself up and onto the shore. The moment he stood on solid ground, his focus immediately returned to her.

  Their gazes locked and she realized what a miracle it was they both came out of this unscathed.

  Why would someone in a city where she didn’t know anyone throw her in the river?

  PATRICIA ROSEMOOR

  DEAL BREAKER

  As always thanks to my critique group for pushing me

  through the tough spots. And special thanks to one member,

  Sherrill Bodine, who so graciously hosts our writers retreats

  in the family Williams Bay/Lake Geneva home,

  inspiration for this story.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Patricia Rosemoor has always had a fascination with dangerous love. She loves bringing a mix of thrills and chills and romance to Harlequin Intrigue readers. She’s won a Golden Heart from Romance Writers of America and a Reviewers’ Choice and Career Achievement Awards from RT Book Reviews. She teaches courses on writing popular fiction and suspense-thriller writing in the fiction writing department of Columbia College Chicago. Check out her website, www.PatriciaRosemoor.com. You can contact Patricia either via email at [email protected], or through the publisher at Patricia Rosemoor, c/o Harlequin Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279.

  Books by Patricia Rosemoor

  HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE

  707—VIP PROTECTOR**

  745—BOYS IN BLUE

  “Zachary”

  785—VELVET ROPES**

  791—ON THE LIST**

  858—GHOST HORSE

  881—RED CARPET CHRISTMAS**

  924—SLATER HOUSE

  958—TRIGGERED RESPONSE

  1031—WOLF MOON*

  1047—IN NAME ONLY?*

  1101—CHRISTMAS DELIVERY

  1128—RESCUING THE VIRGIN*

  1149—STEALING THUNDER*

  1200—SAVING GRACE*

  1261—BRAZEN*

  1292—DEAL BREAKER*

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Hailey Wright—Willing to do anything to save her brother—even marry a man she doesn’t love—why is the Lake Geneva real estate agent getting such bad vibes from the Widow’s Peak estate?

  Bryce McKenna—Refusing to marry for love after his mother disappeared because of the McKenna curse, the Chicago housing developer proposed marriage strictly as a business deal to appease an investor.

  Alice McKenna—More than a decade ago, Bryce’s mother left the house and disappeared into the rainy night, leaving no trace.

  Danny Wright—Will his gambling addiction put his sister’s life in danger?

  Iceman—What business does the Chicago loan shark have in Lake Geneva?

  James Croft—Why is this man with whom Bryce is trying to make a deal so set on buying Widow’s Peak?

  Violet Anderson Scott—What is the spirit of Widow’s Peak’s late owner trying to tell Hailey?

  Ray Anderson—He knows selling Widow’s Peak will give him and his brother Mike a great deal of money, and he wants to sell.

  Mike Anderson—Is Ray’s brother dragging his feet about selling the property because he has something to hide?

  June 22, 1919

  Donal McKenna,

  Ye might have found happiness with another woman, but yer progeny will pay for this betrayal of me. I call on my faerie blood and my powers as a witch to give yers only sorrow in love, for should they act on their feelings, they will put their loved ones in mortal danger.

  So be it,

  Sheelin O’Keefe

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Prologue

  The dark and stormy night was the perfect cover.

  Then lightning lit the sky, and thunder rumbled as his speedboat, engine cut, crested several large waves that pushed it to the shoreline. For a moment, his heart thumped hard against the wall of his chest. Fearing witnesses, he whipped his head around, but tonight the storm assured he was alone on the lake. He aimed the boat carefully and turned into the narrow cove surrounded by trees and bushes that would provide a natural screen. Tying up the boat away from the steps that led down to the water, still concealed by greenery, he ascended the hill in the rain.

  The century-old Queen Anne mansion stood more than a hundred feet above the lake, and without using the steps where he might be seen, he accepted the climb as a challenge, especially tonight. The grass was wet and slippery and several times he lost his footing. Once he slid back several yards and thunked into an old maple.

  Not that the owner would know.

  The owner never knew when he was there, never suspected what he was up to. She wasn’t that old in years, but lately she seemed to be hard of hearing and half-blind—or maybe she was just lost inside her head with grief. Whichever, it gave him every opportunity to take advantage of her unknowing largesse whenever he needed a little extra cash in his pocket. He’d heard about some treasure worth a bloody fortune being hidden in the house, but so far he hadn’t found any trace of it. He’d had to satisfy himself with trinkets and old knickknacks that looked like junk to him but that brought in a pretty penny when hocked. The attic was full of such stuff. He would come back time and again until there was nothing left.

  Widowed the year before, she lived alone, rarely having company other than the grocery boy who delivered her food once a week or the handyman who came only when absolutely needed, both always during the day.

  Only tonight was different.

  As he approached the house, he heard a car door slam.

  What the hell?

