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When we’re back at the villa, Morgan helps me out of the car. “Don’t worry about the clothes, Dane will have a bell hop. Get them up to your room.”
“Sounds great.”
Morgan opens the door to the main lobby for me.
Inside, there’s shouting. “No, I want to talk to my granddaughter Kate.”
I hurry around the corner. A tall, well-dressed man with curly salt and pepper hair is standing at the front desk. Oh—no, I completely forgot Cole’s grandfather was coming into town. After everything that happened over the weekend, it totally skipped my mind.
“Alan,” I say, walking up to the desk. The man turns around. I stop. It’s like looking at Cole forty years from now.
“Kate?”
“Yes, hi. I’m so sorry that I wasn’t here. I didn’t know what time your flight would be in.”
“That’s fine, I didn’t say.”
“Would you like to come up and get settled?”
“No, I’d like you to take me to see Coulter.”
“Um—sure.” I turn to Morgan. “Do you know where Cole’s meeting is today? Are they here or at the Empress?”
Morgan hesitates for a moment but then answers, “here at The Upper House, Mrs. Holt.”
“Fine, that’s where we need to go.” I notice Cole’s grandfather’s luggage. “Would you see that Mr. Prescott’s luggage is taken up to the villa,” I say to the girl behind the counter. She looks a bit confused, but thankful I saved her from Alan’s wrath.
We get into the Escalade, and Morgan and Dane drive us around to the business entrance of the hotel. “How was your flight?”
“It was a flight,” Alan says, turning to me. “Let me have a look at you.” His stare is scrutinizing, demanding, just like Cole. It makes me uneasy; I lower my eyes and fidget. When he finally speaks, his voice is low and soft. “You look like my daughter, Katherine, oh how I miss her.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, “I wish I could have known her.”
“I’m eighty years old, Kate. I’ve buried my wife and both my children.”
My heart goes out to him; how awful to lose your entire family. Tears sting my face before I realize I’m even crying.
“Don’t cry for me, child. I’ve lived a good long life. I have two grandsons who are my legacy. Except I may wring one of their necks before this day is through.”
“What’s Cole done? Does it have to do with Prescott-Holt?”
“Oh, I’m upset over the company, but it’s Preston who will get the heat of my anger. No, it’s my other grandson, Cooper. He’s left grad-school again, and I don’t seem to know where he’s trounced off too.”
“Oh—um, he’s here in Vegas.”
Alan raises his eyebrows at me. “Oh, really?”
Oh boy, there’s probably a reason Alan’s been left out of the loop on this one. And I’m the rat who just told on him.
“Spill it, Kate.”
“He came to run the hotel and the nightclub.”
Alan says nothing, he just nods for a few minutes then sits back in his seat. The SUV stops at the business entrance of the hotel, and Morgan shows Alan and me up to the third-floor offices.
“I’ll call Cole and let him know we’re here.”
But if Alan hears me, he doesn’t acknowledge it. He puts his cane up on the receptionist’s desk. “I want to see my grandson Coulter this instant. And that worthless son-in-law, Preston,” he yells extra loud in the direction of the conference room, “which I know he is because he thinks he’s selling off my company without my permission.” Alan bangs his cane on the secretary’s desk for affect.
