TRISTAN THOUGHT HIS chest was going to cave in on itself when Victoria asked her hypothetical question.

While he’d like to say of course she let me stay, he wasn’t that cocky.

The pizza arrived a moment before she got out of the shower. He set it on the table, then went looking for plates.

“Bring it in here.” Her voice came from the living room, startling him.

He spun with two plates in hand, to see her gesturing to the coffee table. Her hair hung in wet ringlets around her face, and her cheeks were bright pink.

“You’re watching me like you’ve never eaten in the living room before.” Her hesitant teasing made him realize he was staring.

He dragged his gaze away. “The stick up my ass isn’t that big.”

“I think there’s a joke in there somewhere, but you haven’t earned it.” Her tone was lighter than when she left.

One step at a time, and maybe he’d earn her trust back. He didn’t realize how much that mattered until he nearly lost it. He brought the food and everything else into the living room, and set things up on the table.

She pulled up a movie that was halfway finished. Pizza in hand, she dropped onto the couch.

He took his place on the other end, like she’d requested. As they finished, and one movie bled into the next, she helped him put away the leftovers.

When they returned to the couch, she sat closer, not pulling away when he tangled his fingers with hers.

It was a start.

They sat like that until his phone rang. He scowled as he dug it from his pocket, and mild irritation flooded into concern when he saw his lawyer’s name on the screen.

She paused the film.

“Yeah,” he answered.

“I kind of hoped you’d fallen off the side of a mountain, or gotten lost in the back country.” Christian’s voice was dry.

Tristan had worked with the other man for so long, the ribbing rolled over him. “Great to hear from you too.”

“Because that’s the only reason I can think of for you not calling me in a panic last night, when the term criminal prosecution came up.” Christian continued as if Tristan hadn’t said anything.

Mischa had used the same phrase in his voicemail, but Tristan shrugged it off last night. Why? Was it because the call came from Mischa, or because Victoria was there?

Both were disconcerting and neither was a solution. “I should have reached out sooner, but things have been insane here. Fill me in.”

“Insane is an understatement. You saw that the IRS is opening a formal investigation?”

“Yes.” Tristan glanced at Victoria to find him watching her, brows knitted in concern.

“If they find something, depending on how severe it is, you could go to prison,” Christian said.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Tristan knew that was a remote possibility. It was a criminal investigation. But hearing it laid out so bluntly, as if he needed to be actively aware, sank like a heavy stone in his stomach. “But that won’t happen.”

“Depends on what they find. I wouldn’t bring it up if you didn’t need to be aware. You also need to know that since the company is in your name alone now, if you’re convicted, they can liquidate it.”

Fucking hell. Not his real estate firm. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Then we hope to God they agree, and give them everything they ask for in the meantime.”

Tristan sank back against the cushions, as the weight of the situation pressed in on him. “Right. Anything they want.” Fuck.

****

VICTORIA SAT AT HER desk, staring at her monitor, trying to get herself in a Monday frame of mind. Which was pretty much what she’d been doing for the last three or so hours.

She’d made a few phone calls to regular donors, and logged some new contacts, but her mind was on the weekend.

She was determined to hang on to her resolve to make Tristan earn her trust, but thinking about him still made her smile. Until she also remembered what he shared with her about the call with his lawyer.

Her messenger chimed with a message from Tony, the guy who watched the front desk.

Delivery for you up here.

What is it? she asked.

A surprise. Come get it.

Surprises weren’t her thing on good days. Today it was the last thing she wanted. She wandered up to the front desk, and smiled at the sight of a vase with daisies in it.

“Pretty.” She trailed her fingers above the flowers, not making contact. “Yours?”

Tony picked them up and held them out. “Yours. It’s your surprise.”

“Oh.” Her heart skipped, and she took the delivery from him.

“I didn’t know you were dating anyone.”

Neither did she. “I’m not.” Whatever she and Tristan were doing, it definitely wasn’t that.

“Lucky girl then. I need random not-dates to send me flowers,” Tony teased.

She couldn’t help her smile. She thanked him and headed back to her desk. The moment she was seated, she plucked the card from the plastic fork in the middle of the bouquet.

Just because. Tristan.

The giddiness inside grew. She set the flowers next to her. Far enough she wouldn’t bump them while she worked, but close enough to see them.