  Flattening himself against the building, he inched forward. A woman’s heels clacked sharply on the front steps leading to the wraparound porch, followed by the sound of a bell from inside the house that made him start. Frozen at the corner, icy rainwater trickling down his back, he waited for what seemed like forever before he heard the front door open.

  “Can’t you read the sign at the gate?” came a raspy voice as lightning cracked in the distance. “No solicitors.”

  “I’m not a solicitor, Violet. It’s Alice…Alice McKenna…and I have something very important to tell you. Something I’m sure you’ll want to know.”

  The woman’s excited voice punctuated by more thunder stopped him cold. Why was she here and what could she possibly know that was so important?

  “All right, then. Come in.”

  His gut clenched as lightning lit the area once again. How long was this going to take? He wasn’t going to wait out here forever in this downpour. Besides, he wanted to know what was going on. He moved back along the building, sloshing through puddles, until he got to the basement window that he’d jury-rigged to appear locked but that would easily open for him. It took him through the old coal bin that hadn’t been used in half a century at least. A minute later he shook off the ex
cess water from his clothing and headed up the hidden stairs that servants used to take. The door was cleverly hidden behind paneling and opened into the mud room.

  Beckoned by murmuring voices, he eased his way across the room’s flagstone floor and through the back hall lined with mahogany paneling until he stood directly outside the front parlor.

  “…must be some mistake.” Violet’s voice trembled.

  “I promise you it’s not.”

  Damn! Whatever news the McKenna woman had brought had already been shared. But he listened and he trembled at what they had to say. It couldn’t be—that would ruin everything!

  “It’s knowledge come too late.”

  “Not too late,” Alice said. “Perhaps just in time. Violet, you won’t ever have to be alone again.”

  His gut balled and knotted. Was the McKenna woman moving in on his territory? That would screw his plans royally. He had a good thing going here and he wasn’t about to lose it.

  “Maybe I like being alone.”

  “Or maybe you’ve simply gotten used to it since Tom died. Think about it, Violet, please.”

  “Who else knows?”

  “I wanted to talk to you first, so no one. Not yet.”

  “Let’s keep it that way for now, until I have time to think on it.”

  “All right, if that’s what you want,” Alice said. The old sofa creaked as she rose to leave.

  “Don’t forget this.”

  “No, Violet, you keep it.”

  Keep what? he wondered. He couldn’t see anything lest he reveal himself.

  “Don’t get up,” Alice said. “I can see myself out. I just wanted you to know you have family.”

  He didn’t wait to hear the old woman’s response. His mind whirling, he was already rushing down the hall, retracing his steps. He had to do something or everything would change, not just for now, but for the future. He had plans.

  Plans that the McKenna woman wasn’t going to ruin for him!

  Somehow, he had to stop her before she told anyone else.

  Chapter One

  Hailey Wright hadn’t stepped foot on the McKenna Ridge property since she’d been a teenager. She and Grania McKenna had been inseparable until the family had moved to Chicago and rented out the place for nearly a decade. Too bad her old friend wouldn’t be here tonight—Hailey would have loved to have seen her again, but apparently Grania had a prior engagement back in Chicago. Even though Hailey recognized a lot of the people who were present because they were residents of three of the Wisconsin Geneva Lake towns— Lake Geneva, Williams Bay and Fontana—and some of them were past clients, she didn’t travel in their social circles.

  Hailey was here only because Bryce McKenna had a potential client for her.

  “Hailey,” a lovely older woman with spiked silver hair and wearing bloodred ruby earrings that set off her red-and-silver designer dress said, “it’s so good to see you again. I keep telling everyone I meet if they want the best real estate agent in the area, they should see you.”

  “Thank you, Mattie.”

  Mattie Sorenson had once been her boss.

  “Nothing to thank me for. You are magic—the best employee I ever had.” The woman’s expression turned concerned and she lowered her voice. “The McKennas aren’t thinking of selling, are they?”

  “Not as far as I know.”

  The potential new client was her main reason for accepting the invitation, but she would work the crowd, see who else she might be able to interest. With the bad economy adding to her worries about and loans to her always-in-trouble brother Danny, not to mention her recent breakup with her faithless boyfriend, Stuart, Hailey had been struggling to stay afloat.

  The “magic,” as Mattie liked to call it, had abandoned her.

  She couldn’t give up. She wouldn’t. As she walked through the crowd, she plastered a smile to her lips and was grateful to be here. She didn’t know Bryce McKenna well enough to call him a friend, but she was thankful he’d thought of her when an acquaintance had needed a real estate agent.

  Looking around for Bryce, Hailey took a deep breath. He was nowhere in sight, but of course he was here somewhere.

  McKenna Ridge sat on a high bluff overlooking Geneva Lake. It was quite a distance down to the water and the landscaper had cleverly incorporated a walkway that snaked back and forth, with sitting areas at each curve, ending at the dock where two speedboats were moored. The small patios were bursting with people and with waitstaff passing out appetizers and wine. Bordering the house, a large flagstone patio around a wave pool was filled with tables covered with white cloths and decorated with lit candles and flowers. At the far end of the property, the caterers were attending to a buffet, adding platters of meat that came from the adjoining grills.

