Page 104 of Taken Away

“Your mama had that same steel when she was young. Anne could stand in a storm and make the storm apologize.”

Something tightened behind Aubrey’s ribs.

Walter smiled faintly.

“Don’t let this mountain scare you off. Whatever happened here, you’re still a Blackwood.”

The words should have comforted her.

They did.

That was the problem.

Aubrey nodded once, unable to answer, then turned toward Bennett’s office with the Mercer contracts clutched in her hand.

On the walk down the mezzanine, she heard the low rumble of his voice through the glass. Even muffled, it brushed over her skin the way it had in Burke’s conference room—steadier than he probably felt, solid enough that she’d believed him when he said, I will handle this.

Too bad handling Mabel’s estate and trusting Vanessa Mercer were no longer the same thing in her mind.

By the time she reached the far corner of the mezzanine, Bennett was standing behind his desk, phone pressed to his ear, looking like he’d slept about as much as she had.

Dark jeans. Black T-shirt. Boots.

One hand shoved through his hair, the other braced on the desk beside a vineyard map.

He looked up when she walked in. His gaze dropped immediately to the folders in her arms. Then to her face.

Whatever he saw there made the line of his shoulders sharpen.

“Call you back,” he said into the phone, and hung up without waiting for an answer.

Aubrey closed the door behind her.

Her pulse kicked, annoyingly aware of how small the office suddenly felt. Of how much heat one tired, furious man could radiate in a ten-by-twelve glass box.

Bennett’s eyes narrowed.

“That look usually means someone is about to lose money.”

“Someone already is.”

He straightened. “What happened?”

She slapped the Mercer contract onto his desk.

Bennett glanced down.

Then something shifted in him.

Subtle. But she caught it.

“I found your distribution problem,” she said.

“My distribution problem?”

“Blackwood’s.” She heard the bite in her voice and let it stay. “Though given your expression, I’m guessing you already knew Mercer was squeezing the business.”

Bennett’s eyes came back to hers.