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“Which you don’t?”
“Not yet.”
“Then how can you even suggest that he’s involved?”
“Gut feeling.”
“That won’t hold up in court, Senator. But you know that, don’t you? Or at least you should since you’re a lawyer.”
“Ashley, look, I know that I’m right.”
She read the determination in his angry blue gaze. “And you want me to help you prove that Claud was trying to kill you, right? Trevor, you’ve got to be joking.”
“I’m dead serious. I know that Claud and your father paid that mill owner in Molalla to file those bribery charges!”
“How?” Her green eyes sparked with indignant fury. “How do you know that? Did the man tell you?” Her lips turned downward in repressed rage and she pulled her hand free of his grasp.
“The police were convinced that the charges were false. They dropped the case.”
“But what proof do you have that my father was behind it?”
“That mill, which had been on the verge of bankruptcy, was suddenly operational again.”
“Circumstantial evidence, counselor.” She waved her hand frantically in the air. “And even if your suspicions are right, who are you to say that my father was behind it?”
“I checked. Who do you think supplies that mill with rough timber?”
“I couldn’t hazard a guess,” she lied, knowing what he was insinuating. Her heart was like a trip-hammer in her rib cage.
“Then you’re not doing your job, Ashley. The primary customer for Watkins Mill in Molalla is Stephens Timber.” Trevor began to pace the floor in long, agitated strides.
“I don’t understand you, Trevor,” Ashley said, her voice beginning to tremble. “My father and Claud both warned me that you had some sort of personal vendetta against the timber company but I never believed them—”
“Until now?”
She nodded her head. Hot tears of frustration burned in her eyes as she stared at the only man whom she had ever loved. “Is it because of me?”
His pacing halted. He stood with his back to her and she could see the muscles of his shoulders tensing beneath the soft cotton fabric of his shirt. “No, Ashley, this started long before I knew you—”
“Because of your father’s disappearance.”
He turned on his heel and when he looked at her his eyes were filled with the torture he had suffered for nearly ten years. He didn’t need to answer.
“Then Claud was right. You have a grudge.” She closed her eyes against the truth. “You really don’t think much of me, do you?”
“It’s your family I wonder about.”
“To the point that you would go out of your way to prove them guilty of anything.” She shook her head in confusion and light from the fire caught in the ebony strands of her hair. “I own the company now. You know that I wouldn’t be involved in anything illegal—”
“And I also know that you weren’t in control of the corporation when my father disappeared, or when those phony charges were filed, or when my car was sabotaged.”
“If it was.”
“I have a mechanic who will back me up.”
She ran her fingers nervously through her hair, but her eyes never left his. “Why did you come here, Trevor? What is it exactly that you expect of me?”
His blue eyes never left her face and he pinched his lower lip between his thumb and forefinger pensively. “I want you to go through all of the company records and look for anything that might prove my theories.”
