Tears of the Renegade. Linda Howard

looked up at the interruption, and a welcoming smile eased the shadow of worry that had darkened his face. “Come on in. I’ve already put the coffee on.”

      “I could do with an extra jolt of caffeine,” Susan sighed, heading straight for the coffeepot.

      They sipped the hot brew in companionable silence for several minutes, then Susan put her cup down. “What are we going to do?”

      He made no pretense of misunderstanding. “I went over the old books last night, trying to nail down exactly how much we owe him. It’s a lot, Susan.” He rubbed his forehead wearily.

      “You’re going to try to replace the money, aren’t you?”

      He nodded. “What else can I do? The hell of it is, we don’t have that much ready cash right now. We’ve invested heavily in research that won’t pay off for another couple of years, but you know that as well as I do. I’m not going to touch anything that you have an interest in; Mother and I agreed on that last night. We’re going to liquidate some of our personal assets—”

      “Preston Blackstone!” she scolded gently. “Did you think I wouldn’t be willing to help you?”

      “Of course not, honey, but it wouldn’t be fair to you. Mother and I did this, and we knew that we were taking a chance. We gambled that Cord wouldn’t come back until we’d been able to replace the money, and we lost.” He shrugged, his blue eyes full of wry acceptance of his own mistake. “It didn’t seem so wrong at the time. We didn’t use the money for anything personal; every cent of it was invested back into the corporation, but I don’t suppose that would make any difference in a court of law. I still forged his signature on some papers.”

      “Will you be able to raise enough?” He might protest, but if they couldn’t cover the amount they owed Cord, then she would insist on helping them. She didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize the corporation, so she agreed that its assets shouldn’t be touched, but Vance had left her a lot of personal assets that could easily be liquidated, including some highly valuable property. She also had the ridges, she realized with a sudden start. How badly did Cord want them? Badly enough to take the land in exchange for not pressing charges against Imogene and Preston? Two could play his game!

      “I have an idea,” she said slowly, not giving Preston time enough to answer her question. “I have something he wants; perhaps we could make a trade.”

      Preston was a smart man, and he knew her well; he leaned back in his chair, his blue eyes narrowing as he stared at her and sorted out the options and details in his mind. He didn’t waste time on unnecessary questions. “You’re talking about the ridges. You know that even if you lease the ridges to him, he can still file charges, don’t you? He might swear that he wouldn’t, but I don’t think his word of honor is worth much. Not only that, you’d be giving in to his blackmail.”