In one smooth motion, moving so quickly it is nearly impossible to believe he was standing, facing me and completely relaxed when the door started opening, Ben spins around, bends his knee into a fighting stance, and whips his Glock out of his hip holster. His finger lays alongside the trigger as he points the barrel at the intruder’s right shoulder.

“Who the hell are you?” Ben demands, his icy tone sending chills racing up my spine. “And what the hell do you want?”

The blood drains out of the face of the middle-aged, slightly overweight man. He slowly extends his hands above his head. Sweat beads on his temples.

“I’m … I’m…” The man closes his eyes and swallows hard. Staring down the barrel of a gun that’s in the hands of a former soldier who’s not afraid to use it is too much for him. He’s forgotten his own name.

Worried that he’ll have a heart attack if something doesn’t quickly change, I slide off the desk and put myself between my head of security and the interloper.

“Back off, Ben,” I murmur before turning my attention to the man standing half in and half out of my office. He’s starting to pant. There’s something about him that tickles the back of my brain. I know this guy. I just have to figure out how, and that should lead me to his name.

Folding my mouth into my brightest, most welcoming smile, I cross the room and clap a hand on his thick shoulder. “Please.” I nudge him toward my desk. “Take a seat and catch your breath. Then you can tell me why you need to see me.”

As the man settles his bulk into the chair, I make my way around the desk, casting a glance over my shoulder at Ben. He hasn’t returned the gun to its holster, but at least he’s lowered it, holding it so that it’s pointed toward the ground.

I roll my eyes before settling into my own chair and meeting the stranger’s eyes across the desk. Just like that, the memory of how I know him bounces to the forefront of my brain. I can’t recall his name, but at least I understand the connection we share.

“You’re married to Lydia …” I pause, waiting for the last name of the charismatic woman who makes up part of the company’s legal team to come to me. “Halpert? Right? We met at the company party last summer.”

Since taking over the company from my brother, I’ve made a point of meeting the spouses of my employees during company events. It just seems like the kind of thing an employer should do.

The man across from me nods. “We got married nine months ago. I’m Harvey.”

Across the room, Ben relaxes slightly. The connection makes the man seem a bit less like a security threat.

“Has something happened to her? Is that why you’re here?” I ask.

“No.” The man shakes his head and takes a deep breath. He seems to be relaxing a bit. “She’s fine.”

“Then why are you here?” I press, working hard to keep my tone as mild as possible.

“I’m a lawyer.” He says it plainly, like the words explain his sudden appearance in my office. They don’t.

“Okay? Are you interested in working for me, Harvey?”

“No.” Harvey shakes his head. “Well, yes, working for you would be great. Lydia is always going on and on about how she’s never worked for a better company. But I’m not interested in making a career change, at least not yet.”

I rest my elbows on my desk and steeple my fingers while I wait for him to continue.

“I work for the state, providing legal advice for inmates in the Colorado prison system.”

A tight knot forms in my stomach. I glance up at Ben, who frowns and edges closer.

“And?” I force the word out, despite the fact that every single instinct tells me I’m going to hate what he’s about to tell me.

“I know your brother. Well, I don’t know him; obviously he can afford a top notch legal team and doesn’t bother with state-provided lawyers like myself. But I do know who he is, and I—Please don’t tell anyone I’m telling you this. The Bar Association could revoke my license if they find out. The last time I was at the prison, I overheard part of a conversation he had with one of his lawyers.”

“Go on.” This is like passing a bad wreck on the highway: as much as I don’t want to hear what he’s going to tell me, I can’t help myself from pressing him on.

“It has to do with the ownership of the company,” Harvey explains.

“I own forty-nine percent and Evan owns forty-nine percent.”

My father, who passed a few weeks after Evan was arrested, kept hold of the rest. I never found out what happened to the missing shares of the company. At the time of his death, I was doing everything in my power to undo a great deal of the damage my brother had done to the company and didn’t have time to pay attention to the terms of the will. I’ve always assumed he gave it to one of his nieces or nephews and figured that the accounting department made sure whoever it was got their share of the yearly profit.

“Based on what I overheard, your father decided that whichever of you gets married and has a child first will be the one who gets the share certificates.”

I blink. It takes a moment for the words to sink in. “You’re kidding.”

“That’s what I heard,” Harvey says, “but you’ll want to check it out for yourself.”

“I will,” I say.

“I don’t know what the big deal is,” Ben suddenly says, startling both Harvey and myself. We’ve forgotten we aren’t the only ones in the room. “Evan is in prison and if I remember correctly, he still has a few years before he’s up for parole, so he won’t be getting married anytime soon, much less fathering a child.”

Harvey shakes his head. “I’m not so sure about that. The prisons are really overcrowded and the state’s taking drastic measures. They’re keeping it pretty quiet, but at the end of the month, they’re going to let some prisoners go early. It’s my understanding that since he’s been locked up, Evan has been a model prisoner, and, between that and his connections, he’s going to be one of the first ones turned loose.”

Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse.

“Shit,” Ben hisses under his breath, giving voice to my exact thoughts.

My eyes meet Harvey’s. “Why did you come here to tell me about this?” I’m not sure what lawyers are and aren’t allowed to do with information they overhear, but there’s no doubt in my mind that by coming to me, Harvey is taking a big risk with his career. I’ll do everything in my power to ensure it doesn’t come back to bite him in the butt.

“Lydia told me how things used to be when your brother ran this place. I’d do anything for her, including taking steps to make sure that she continues to enjoy the same happy and safe work environment she tells me you provide.”

Harvey’s expression is sober, but his tone is firm. There’s no doubt in my mind that this is a man who is head over heels in love with his wife and is more than happy to lay it all on the line for her. I wonder what that feels like, how that changes a man.

“Thank you.” I stand and extend my arm across the desk, grasping Harvey’s hand and shaking it. “I won’t forget what you’ve done for me.”

“If you have any questions, or need anything at all from me, don’t hesitate to ask.” Harvey pushes himself to his feet and pats his pockets before nodding at a piece of paper on my desk. “May I?”

Reading the direction of his thoughts, I grab a pen and pass it to him. “Of course.”

He scribbles his name and cell phone number on the paper and passes it to me. “Give me a call any time of the day or night and I’ll do anything I can.”

“Thank you,” I murmur.

“Thank you for hearing me out,” Harvey says with a small smile. He turns to leave, hesitating when his gaze lands on Ben. “And thank you for not shooting me.”

Ben grins. He might be a big, tough guy, but he also has a pretty good sense of humor. “Knowing I can still scare guys is thanks enough. Take care.”

I wait until the door swings closed behind Harvey before meeting Ben’s eyes. “What the hell am I going to do?”