She sent Tristan a quick text. Thank you.

His reply simply read, you deserve them.

Damn him for being sweet.

The unexpected gift made it easier to get back to work, and she fell into the routine.

“Anybody home?” Ash’s question jarred her out of the zone. “Ooh, pretty. Secret admirer?”

Victoria whirled in her chair to see the other woman standing in her cubicle entrance. “Hey. Sorry. In a different universe. Yeah, something like that. What’s up?”

“Dropping some documents off for Tristan. Wanted to say hi.”

Being friends with Ash still seemed awkward, given Victoria’s past with Mischa, but Ash made it easy to push that aside. Something Victoria was grateful for. “Why did he send you? Not that I mind.” But she wouldn’t have minded seeing Tristan, either.

The corners of Ash’s mouth tugged up, but the smile didn’t form. “I volunteered. I was heading out for lunch anyway, and I wondered if you wanted to join me.”

“Why?” Victoria was all questions. “Wow, that came out rude. I didn’t mean it that way.”

“It’s okay. As for why, something you said to me, second time we ever talked.”

Victoria cringed at the snippets of that conversation. “None of that was good.”

“Not all of it was bad. Perspective.” Ash leaned against the cubicle wall. “You said we recognize our own.”

“God, please don’t make me relive it.” She tried to keep her response playful, but even at the time it was a bitchy move.

Ash gave a light laugh. “This’ll sound pathetic, but I don’t have a lot of friends, and I have a feeling you and I have a few things in common. Besides Mischa.”

“I didn’t mean... You know, lunch sounds awesome.” It was odd to Victoria how sincere Ash was about most things, but it was always nice to spend time with her, because she had no expectations beyond kindness. Victoria locked her computer and grabbed her purse.

“Where’s good?” Ash walked next to her as they headed outside. “There are so many places around here.”

Victoria pointed her toward the deli across the street, and they darted over to join the short line. “How are things going with Kelly, and keeping your dad at bay?”

Ash had custody of her fourteen-year-old sister. Victoria wasn’t solid on all the details, aside from knowing Ralph Wolfram tried to used custody to punish Ash, and that he neglected Kelly when she lived with him. But Victoria had helped Ash make sure Ralph didn’t have much say in Kelly’s life.

“It’s good. Really good,” Ash said. “I spend a little time looking over my shoulder, worried about what he’s going to try next to come after us with next, but so far so good.”

They inched forward with the line. “Would he do that?”

Part of Ash’s threat was that she had enough information to ruin Ralph’s reputation if he tried to take Kelly again. It disgusted Victoria that public image meant more to him than his daughters, but it didn’t surprise her. Too many people were like that.

Is Tristan? The question left a bitter taste in Victoria’s mind. She might be struggling to figure out what he wanted, but she didn’t think that was it. She couldn’t imagine him putting reputation above family.

That was comforting.

“He doesn’t let things go. Like, ever. What’s good here?” Ash said.

“Supposedly most of it. I’m addicted to the turkey avocado though, so I haven’t tried much else.”

Ash shrugged. “Sounds good to me.” She stepped up to the counter to place her order, then waited for Victoria to do the same. They found a table in the back of the dining room to wait for their food.

“How have you been? With everything, or whatever?” Ash asked.

“That’s vague.”

Ash traced the scratches in the Formica tabletop. “Just because we’re becoming friends doesn’t mean I think you’ll spill your guts on the first date. I figure ask a vague question, and you’ll tell me what you’re comfortable with.”

The easy answer was not much. It had taken Victoria months to feel comfortable opening up to her therapist, and there wasn’t anyone else she gave that trust to. Was she willing to try? Make friends seemed like such a simple, childish thought, but the notion was rapidly growing on her. She had a few reservations though. “Do you and Mischa share everything?”

“More or less.”

“So then, everything is good. Swell.” Confusing as fuck. But if word got back to Mischa, and he told Tristan...

Ash’s smile was sad. “If you ask me not to share, I’ll keep it between us. But I get it. Can I ask you something specific, if it’s not about the men in our lives?”

“You can always ask. How I answer is a different story.”

“Why did you stop acting?”

Victoria’s chuckle came out harsher than she intended. “Wow. Loaded question.”

Their sandwiches arrived, and she busied herself with unwrapping the paper, extracting one half, and wrapping the rest up again.

