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There were events in life that made people reassess things. For Luke it had been his mother leaving, their friend Konstantin dropping out of their group and going straight, and last year, Fox almost dying. Moments like that altered the way a person saw the world. From the sounds of it, Ophelia had never had the chance to be herself, and had also just lost the only family member she was close to. It had to be overwhelming. Freedom, or the illusion of it, at such a terrible cost.
“So we’re going to Glacier because . . . ?” he asked.
“It’s where my father always said he was inspired to start his hotel chain. Now that he’s gone . . .” She rolled the window back up and started to fiddle with the radio. “Never mind. It’s my problem. Not yours.”
She shut down again.
He just wanted to hide her behind his back and deal with her problems for her. If only she would tell him what they were.
Chapter 7
Thoughts of her father distracted her for a long while. Memories of him teaching her how to play chess, taking her to Disney, showing up at her school pageants. He’d been far more engaged than most of her friends’ parents had. Hell, Chloe’s dad had shipped her off to boarding school for years after he’d gotten remarried.
After her parents had split, it’d been mostly her and her dad. Buddies. She’d even traveled with him, and her nanny, Louise, had only minded her during meetings.
As she’d gotten older, Louise had retired, her relationship with her mom had become more and more distant, and then it’d really just been her and her father.
Over the years, they’d had long discussions about the business, but it had always been theoretical. Sure, she’d gotten her degree in business, but it’d felt like a “just in case” degree. Her dad had been relatively young, and healthy, so she’d never thought about running the place herself. Not seriously. There was supposed to be time for all of that. Much later. When she felt more ready and her father wanted to retire.
There’d been talk about her doing an internship, but she’d put it off. Now it was too late. For the moment, her father’s trusted advisors and managers were running the show, but eventually she’d have to start making decisions, and everyone knew she didn’t know what she was doing.
“So, what do you do for a living?” she finally asked. Dwelling on her own problems wasn’t getting her anywhere today.
“My cousins and I run a computer software and servicing company.”
Computers? He didn’t seem like a tech geek.
“Really?” she asked, skeptically.
“Yeah.”
She chuckled. “I call bullshit. What do you do for real?”
He arched a brow. “What do you think I do?”
Studying him in profile, she speculated. “Model?”
“Thank you for that, but no. And why would I need a cover story for being a model?”
“Porn star? Stripper? Escort?”
His chuckle filled the car. “Do you wish I was?”
“No, that would be too intimidating for me. Can you imagine?” She wrinkled her nose at the idea of trying to impress a guy who would probably be unimpressible. “With a voice like yours you could be a phone-sex worker.”
“I’m not involved in the sex trade, no matter what you’re currently fantasizing about.”
She thought of giving him a playful swat, but he was driving and the memory of his reaction when she’d poked him in the chest gave her pause. For a moment he’d looked bigger and meaner, and she’d almost run screaming, or spontaneously orgasmed.
“Are you a mobster or a mercenary or something?”
Luke went still rather than laugh it off like she’d expected him to. “We run a software company.”
Shit. He was some sort of criminal.
What kind, though? She had friends who did illegal things all the time, like smoke pot or bribe professors, but what were her limits? Different ideas ran through her head. If she got too close to the truth, would he kill her?
Here she was, driving almost to the Canadian border with some guy she just met. Money wasn’t a problem for him if he paid for last night’s hotel room, and all of their camping equipment, without blinking. He also hadn’t had to book time off work. She’d assumed he was some sort of entrepreneur, but seriously? She’d been lost in her own little world for weeks, but she should have had more of a sense of self-preservation than this.
