His Deception, Page 2

  Spend time with him? Alone? “Yes, of course.” She cursed what she could only describe as a thrill shooting through her. He wanted a place to stay, not her. “I need to check on the kitchen, but I’ll make time for you when you’re done.”

  Picking up the burger, he said, “I’ll be looking forward to it.”

  Not as much as she would.

  Smiling, Katelyn nodded and headed for the kitchen, glad that the lunch rush was coming to an end so she would have as much time as she liked with him. Showing off those rooms for rent, of course.

  —

  This wasn’t part of the deal. Thorne told himself he wasn’t supposed to be attracted to Katelyn Wade, but there it was. Not that being attracted to her would hurt anything. As long as he didn’t act on it, she didn’t have to know about his having the hots for her any more than she did about his reason for being here.

  True to her word, she made herself available to show him the unoccupied guest rooms by the time he finished eating. The first room she opened was on the second floor. It was cheerfully decorated in yellow and white. The bed was king-size. The bath had what looked like a new walk-in shower with multiple heads. But the view out the window was of the road and the parking lot.

  “So what do you think?” she asked when he finished his inspection.

  “It’s fine, but…”

  “But?”

  “Anything with a lake view?”

  “On the third floor. It is a suite, though, not just a room. Nearly double the cost.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Well, then.” She shrugged. “Upstairs, it is.”

  He let her lead the way. Watching her hips sway as she climbed the stairs sent a frisson of heat through him. He told himself to find some distraction. He kept looking at her rear anyway.

  When they got to the third floor, he glanced around as she opened the door to the right of the stairway. There were eight rooms with baths below, but only six doors on this floor.

  “You have what? Two suites up here?”

  Her brow crinkled as she glanced at him. “Good guess. You really are observant.”

  “So you live in the other one?”

  “Me? No. I have an apartment on the first floor. I have a direct view of the lake, but I’m pretty much too tied up all day anyway to appreciate it.” Then she stepped inside.

  Thorne followed her into a nicely decorated room with old sepia-tone prints of the town and lake on the pale blue walls. A comfortable-looking cream-colored couch and two matching chairs were grouped around a large flat-screen television.

  Katelyn was saying, “This suite has a walk-out balcony,” but he was already there, opening the doors.

  She followed him outside.

  “Great view,” he said.

  “Yes, one of the reasons I bought the place. I always had an affinity for water growing up in Kenosha on Lake Michigan. But Geneva Lake has a special place in my heart. You can see not only the town from here, but the waterside mansions, as well.”

  “Right.” He had a 180-degree view. He could see anyone approaching the place from the lake. Or from the lakeside pathway in either direction. “Perfect.”

  “You haven’t even seen the bedroom and bath yet.”

  He arched a brow at her. “I’m sure they’re great, too.”

  She blinked and her cheeks flushed.

  Warmth rushed through Thorne, making him think his assignment was going to be more difficult than he’d imagined.

  He cleared his throat. “About the bartender’s job…do you have anyone in mind?”

  “No. Sorry. If you want more than beer, you’ll have to go into town, at least until the weekend when Chad’s working the bar. I’ve put the word out that I have an opening, but no one has applied.”

  “What about me?”

  “You?” Her eyes widened. “I can’t guarantee you’ll make enough to pay for this suite.”

  “That’s not why I’m asking. I don’t need a job at the moment.” He was already at work, not that he could say so. “But I’m planning on sticking around Lake Geneva for a while. Bartending will give me a chance to get to know some of the locals. At any rate, you need a bartender now, right? I could fill in until you find someone permanent.”

  Katelyn appeared skeptical. “Any experience?”

  “More than enough.” That had been a few years back, before he’d figured out what he wanted to do with his life, but getting behind a bar would be like riding a bike. It would all come back to him. “Give me a trial period. If you find someone else you’d rather have work for you, I’ll step back.”

  But in the meantime, he would get a better lay of the land. Not to mention that he would be able to get closer to Katelyn without raising her suspicions.

  “I do have a birthday party coming in tonight.” Heaving a sigh, she caved. “All right. A trial it is, then. And if it works out, the café is open Tuesdays through Sundays. You can get an extra day off if you can get Chad to work for you.”

  “No problem. When can I start?”

  “Tonight, if that’s all right with you.”

  “Tonight’s perfect.”

  Chapter 2

  Perfect…

  The sentiment resonated with Katelyn later that afternoon. Having checked in a couple of new arrivals to the guest rooms, she retreated to her own quarters to relax until the dinner rush started in a couple of hours.

  Thorne Hudson seemed too perfect to be real. She would have not only the bartender she needed so she wouldn’t lose patrons to one of the nearby competitors, but also some eye candy for the young women who frequented her place. Thinking the last made her frown, but she shook off any negativity. If Thorne drew in more customers by tending bar, that was just plain good for business, which meant it was good for her. Besides, he could provide eye candy for her, as well.