“What should I ask instead?” Ash didn’t sound upset. “I’m not so great at this getting to know you thing.”

“You’re perfect at it. And it’s okay. I’ve dealt with what happened. The short version is, it started with rumors. That I was drinking, and sleeping around, and addicted to everything from Adderall to heroin. None of it was true, but that didn’t stop the gossip.”

“I know how much that sucks. I can’t imagine dealing with it while half the world is watching. Did the studio fire you? Is that how it works?”

Bitterness surged inside, and Victoria swallowed it. “Yes and yes, but not for that. The next rumor was that I’d made prolific use of the casting couch to keep my job.” Her joints ached at the memory. “I would have been underage, so that drew attention the studio didn’t want. The let’s investigate kind of attention.”

“That sucks.” Ash hadn’t touched her sandwich. She watched Victoria, eyes wide.

“It did. That’s when they fired me. I didn’t find out until later that it was because they were terrified that if someone looked into the fake claims about me, they’d uncover real instances.”

“That’s horrible.”

“Yeah. It is.” It was one of the reasons this job and charity meant so much to Victoria. She wanted to help kids avoid similar things, but also teach them how to cope and deflect when it happened anyway.

Sharing the story left her feeling raw and exposed. It wasn’t exactly a secret, though most people chose not to believe it, but talking about it meant remembering parts of it. “How long until you feel safe about your dad not coming after you?” The topic wasn’t any more pleasant, and she felt bad about turning the spotlight back on Ash, but she needed a change of subject.

“If you want an idea of how petty he is, he has yet to forgive me for something that happened almost fifteen years ago.”

“When you were ten? Who holds a grudge against a ten-year-old’s actions?”

The whisper of pain that crossed Ash’s face said it was a bad idea to push for details. “My dad does. He’s done things like sabotage real estate deals to spite people. He’ll surrender a couple thousand here, or a million there, to make a point.”

“God, he sounds like a man-child mean girl. And I know mean girls. I used to play one on TV.” Victoria tried to make the last bit sound like a joke.

Ash’s laugh was strained, but sounded real. “He really is. He’s got this boilerplate contract he uses for short term loans. It’s the one Mischa signed. From a business perspective, it’s all legal, but it’s harsh. It’s basically pay the money back in one-hundred-eighty days, or forfeit the collateral and any equity.”

“That sounds kind of sucky, but you’re right. Not illegal.”

Ash dug into her sandwich, taking a huge bite, chewing, and swallowing. “But it’s not the wording of the contract, it’s the way he leverages it in high-risk deals. He only offers it to people he’s pretty certain aren’t going to meet the terms. He searches out borrowers he expects to fail. It’s all on the up-and-up, but it’s got a slimy feel to it.”

It really did. “But that’s not long-term spite.”

“No. And you’re right. The sandwich is really good.” Ash took a swallow of soda. “He had one borrower who negotiated away some of those stricter requirements. Nothing big. But Dad didn’t like being called on it, and he was determined to claim this property. He started freaking rumors among his colleagues about the seller, the property, all of it.”

“That’s libel.”

“Only if you can prove it.” Ash sounded disgusted.

“And really petty.” Something tickled the back of Victoria’s mind, but it flitted just out of her grasp.

“Like you said. Man-child mean girl.”

The fluttery idea slid closer and Victoria grabbed. It was right there. She needed to unravel it. “Did he say something that made you think you should be worried, about Kelly?”

“Standard stuff. This isn’t over. I assume, since he came back for her once, he’s just looking for a way to do it again.”

There it is. “So, this man who doesn’t like to be shown up... Mischa made some serious financial sacrifices to get out from under his thumb, and then flipped him off by giving us one of those buildings. And it was your idea.”

“I guess I learned a couple bad habits from him.” Ash didn’t look ashamed.

“Any chance he’d do something like try and push an investigation for income tax evasion, against the firm and charity involved, to make a point?”

Ash’s face fell. “Oh fuck. You don’t think...?”

“Do you? Would he do that to us?”

“I’d love to be all noble and insist no. But even if I didn’t loathe the man, yes. It’s possible.”

Victoria blew a loose strand of hair out of her face. So they had a guess about where the claim was coming from. It was a start, but it was so far from knowing what came next, she didn’t feel comforted.