  Because Bryce was nowhere in sight, Hailey was trying to decide whom to approach first when her cell phone rang. She slipped the unit from her pocket and saw that the call came from her brother Danny. A knot immediately formed in her stomach as she rushed toward an isolated patio at the side of the house, the entry protected by a couple of big evergreens and an eight-foot limelight hydrangea.

  Once she was certain no one could overhear, she connected. “Danny, I’m at a party—”

  “Yeah, sorry to interrupt your good time but this is really, really important.”

  Closing her eyes, she bit back what she wanted to say, that this party might be the most important event of her professional life. “What is it?”

  “I hate to ask you again, but…I need money.”

  Of course he did. Lately that’s all he seemed to need from her.

  The sounds of the party—of laughter—receded, leaving her far from the festivities in what felt like a fog of memory. Her father abandoning them when they were kids and their mom remarrying and leaving town with her new husband. Hailey had been barely fifteen and a sophomore in high school. Danny had been nineteen. Mom had made it very clear that her husband would prefer not to have her grown children move with them. A hurt and angry Danny had said he would take care of his sister, and he’d done his level best back then. But the last couple of years, she’d been trying to return the favor.

  Her giving Danny money simply wasn’t enough, but Hailey was at a loss as to what more she could do for her brother.

  “Danny, you need help.”

  “Why do you think I’m calling you?”

  “I mean professional help. A counselor. Gamblers Anonymous.”

  “C’mon, Hailey, I’m not an addict. And Lady Luck used to be with me. I’ve just had a hard time trying to get a job lately, so I tried to make money a different way. The economy sucks.”

  “Lately” for Danny had begun far before the market crash, before businesses started closing or laying off employees. Truthfully her brother had never had a job that he’d held for more than a year. Hailey knew he’d started gambling when she was still in high school, when money had been tight, when he hadn’t been able to pay their bills, hadn’t been able to afford to buy her a new dress for her prom. Lady Luck had been with him for a while then. He’d gotten cocky, had expected to win, but she’d deserted him long ago. Lately he’d taken his losses to a new level.

  “Are you going to help me or not?” he asked. “I’m not going to gamble any more, I promise.”

  She couldn’t stand the note of fear in his voice. Couldn’t stand to let him down. Still…

  “Danny, that’s what you said the last time.”

  “But this time I mean it. Honest, Hailey, I’ve learned my lesson. Please…”

  She couldn’t stand hearing him beg. “How much do you need?”

  “It’s a lot, Hailey. I’m really, really sorry.”

  The last time it had been twenty-six thousand. Seventeen the time before that. Those “loans” had not only drained her savings but capital from her business. She might be able to get her hands on a few thousand, but that was it.

  Her chest tightened. “How much, Danny?”

  Silence. The
n he said, “A hundred.”

  “Dollars?” she asked hopefully.

  “Thousand.”

  Stunned, Hailey sank down onto a retaining wall of a nearby flower bed. “Danny, I don’t have that kind of money.”

  “But you can get it, right? I don’t know what else to do, sis. I already went to a loan shark. It’s him I have to pay back. I don’t have anyone else to go to. You have to be able to get it.”

  “How?”

  “What about a business loan?”

  She’d already taken a loan and had given him most of the money. “Not possible.”

  It didn’t take him long to counter, “Well…you could put a second mortgage on your house.”

  She couldn’t believe what he was asking her to do. Not that she had a hundred grand in equity on the house anyway. It was still worth less than when she’d bought it when real estate prices were at their peak.

  “Danny, I think you’d better come home so we can talk this thing out.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about. Either I get my hands on that money within the week…or…”

  “Or what?”

  “I’m a dead man.”

  STROLLING up the walkway, stopping every so often to introduce James Croft to other guests, Bryce Mc Kenna couldn’t forget exactly how important the man was to him, the reason he’d given this shindig. McKenna Development needed an influx of money for its next big project—a building conversion in a popular area on the north side of Chicago. Croft had wanted introductions to the movers and shakers in the Lake Geneva area, so Bryce had thrown this party to impress him.

  “What do you think?” Bryce asked Croft. “Is Lake Geneva everything you imagined it would be?”

  The Chicago elite had been making this area, a comfortable driving distance from the big city, their second home for more than a century. Properties on Geneva Lake itself were rarely simple homes. Far more were mansions, and some were grand estates.

  “So far I’m mesmerized,” Croft said. His dark eyes deep set in a narrow, angled face, sparkled. “I can see having a second family home here—a place for the kids to have great summer memories. Glad you took me up on my suggestion that you bring me up here for the weekend. So where is that real estate agent you promised me? I’m eager to start looking at properties, tomorrow, if possible.”