  Her cellphone rang. About to answer it, she stopped herself when she saw Aaron’s name on the screen. Her former boyfriend had left several concerned-sounding messages about what had happened on the Bascom College campus the previous week. Seven people killed, others injured, the gunman disappearing after discarding the automatic weapon made by one of her father’s companies. But why the sudden renewed interest in her? She’d been through with him for eight months. Did he think he simply needed to show some concern about her father and she would let him back into her life, even after he’d turned all their problems on her after the breakup?

  Like hell she would.

  Her life had changed drastically for the better since she’d gone her own way.

  For years she’d fought using the trust fund her father had set up for her. She knew he loved her, and she loved him, but she hadn’t wanted to feel like she was indebted to him in any way. Her father was the most controlling person she’d ever known, even if he was well-intentioned.

  That was the reason her mother, Marion, hadn’t wanted to marry him, the reason she’d left him and come home to Wisconsin, and then put off telling him she was pregnant. The end of the relationship for Mom had come when her father had paid off the lease to Mom’s rental apartment without telling her because he said he was moving her in with him. At the same time, he’d told her employer she was quitting because she no longer needed to work. He’d also assumed Mom was going to be his wife without ever asking her properly. Not wanting a life in which she wasn’t an equal partner, Mom had broken up with Dad and left town without telling him where she was going, only to discover that she was pregnant a few weeks later. Katelyn knew Mom had considered never telling Dad about her, but in the end, she’d wanted her child to have a father, so she’d invited Dad to Katelyn’s first birthday party. By then, Dad had married on the rebound, and his new wife was expecting their first child.

  Katelyn was like her mother—independent. She’d averted her father’s dictates all her life. Where she was going to go to school: She’d chosen the University of Wisconsin rather than the University of Chicago, where he’d wanted her to go. What her major would be:
hospitality and tourism rather than going for an MBA. Where she would work when she graduated: a Milwaukee hotel rather than one of his corporations. All of which she had fought for to live the life she wanted. She’d frustrated the heck out of him while still trying to keep their relationship solid. But even when she was in grammar school, she’d found it difficult to stay at his house in Chicago on the occasional weekends and weeks during summer vacations. He’d wanted to orchestrate her every activity. And it had been especially difficult to be around his “real” family. Under the direction of their contentious mother, Laura, her half-siblings had treated her like the family’s embarrassing secret.

  When Katelyn had walked out on Aaron last fall after dating him for several months, she’d concentrated on her career at that Milwaukee hotel, though in the end, it hadn’t quite satisfied her. She’d tried her best to make a go of it and had learned as much as she could. She was a hardworking, responsible adult, after all. Some would say she was resolute in everything she did. Actually, her best friend at the time, Jennie, had accused her of being an obsessive workhorse. Maybe she was, but there was nothing wrong with putting everything she had into achieving an objective, no matter what it was. She figured that was her real inheritance from her father. Pretty scary. But being obsessive about something that didn’t in the long run matter to her was simply a waste of time. Realizing that what she did for a living didn’t make her happy made her rethink her priorities and what her father had done for her by establishing that trust.

  Lakeside Café had always been her favorite place to spend time at in the Lake Geneva area. Plus, she’d stayed in one of the guest rooms for several weekends over the past years. It had been her place for celebration and her refuge. She’d done a lot of thinking here, had come to the realization that it was time to put all her energy into making something she loved work. So when the business had gone up for sale last winter, she hadn’t been able to resist. Unable to get such a big mortgage without using her trust fund as a source of income anyway, she’d had a talk with her father about it. He’d beamed with happiness that she’d found something she really wanted to do. He had offered to cosign the mortgage agreement.

  That’s where they had differed. Katelyn hadn’t wanted a partner. Or someone who would “guide” her every move. So she’d been ready to back off and stay where she was. Surprisingly, Dad had caved. He’d admitted that he’d set up that trust fund for her so she could be free to live the way she wanted. He’d promised that if she went for it, he would step aside and not interfere. Hoping she could count on him to do exactly that, she’d quit her job in Milwaukee and bought the place.

  Now she had to make a success out of it.

  She’d only owned the business for several months and had experienced a slow start. But with tourist season, things had picked up. If only she wasn’t plagued by employee turnover. First she’d fired a waiter who hadn’t lived up to her expectations. Thankfully, Tansy Cooper had applied for the job the next day. Then, a couple of weeks ago, her maintenance man had quit to work for a relative. She’d only hired Donald Radtke to replace him on Monday after finding him on handyman.list.com. Two of the three satisfied clients she’d emailed about him had gotten back to her, claiming he was competent and didn’t raise any issues, so she’d hired him. The man wasn’t a pleasure to be around, but, in his late thirties, he was broad and built for strength, and so far he’d done his job decently, which was what she needed.

  But now Sam had taken off, leaving her in the lurch for both a bartender and a friend she could confide in. She wasn’t close to anyone else in Lake Geneva, and she would deeply miss his humor and practical outlook on life. Maybe he would come back with a good explanation as to why he’d up and disappeared. Or maybe she was fooling herself. Thinking of his being gone, she felt let down, more for the loss of a friend she could talk to than the loss of a bartender. Hopefully, Thorne Hudson would work out filling the job. Something had to go her way.

  Considering that she’d bought the business with money from her father, she had to prove that she could make it work on her own from here on out.

  As if her father knew she was thinking about him, he took that very moment to call her.

  Giving the cellphone her best version of the evil eye, she answered. “Hey, Daddy. What’s up?” As if she didn’t know.

  “Do I need a reason to call my firstborn?”

  “Probably, but you’re not going to talk me into having a bodyguard, so don’t try.”

  “Would I do that after you’ve refused? Several times, in fact.”

  “Yes.” Her father was worried that someone would come after his family because of the Bascom College shooting.

  “You’re wrong. I wasn’t calling to talk you into something you don’t want. I simply want to make sure nothing unusual has happened in the last few days.”

  “Not a thing.” Other than my bartender leaving without notice…“All is quiet on the lakefront.”

  “That’s good to hear.”

  “So you can quit worrying.”

  “I will never quit worrying about you, Katie-bug.”

  His using her childhood nickname made Katelyn smile despite herself. “I love you, too, Daddy.” No matter how obsessive he was, she knew he had only her best interests at heart.

  “That’s my girl. You haven’t said anything to your mother about the threat, have you?”

  Mom knew about the campus shooting. They’d talked about it the other day. But she had no idea there was a revenge plot in play.

  “I promised you I wouldn’t say anything.” Though it did go against her grain to keep this from her mother, she hadn’t wanted Mom to worry about something that she herself had decided wasn’t a threat. Not to her.

  “Good. Good. Just promise me that you’ll be extra cautious.”

  His intensity made her stomach go tight. All this talk of the need for a bodyguard had made her paranoid that someone was watching her on more than one occasion over the past couple of days. But no one had been. She’d peered closely into every corner and found nothing.

  “Katie, promise me.”

  “Yes, Daddy, I’ll be super extra cautious.”

  “And if you suspect anything is wrong, you call.”

  “I promise. You should be worrying about Jason and Lilah, not me. But nothing is going to happen.”

  Both of her half siblings lived in the Chicago area near their father and carried the Hamilton name, unlike her. They were the likely targets if the threat turned out to be real. She wouldn’t know how they felt about anything. Though related to her through their father, they had never accepted or recognized her as a sister. She’d actually heard their mother refer to her as “the intruder” more than once. Despite the difficult relationship she had with her half-siblings, she didn’t want to see anything bad happen to them. After all, her father loved his family.

  She heard him sigh. “I told you what happened to Lilah just hours after I got that email.”

  Katelyn rolled her eyes. Her father had told her that Lilah had almost been run over by a speeding car that had roared out of nowhere and swooped toward her. Luckily, she’d jumped back on the curb just in time, though she had fallen.

  “How is her wrist?”

  “Minor sprain. That’s not the point. She could have been killed! The driver didn’t even stop, just whipped around a corner and fled the scene.”

  Katelyn still couldn’t believe it had anything to do with the threat her father had received. “Oh, come on, Daddy, you know Lilah was probably in her own little world, as usual, and just didn’t see the car coming.” Maybe she’d been texting someone. Lilah lived with a cellphone in hand. “It was just an accident.”

  “I can’t take the chance that it wasn’t. Your sister and brother both get it, Katie. They’ve agreed to live with bodyguards watching over them until this thing is settled.”

  Hearing the strain in her father’s voice, she said, “Daddy, it wasn’t your fault.”

  “Then
whose fault was it? My company, my responsibility.” He added, “That’s why I’ve put the business up for sale.”

  Katelyn was shocked into silence. Her father wasn’t the type to let anyone intimidate him like that. “Why?”

  “I had to, Katie. Hell, I have to live with what happened. I can’t do anything to change it. This is all I can think to do to make up for it.”

  “Please stop blaming yourself. You might own the company, but you didn’t hand the assault weapon over to the man who killed those people.”

  “I know you’re right.”

  “Then, please, Daddy, stop blaming yourself. If you need someone to talk to about it, I’ll be here for you.”

  “That’s my Katie-bug.”

  The conversation came to an end a short time later, but Katelyn couldn’t get it out of her mind as easily as she had before. She’d never heard her father sounding so down, especially on himself. A part of her wanted to get in her car and drive to Chicago so she could be with him, make him feel better, but he would raise holy hell if she so much as suggested it at this critical time. And his wife would make her feel utterly unwelcome. “The intruder.” An embarrassing intruder. He had enough on his mind as it was. Besides, she’d based her anti-bodyguard argument on her being safe here, a hundred miles from him and where no one knew they were related because of their different last names.

  She was safe. No one here in Lake Geneva other than Sam knew of her connection to Robert Hamilton. Even so, her father’s call reminded her that she had reason to keep vigilant. Just in case. She tried to shake away the worry, to bury it deep where she didn’t have to think about it. She needed to get ready for the dinner crowd.

  Plus, she had a new bartender to train.

  —

  Thorne hit the bar early so he could see exactly how things were organized. Glasses. Mugs. Ice. Bottles of hard liquor. The refrigerator for the bottled beer was half empty, so he asked one of the busboys where to find the stock, then went to get replacements. He was hauling two cases of local beers back to the bar when Katelyn made an appearance.